Stress: A friend, not foe - Improving our relationship with stress
Hello, Everyone! Welcome to the Day 4 of the "Making Peace with Stress" Event.
Stress is our body’s automatic response to impulses that disrupt or threaten to disrupt our psychological or physical well-being. In a longitudinal study (quoted by Health Psychologist Kelly McGonigal in her TED talk) conducted on American adults for 8 years, it was found that 182,000 people died every year just because they believed that stress was bad for them, making stress-belief the 15th most likely cause of death in the United States.
When we change our minds about stress, we can change our body’s response to stress. When we view stress signs as beneficial entities that energize us and help us prepare for the situation at hand, we cause a change in our biological responses to stress.
For example- When stressed out, our arteries constrict, causing the blood to flow under more pressure and if we maintain such a state in our body for long, it is not very good for our health. On the other hand, it was found that when we view stress as beneficial for us, our arteries hardly make a change in their size, allowing our blood pressure to remain normal.
How you think about stress matters.
It was also found that stress makes one more social. Oxytocin is a stress hormone that is released by our pituitary gland when we are under stress and it is found instrumental in strengthening our relationships. It enhances empathy and increases compassion. Your biological stress response is therefore nudging you to tell someone how you feel instead of bottling it up.
Another role of oxytocin is in strengthening our heart. The heart has receptors for it and it helps heart cells to regenerate and heal from previous stress-induced damage.
All of these benefits of oxytocin are increased via social support. A study also proves that people who spend time caring for others show absolutely no increase in the stress-related risk of dying.
Caring creates resilience.
When you choose to view stress responses as helpful, you create the biology of courage and thereby, live healthier and longer.
Here are two questions for all of you to answer :
1. On a scale of 1-10, how much stress have you experienced recently? (1 being negligible and 10 being extremely high)
2. How do you choose to view stress from now onwards?
🌼 Tag some people to share and celebrate this event with.
🧡 Here is the Masterpost of this event.
🧡 Here is the Masterpost of all the amazing upcoming April Events.
Reference: Kelly McGonigal - How to make stress your friend?
Content is written by @Clarisse29
Content reviewed and updated by @Starmedia
Loving the collaboration , thankyouu @Clarisse29 , @VerseArt and @Starmedia ! Great post ,yall ❤
I agree also, there's also something called as "Eu- stress" , which is the good stress, meaning stress is not always bad , sometimes stress makes us perform better or in a more efficient way and some level of stress is needed to "get things done" ,I feel !
Loved the overall idea of the study conducted and the intent of this post, stress is my friend lol that friend I can neither live with nor without , also cause it's an extremely loyal friend, never leaving me alone xD *-*
1 . The past week (s) have been stressful for me , so will give it a big 10 :')
2. I try to be rational sometimes , but when our mind is stressed , hard to stay positive or try to look on the bright side , so I feel I'd certainly like to try harder at viewing stress more positively as compared to how I view it currently .
Thankyou again, gave a good chance to introspect and reflect ! 😊❤
Hello @Sunisshiningandsoareyou 
I'm glad you liked the post and that it gave you a chance to introspect and reflect back on the week you had.
Hope you have a less stressful week ahead!
1. On a scale of 1-10, how much stress have you experienced recently? (1 being negligible and 10 being extremely high)
I have experienced probably around a 7 because i am coming to the end of mandatory education and every week I have multiple exams which will determine my next stage, so I am pretty stressed about doing well.
2. How do you choose to view stress from now onwards?
I will try and view it in a positive way because being negative will only worsen it, I'll remember that the stress it just because I hold myself to high standards, and that diamonds are formed under pressure ;)
Hello @circusmirror123
Hope your education doesn't add more stress to your life.
I'm glad that you are trying to view stress in a more positive way. It will be great for you. Hope you have a less stressful time ahead!
@Sunisshiningandsoareyou
Glad to know. 
Hope you enjoyed it! 
@VerseArt
Thank you for collaborating on this forum post - @VerseArt @Clarisse29 @Starmedia
I have seen the tedtalk that was mentioned by Kelly! It is lovely and I am sure a lot of us would benefit from it. Here's the link for it if someone would want to see it - >>CLICK HERE<<
I really loved this forum post so thank you so much for writing is @Clarisse29
1. On a scale of 1-10, how much stress have you experienced recently? (1 being negligible and 10 being extremely high)
I'd say around, 8 because the times are very uncertain at my place. My finals recently got postponed once again and I am filled with some anxiety about what to expect. It's not ideal to manage it right now but my family is supporting me and helping to keep the environment a little better since yesterday so I am calming down about it.
2. How do you choose to view stress from now onwards?
I choose to see it as something that exists to help motivate the completion of a task. Stress is there to remind me of the importance certain tasks have and to see how much I can improve on managing the many things happening! It will feel hard to keep under check at times but ultimately stress is there so that I can fully unlock my potential and do my best.
Hello @lumieremilkyway
I'm glad you enjoyed the post and the Ted Talk. Thank you for posting the link!
It's great to know that your parents are supporting you through a high level of stress. It is amazing that your perception of stress is positive!
@lumieremilkyway
I'm glad you enjoyed it! thanks for the kind words <3
@lumieremilkyway
Hope you enjoyed it!