Interesting TED talk on stress

Hi all, here's a TED talk I found on stress and how it might only be bad for us if we believe it's bad for us:

http://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend.html

As someone who gets stressed about the fact that I'm stressed, I found this talk really interesting and reassuring - hopefully I can relax a little more next time I feel stressed

 

Thanks for sharing this video on stress. It's very interesting.

Psychologist Kelly McGonigal says those who regard stress as a friend
are healthier than those who consider it to be an enemy. Those positive about stress
suffer few heart attacks, strokes, etc. as those negative about it.

McGonigal suggests that stress may only be bad for you if you believe that to be the case. She urges us to see stress as a positive, and introduces us to a mechanism for stress reduction: reaching out to others.

She says stress is our body's way of preparing us to take action.

That sounds to me a lot like TMS and pain from repressed emotions. So too does reaching out to others, socializing and exchanging thoughts, as we do on TMSWiki.org/forum.

McGonigal says, "Reach out to others when you or they are under stress." It helps you and them physically as well as emotionally.


Dr. Sarno says in Healing Back Pain, "Stress can be external or internal to the individual. Examples of eternal stress are your job, financial problems, illness, change of job or home, caring for children or parents. Internal stresses appear to be more important in the production of tension. These are one's own personality attributes, like conscientiousness, perfectionism, the need to excel, etc. People often say that they have a very stressful job, and that's why they're tense. But if they weren't conscientious about doing a good job, if they weren't trying to succeed, achieve and excel, they wouldn't generate tension. Often such people are highly competitive and determined to get ahead.
Typically, they are more critical of themselves than others are of them.

"A homemaker and mother with a similar personality stresses herself in the same way as someone in the work world, but the focus of her concerns is the family. She worries about her children, her family, her husband, her parents. She wants the best for everyone and will do anything in her power to bring it about. She may also tell you that it is important to her that everyone like her, that that she gets very upset if she feels that anyone is displeased with her. This compulsion to please, is of course, not limited to women.

"Stress, then, is outside what one might call the inner core of the emotional structure and is composed of the stresses and strains of daily life and, more importantly, aspects of one's own personality. And stress leads to tension (repressed, unacceptable feeling). "

In her video about accepting stress as a friend, Kelly McGonigal talks about oxytocin.

It is the hormone best known for its role in inducing labor may influence our ability to bond with others, according to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco.

In a preliminary study, the hormone oxytocin was shown to be associated with the ability to maintain healthy interpersonal relationships and healthy psychological boundaries with other people. The study appears in the July issue of Psychiatry.

"This is one of the first looks into the biological basis for human attachment and bonding," said Rebecca Turner, PhD, UCSF adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry and lead author of the study. "Our study indicates that oxytocin may be mediating emotional experiences in close relationships."

The study builds upon previous knowledge of the important role oxytocin plays in the reproductive life of mammals. In humans, oxytocin stimulates milk ejection during lactation, uterine contraction during birth, and is released during sexual orgasm in both men and women.

Women whose oxytocin levels rose in response to massage and remembering a positive relationship reported having little difficulty setting appropriate boundaries, being alone, and trying too hard to please others. Women whose oxytocin levels fell in response to remembering a negative emotional relationship reported greater problems with experiencing anxiety in close relationships.

"It seems that having this hormone "available" during positive experiences, and not being depleted of it during negative experiences, is associated with well-being in relationships," said Turner.
Oxytocin may also play a role in the higher levels of depression and interpersonal stress seen in women, said Turner. According to most psychiatrists, women experience depression twice as often as men and tend to be more affected by relationship difficulties. Turner and her colleagues hope that their work on oxytocin will guide future research on the psychiatric conditions of men and women.

There's lots of food for thought here, about stress and oxytosin. Do you have thoughts to share on the subjects and McGonigal's video?

 

Love this talk! Thanks so much for sharing - I found it very inspirational.

 

Kelly McGonigal gives us some great advice in reaching out to others when we're experiencing stress.
We may want to limb in bed and pull the covers up over us, but it's better to socialize and maybe help others.
We don't have to drive over to see someone. Just a phone call or an email can work as good.

I once was alone for Thanksgiving and felt kind of sorry for myself. I decided to check up on a friend and
gave her a phone call in another state. She and her husband had divorced after the accidental death of their
baby. Neither one may have blamed the other, but it ended what had been a very happy marriage.

I didn't know how to reach the husband by phone but found the wife's number and called her.
She said my call came when she was very lonely on Thanksgiving and considering ending it all, so she said it saved her life.

We don't know how much a phone call can make in someone's life.