Embrace the suck. Reframe Stress.

Do you want to have an easy life? Then always stay with the herd and lose yourself in the herd.

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

It is human nature to resist change and to become set in our ways.

I've renamed the fifth in my AGE-WELL series of blogs: Embrace the suck. Reframe stress. Instructors encourage navy seals to embrace the suck - to become better at handling uncomfortable situations, hence the change. For the first four blogs in the series please click each of the following letters A G E - W.

Today the demand to adapt to a rapidly changing world can seem daunting. Yet, embracing change is the secret to becoming unstuck, to improving circumstances throughout our lives.

Stress is commonly defined as a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that the demands of daily life exceed their ability to cope. But more forward-thinking psychologists prefer to see it as a natural physical response to mobilize the ability to cope with danger and thrive when challenged.

Stress hormones release stored fuel to improve our ability to get away from the tiger or the imminent car crash. If we survive, learn how to stay safe, and go on without reliving the trauma repeatedly in our mind, all is well.

Stressors can include an exam, a performance review, major life events, public speaking, texts, emails, a deadline, an intense workout, feeling inadequate, fear of missing out, a promotion, a rejection, romantic love, an injury, and even winning the lottery. But there is no argument that these experiences can also enhance the quality of our lives. How we perceive them, “good” or “bad”, make it so.

Mindset matters when it comes to stress

Discomfort is the price of admission to a meaningful life.

~ Susan David PhD

In 1998 30,000 adults in the US were asked how much stress they’d experienced over the previous year. Researchers also asked if they believed stress was harmful.

Eight years later, people exposed to a lot of stress, who also believed that stress causes harm, experienced a 43% increased risk of premature death.

Those who experienced high stress but did not believe stress was harmful had no increased risk. Surprisingly, these people fared better than those who did not report experiencing stress.

Kelly McGonigal PhD does a great job sharing this information in her TEDTalk, and book The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It.

Although not commonly acknowledged, stress can improve brain function, increase productivity and promote self-mastery.

Shawn Achor and Alia Crum conducted a study to investigate if the perceptions of stress in the workplace affected performance and well-being. They had corporate leaders watch short, multimedia film clips presenting factual information about the nature of stress being either enhancing or debilitating.

The findings of our study were significant: when an individual thought about stress as enhancing, instead of debilitating, they embraced the reality of their current stress level and used it to their advantage. The negative parts of stress (distress) started to diminish because the fight-or-flight response was not activated, and the individual felt more productive and energetic, as well as reporting significantly fewer physical symptoms associated with distress (such as headaches, backaches, fatigue).

The intention of this study was not to debunk literature showing that stress has debilitating effects. The intent was to balance out the stress research and point out that one’s mindset concerning stress may determine the type of response activated.

While we can’t deny that most doctor visits are due to physical or mental manifestations of our inability to cope with stress, like the researchers above, I no longer want to create fear about it.

I do believe that presenting stress in a negative light has made it socially contagious to our detriment. We can do better.

Change is good. Monotony is ageing. When we become complacent and stuck in our ways, we deteriorate. A busy, purposeful life can keep us young. Surrounding ourselves with younger generations and lending a helping hand as needed is mutually beneficial.

One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.

~ Sigmund Freud

Go ahead. Embrace the suck. Reframe stress. See challenge as an opportunity to promote growth and transformation.