Turn Stress into Something Positive – Here is How

What comes to mind when you think of stress? I guess nothing much positive, am I right? No wonder.

You constantly hear how bad it is for you, how badly it affects our health, how it affects our lives and how having too much stress drastically reduces our lifespan. It’s enough to make you get stressed out about it all, isn’t it….?

Anyway, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who conducted a study over 8 years involving 30,000 participants discovered something VERY interesting about stress.

Their findings showed that it is actually your VIEW of it that determines how that stress will impact your health. Put another way, if you see stress as something good, something positive, your health won’t be affected.

Now, I can see you thinking “Hold on a minute, how exactly can stress be something good?

It only ever seems to mess me up – when I went on my date; when I had to talk with my boss; when I had to do a speech in front of a group of people; at my exam, etc etc… ”.

Change your thinking, change your view about it.

Instead of seeing stress as the enemy, how about this: next time you feel stressed, change your mindset and tell yourself – my body is getting me ready for action.

My body is energizing me with extra fuel, making me more focused for the upcoming event. My body, is preparing me. My body is helping me.

By imprinting that image in your head, every time you are in a stressed situation, your thinking will change how your body will behave and react. You influence it.

By doing this, your body will not see stress as a bad thing, but instead as something good. And consequently your health will not be affected. Our minds are far more powerful then we have yet discovered. You become what you think.

I very much recommend you watch the TEDx talk from Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist who talks more about this study. In today’s world, changing your view on stress, might just save your life!