I learnt a new word recently… eustress!
I may not be the best-read person in the world, but I think I can find my way around a bookshelf… so I was surprised that I had not heard this word in conversation or come across it in a self help book in the last few decades!
After reading the definition, I knew I would be using this word a lot in the future – I felt a true kinship with this ‘new to me’ word. But then I immediately wondered how to pronounce it (which I admittedly am not the best at).
… was it eww-stress (which I was really hoping it wouldn’t be since it would sound the exact opposite as the meaning)
… or was it ee-stress (which I also hoped wasn’t the right pronunciation as it would then sound like it was some digital concoction)
… thankfully I found out that it is pronounced yoo-stress – which I am still not certain I am all that fancy about, but I didn’t create the English language so I guess I will just have to go with it
According to the Merriam Webster online dictionary the definition is:
eu·stress ˈyü-ˌstres
: a positive form of stress having a beneficial effect on health,
motivation, performance, and emotional well-being
… during positive stress ("eustress"), such as a promotion or vacation,
feel-good chemicals called endorphins are released.
Something fun to note for those, like me, that haven’t heard this word before. It was introduced in 1976 by Hans Selye (an endocrinologist) and the ‘eu’ is from the Greek prefix meaning ‘good’ and the English word ‘stress’. Although, there is some documentation that it was used as early as 1968 in some phycological terms. I’m a geek … I like that kind of random and weird trivia!
Anyways… enough of the language lesson and on to the blog!
In recent decades, we have been bombarded with how bad stress is and to de-stress our lives. Too much stress is taking a toll on our physical and emotional well being and the current generation is experiencing more stress-related disorders and diseases then ever before.
I am a big believer in our thoughts create our environment and the more we focus on something (either positive or negative) the more it comes or stays in our experience. Believing strongly in this philosophy got me to thinking about stress in general and how it feels like we are often being held hostage by all of our stressors. And wouldn’t you know it… three days after having this conversation with myself, a Ted Talk about changing the narrative on stress came across my internet traffic! And more reading brought me to the beautiful word… eustress!
Coincidence? I think not!
This Ted Talk caused a huge shift in my belief system… it explained how people that viewed stress as harmful would indeed lead those people to have negative stress reactions but for those that did not view (or changed their belief about it not being harmful) stress as harmful did not end up having the same negative responses to similar stressful situations.
One of the studies that was conducted, estimated that over the eight years they were tracking deaths from people that experienced stressful situations in the year prior to the study:
182, 000 Americans died prematurely … not from stress, but from the BELIEF that stress is bad for you! (I am not sure when this study was done, but I know it was prior to 2013 so if the estimates were correct that would make ‘believing stress is bad for you’ the 15th largest cause of death in the United States … killing more people than skin cancer, HIV/AIDS and homicide)
Other people in this study that experienced a lot of stress but did not view stress as harmful were no more likely to die and in fact, they had the lowest risk of dying of anyone in the study, including people who had relatively little stress.
The talk goes on to reveal another study that was done where they purposely taught participants to rethink their stress response as helpful:
a pounding heart is preparing you for action
you’re breathing faster… it’s no problem, more oxygen is getting to your brain
And participants who learned to view the stress response as helpful for their performance, were less stressed out, less anxious, more confident and most importantly … their physical stress response changed!
Chronic stress is often associated with cardiovascular disease because blood vessels constrict and reduce the amount of blood reaching the heart. The blood vessels in participants that went through stressful situations, with the belief that stress was helpful, stayed relaxed and did not imped blood flow.
When you change your mind about stress, you can change your body’s response to stress.
MIND BLOWING!!!!!!!
I would really love it, if you would have a listen to this Ted Talk – it is less than 15 minutes long and I can’t help but think how better off we could all be if we change the narrative on how we view stress.
And… I didn’t tell you about the best part, which includes facts about oxytocin which has been nicknamed the ‘cuddle hormone’ and also happens to be a stress response hormone! WHAT - how could a cuddle hormone be a stress response hormone?!?!? Cliff hanger …now you HAVE to go watch it!!! It is entitled “How to Make Stress Your Friend” by Kelly McGonigal. Click here if you would like to have a listen!
YOO-STRESS!!!
Peace out
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