Stuart Munro is a performance and wellbeing psychologist, who works with high performance athletes. He is currently supporting international Paralympic alpine ski racers, and is developing performance psychology content for corporate sectors. Stuart offers a fresh perspective to dealing with stress……
I was chatting to a friend of mine about the upcoming holidays and she proclaimed that as much as she loves the festive period, ‘it is just soooo stressful, and I hate that!!!’ I resisted the urge to put my psychologist hat on and quiz a bit more. However, it wasn’t long before another friend stated similarly that, ‘the festivities would be great without all the stress of it.’
These declarations highlight a prevailing mindset that I encounter in my role supporting high performance athletes. That stress is ‘bad’ and something to be avoided. However, I’d like to invite you to consider changing your mindset towards stress and consider a more balanced view, so that you may enjoy your holidays more, and perhaps even save your life!!
- Take a second and consider your mindset to ‘stress’. Is this something that only conjures up negative connotations?
- Consider how you normally react to experiences that you do not like and want to avoid. How does feeling under threat make you think, feel and act?
- Now reflect on how many times a day or week you experience this ‘bad stress’.
Sadly, for a lot of people, a stress response only has negative associations, that it is harmful and to be avoided. This mindset then creates a threat reaction in the mind and body whenever this stress response arises, which could be several times a day.
Why do so many of us have negative mindsets to stress?
This has a large part to do with early medical research which then powerfully influenced the medical profession. The science of stress began with experiments on rats in the 1930’s, subjecting them to traumatic conditions, injuries and poisonous injections and then observing their resultant responses.
The medical profession have since espoused that stress is harmful and that it must be avoided or minimised. Stress management courses are prevalent on the basis of our fear towards having stress and a need to minimise it. The media take soundbites from scientific journals to create dramatic headlines such as, ‘stress during pregnancy is passed on to your baby’, which feeds our panic. (A study which actually involved monitoring rat foetus reactions after the mother was subjected to tortuous conditions). And finally, our language, culture, and conversations demonise stress to the extent that we develop this one-sided, unbalanced mindset to stress.
Why is a mindset so important?
Well, your mindset filters how you make sense of the world. It influences how you think, how you feel, your emotions and how you behave in any given situation. Mindsets shape your reality and this means it influences your physiological reactions. Having a mindset that all stressful experiences are ‘bad’, no matter how small, therefore has the power to negatively determine your thoughts, feelings, emotions, behaviours and physiology. And this is what impacts performance, health and wellbeing – not the stress response itself!!
What is a stress response?
It is helpful to understand that you have a system for stress and a system for de-stress built into you which is genetically encoded in your brain and body:
Sympathetic Nervous System = activates a physiological stress response
Parasympathetic Nervous System = activates a physiological calming response
The purpose of the stress response is to activate and mobilise some systems in the brain and body and to deactivate others. It is therefore a generalised system. It is not, as many people cite, just for ‘fight or flight’.
For the brain and body there is no ‘Good’ or ‘Bad’ response. The good or bad ‘labels’ are entirely down to your Mindset. The stress response is designed to make you DO something. This may be ‘flight or flight’ but it may also be ‘enjoy’, ‘get ready to perform’, ‘let’s get activated for this activity’, ‘get up you need to pee!!’
I ask my athlete groups to describe their physiological reactions when they are experiencing a ‘stressful event’ associated with the negative mindset. Do these seem familiar?
- Increased heart rate
- Increased breathing rate
- Feeling of increased blood pressure
- Sense of agitation
- Feeling of tension
- Sweating
- A need to urinate
I then ask them to describe their physiological reactions when they are anticipating something, perhaps experiencing exhilaration in an activity, or wanting to achieve something. And guess what? – they describe the same physiological reactions.
Contemporary science is demonstrating that while a ‘fight and flight’ or ‘Threat’ response can be activated, there is also a stress response associated with ‘Drive’ – when you want to achieve, get things done, to learn, to compete, to deal with challenges, and similarly driven aspects of experience.
That ‘Threat’ response may be wholly appropriate in certain situations and you definitely want that when needed. However, when you have an unbalanced view to stress this is all you have available. The need to study for upcoming exams, having to cook the Christmas dinner for visiting family, getting shopping done, wrapping presents, all activate a Threat-based stress response automatically due to your mindset.
How your mindset to stress may kill you or save you!!
This headline may seem dramatic, however, recent research has demonstrated your mindset to stress changes your physiological response and can therefore have serious implications for your health.
A 2012 study that had tracked 30,000 adults over 8 years and asked 2 questions:
- ‘How much stress have you experienced in the last year?’ – little or a lot
- ‘Do you believe that stress is harmful for your health?’ – yes or no
Then they looked at public health records to see who had died!!
The results showed that those citing a lot of stress had a 43% increased risk of dying – but that was only for those saying stress was harmful. Those saying they experienced a lot of stress but that it was not harmful had a lower risk of dying. Even those saying they had little stress had a higher risk of dying if they said was stress was harmful.
They were able to conclude that the people who had died, had not died from stress, but the BELIEF that stress is bad for you!!
Another study demonstrating how changing mindsets to stress leads to different physiological responses was conducted at Harvard. Two groups of participants were put through a social stress test, however one group were taught how the stress response they experience could be beneficial to their performance in the stress test. For example, a pounding heart is preparing you for action and energising your muscles, and breathing faster is getting more oxygen to your brain and body, helping you make decisions faster and readying you for action.
Results showed that participants who were taught to view stress responses as helpful for performance were less stressed out, less anxious, more confident, and had better results in the stress tests. However, the most fascinating result identified that building a belief that stress can be helpful directly influenced their physiological state.
For those who had the mindset that stress was bad, their blood vessels constricted. Those who had been taught the benefits of a stress response, their blood vessels stayed dilated. The stress-is-bad mindset activated a Threat response, whereas the stress-is-enhancing mindset activated a Drive response. Consider how this could impact your performance in life, because for the athletes I deal with, this is huge!!
Why does the Threat response make a difference?
The Threat response is there for a reason. It is one of our most primeval reactions that keeps us safe from danger. If you are being chased by something or someone that is going to attack you, you definitely want this stress activation.
And the stress physiology that happens in a Threat response is what you would want if you were going to be put under threat. While there are some similarities there are some crucial differences when your mindset convinces you that you are activating Drive.
| Threat Response (Fight or flight) | Drive Response (Challenge) |
| Preparing you for action
Heart pounds faster Breathing rate increases Adrenaline & cortisol release |
Preparing you for action
Heart pounds faster Breathing rate increases Adrenaline & cortisol release |
| Body is anticipating physical harm
You feel you have no control |
Body is anticipating something exciting/exhilarating – you feel more in control |
| To minimise anticipated blood loss vessels constrict and increases rate of plaque release (fatty deposits) = makes platelets stickier (allows blood to form clots) | Blood vessels dilate/relax
Maximises blood flow Heart has stronger beat – pumps more blood – provides more energy |
| Increases inflammation cells
Mobilises immune cells – good when body is damaged – not good when injured and persistent (chronic) |
You release more resilience-boosting hormones – e.g. Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA – a neurosteroid) a hormone that helps your brain grow and learn |
| You learn to want to avoid this experience in future | You learn that you can approach this experience again |
It’s not that your GP or life coach are wrong that stress leads to reactions that are bad for your health and implore you to do things to avoid or minimise stress in your life. It does – but only if you are habitually activating your threat response from a mindset that says any stress reaction is bad.
Consider these Drive system responses and reflect on whether these may be useful for you in some situations that you need to act:
- Makes you alert – directs your whole body to mobilise energy
- Liver dumps sugar & fat into bloodstream for fuel
- Breathing increases and deepens – more oxygen to heart
- Heart rate increases – to deliver the oxygen, fat, and sugar to your muscles and brain
- Adrenaline & cortisol help muscles & brain use energy more efficiently
- Pupils dilate to let more light in & hearing sharpens
- Brain processes what you perceive more quickly
- Increases focus of attention – access more information from your environment
- Motivation increases – from chemical cocktail of endorphins, adrenaline, testosterone, and dopamine
- Increases a sense of confidence and power
- More willing to pursue your goals – approach stressful experiences again because of exhilaration
- Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA – a neurosteroid) is released – a hormone that helps your brain grow and learn
- DHEA speeds up wound repair and enhances immune function.
- Oxytocin is released – activating a compassion motivation for you to seek connection with people – but is minimised by threat mindset
The Costs of avoiding stress
The desire to avoid the feeling of stress or anxiety overtakes other goals – it becomes your priority. You have to activate energy and attention into ‘getting rid’ stress reactions and unwanted emotions. Importantly, avoiding what makes you stressed and anxious only reinforces these fears – that you can’t deal with stress and anxiety in the future.
There is much research to demonstrate that avoidance feeds a decreased perception of control, deceases your belief in using your skills, abilities and strengths, and decreases your belief that you can connect with people to get support. These all decrease your sense of wellbeing.
In contrast, making the shift to a mindset where you can approach your stress response, instantly changes your physiological and emotional reactions, which lead to an enhanced sense of wellbeing.
How do you shift from a stress-is-bad mindset to a stress-is-enhancing mindset?
The first step I teach people is to acknowledge you are having a stress reaction. What is actually happening for you in that moment? Get to know what is called your ‘stress signature’.
Next is to learn to notice what small things that activate a stress response. For example, forgetting your keys, being stuck in traffic, having a pile of work to do.
Take a moment to reflect on what the situation is offering. What is the motivational relevance of the situation? Is this situation putting you at grave risk or is there is some importance to getting action done? If it is the second, your stress response may help you get that action done. Welcome the stress by recognizing that it’s a response to something you care about. Can you connect to the positive motivation behind the stress? What is at stake here, and why does it matter to you?
Learn to ‘be with’ the stress response. This increases what is called your ‘distress tolerance’. You can learn to approach and tolerate having a stress response even if it is mildly uncomfortable. This changes your physiological reaction of wanting to avoid and feeling under threat, to one that is challenging but you can approach.
Learn to notice the emotion that comes with the stress response. At present, all stress responses may activate anxiety or a sense of dread for you, however as you develop your self-awareness to noticing and recognising your emotions, you may begin to see that anxiety is not required. As you learn to be with the stress response you may feel that nervous anticipation is more accurate.
The balanced view to stress
The hope is that this has provided you with a more balanced view to stress responses. That while there is a reaction that makes you want to fight or run away, there is another that is actually helping you get things done. So, when you are setting down to study for those upcoming exams, having to cook the Christmas dinner for visiting family, getting shopping done, wrapping presents, offer yourself the mindset that your stress response is helping you. You’ll feel more in control, you can use your skills to get things done and you can connect with people which will make for the best festive holiday ever!!
Stuart can be contacted by email: [email protected]
Stuart is an expert in mindfulness-based training for performance and wellbeing having extensive training and experience working with various client groups. He will be offering an online group session in 2023. Please contact Stuart if interested.
