Updated: September 29, 2013
We don’t like stress, especially work-related stress.
And studies have already shown that stress is connected to a lot of health problems such as diabetes, heart ailments, clinical depression and many others.
Indeed, for so many years, stress has always been thought of as an enemy.
That is until recently, when scientists are starting to discover that stress is actually neutral, and its negative effects on our body, is mostly induced by our beliefs and mindset.
Watch health psychologist, Kelly McGonigal, below as she talks about stress, and how a simple change in thinking can probably save your life.
Interestingly, my favorite part of the talk came towards the very end, when TED curator Chris Anderson and Kelly McGonigal had this very brief question and answer:
Chris Anderson: This is kind of amazing, what you’re telling us. It seems amazing to me that a belief about stress can make so much difference to someone’s life expectancy. How would that extend to advice, like, if someone is making a lifestyle choice between, say, a stressful job and a non-stressful job, does it matter which way they go? It’s equally wise to go for the stressful job so long as you believe that you can handle it, in some sense?
Kelly McGonigal: Yeah, and one thing we know for certain is that chasing meaning is better for your health than trying to avoid discomfort. And so I would say that’s really the best way to make decisions, is go after what it is that creates meaning in your life and then trust yourself to handle the stress that follows.
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