How to Make Stress Your “Superpower”

So… things are a little stressful these days.

Global uncertainty, polarizing opinions, an inifinite feed of doomscrolling… there’s no shortage of ways to stress out.

But what if we could turn our stress into a superpower: something that builds us UP instead of breaking us DOWN?

It all starts with changing how we think about it.

Researchers at Stanford wanted to know whether HOW we think about stress could change its effects on us.

In other words, could we go from someone who thinks, “Stress is terrible!” to someone who thinks, “Stress helps make me stronger!”

The results?

When participants changed HOW they thought about stress – seeing it as an opportunity to grow, welcoming it in their lives, and thinking about how it could benefit instead of hinder them – they IMPROVED their physical and mental health.

That’s pretty cool.

Quick note: not all stress is bad. In fact, humans NEED stress in order to grow and adapt. The key lies in its intensity and duration.

If we’re too stressed for too long, it breaks us down. In those cases, we need to meet stress with enough recovery, in order to bring us back to – or ideally above – our “baseline,” so we can perform well in different areas of our life.

On the flip side, if the stress we experience is short-term and challenges our capabilities just enough, we’re able to endure and grow from it, raising our “baseline” and improving our health over time.

In summary: stress is a part of being human, and we can choose our mindset around it – ideally in a way that helps us.

That’s good news for us. There’s a ton we can’t control in the world, but we CAN control our mindset, which influences our actions.

Here’s what I’m gonna try, based on this:

• When I’m stressed, I’ll take a moment to get curious, instead of just reacting to it.
• I’ll try to reframe my usual stressors in a positive way; for example, if work gets busy, I’ll tell myself, “This is an opportunity to improve my time management and prioritization skills.”
• I’ll pay extra attention to my go-to recovery activities so I can maintain a strong baseline: in bed by 9:30pm, 10 minutes of meditation, and a daily walk outside.

Cool – now it’s YOUR turn stress into a superpower.

Let’s connect in my free, 30 minute consultation and build your personalized recovery strategy together.

Book yours here.

Let’s help you go from surviving to thriving.

Love you lots,

❤ Ian