One Mental Trick to Lessen the Effects of Stress

Were you aware that changing the way you interpret stress can lessen the effects of stress on your body? In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, they actually found that after they instructed participants that stress and arousal were functional and aided performance, they had improved cardiovascular responses to a stressful situation as compared to the other experimental groups. In other words, when stress ceases to become a threat and becomes a healthy challenge that can be overcome, our body actually reacts differently. Let’s go over exactly what was found and how it applies to the rest of us.

The Experiment

For this study they divided 50 participants into three groups. One group was instructed that arousal as a result of stress (rapid heart beat, sweat, faster breathing, etc.) is functional and aids performance. Another was instructed that they should try to ignore the stressful cues they were experiencing. The third group was a control group and had no intervention. 

All participants then completed the Trier Social Stress Test in which they had to deliver a videotaped speech in front of two evaluators who provided negative feedback. They then were asked to perform a difficult math test just to generate even more stress.

The physical measures taken were cardiac output (CO), which measures the blood ejected from the heart and total peripheral resistance (TPR) which is a measure of constriction or dilation of the blood vessels. When you are threatened, you constrict for example. Higher CO and lower TPR indicate a more efficient circulatory system and more adaptive response. These measures were taken at baseline and following the stress tests and these were the results:

The Results

The reappraisal group which was taught to see stress as more of a challenge than a threat performed significantly better on both cardiac output (CO) and total peripheral response (TPR) than the other two groups. This essentially means that those in the experimental group were healthier cardiovascularly than the groups that saw the stress more as a threat to be avoided.

The Application

Now, why is this important for us? I think this is such a cool finding because it shows that the very way we think or perceive something can change the way our body responds to it! Learning how to interpret your own body signals is actually a common practice in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as well which is a popular form of therapy.

Learning how to manage stress is especially important since we all suffer from stress and some do more than others. The mind and the body are one and stress takes a physical toll on us especially when it comes to our heart. Stress can raise blood pressure and limit blood flow to the heart, increasing the risk for clots or stroke, and this is just one of it’s many impacts. What is interesting about this study is that it begs the question of whether the harmful effects of stress are really caused by the stress itself or by our interpretation of it?

What we need to do is rid ourselves of the notion that we must avoid stress at all costs in our lives and that when it comes we need to fight it off. Stress has an evolutionary benefit that was designed to actually HELP us in dangerous situations where we needed to act fast. The issue in our modern age is that our stress response is no longer triggered by an attacking lion which comes and goes, but maybe by a work deadline hanging over our heads that we carry around with us all day. If we are to lessen the effects of stress in our bodies we need to create new habits.

Make this a new practice. When the stress comes and you feel it in your body, recognize it for what it truly is. Your body is trying to help you adapt to a situation and you can use the help to complete or overcome your challenge. It will take a re-training of your brain, but doing this will not only increase your daily well-being, it will extend your life too. Try it out.

Source:

Jamieson, J. P., Nock, M. K., & Mendes, W. B. (2012). Mind over matter: Reappraising arousal improves cardiovascular and cognitive responses to stress. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141(3), 417-422. doi:10.1037/a0025719