Use stress to boost productivity

How the brain deals with stress

When you are stressed, the hormone norepinephrine starts to be released in your brain. Norepinephrine is an unusual chemical because it affects us both positively and negatively. Thanks to him, activity and concentration instantly increase, attentiveness, concentration, and memory work improve. At the same time, anxiety and anxiety arises because of it.

The body cannot function normally when there is too much or, on the contrary, too little norepinephrine.

There is a kind of golden mean: when your brain produces the optimal amount of norepinephrine, you can control your condition. Ian Robertson is a neuroscientist at Trinity College

This means that as long as we control our stress, we can enjoy all of its benefits: improved brain function and increased creativity. As ironic as it sounds, stress makes us happier.

But one problem remains: how to make sure that in a stressful situation anxiety does not paralyze, but plays into our hands?

Start by rethinking the situation

Research confirms that when people find themselves in a stressful situation, such as before a public speaking, and try to convince themselves that everything is fine, they become more anxious.

People who perceive the situation as exciting, disturbing, and admit they are stressed, deal with panic attacks much better.

When we feel anxious before a meeting or an upcoming conversation, it badly affects memory and concentration, and does not allow us to concentrate. As a result, you don't make a good impression. If you know this is how you usually react to a stressful situation, you can start convincing yourself to calm down.

This is the wrong tactic. Alison Wood Brooks, senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, studied how people respond to thoughts of stress. And here's what it found: people who try to perceive their anxiety as something exciting do better than those who try to ignore stress and calm down.

Treat stress as a challenge, not a burden

There is another way: to perceive stress as an opportunity for development and to get rid of the persistence mindset. Those who believe they can make a difference do change it.

With an attitude of consistency, a person believes that everything that happens to him and everything that he feels cannot change. Such fatalism does not give you a chance to influence the situation and change your attitude.

People who are focused on growth and development look for new opportunities in any failure. They can turn stress into excitement and reap all of its benefits.

For example, many comedians and actors get upset if they don't feel anxious before going on stage. American golfer Tiger Woods says the same: if he is not scared before the competition, he knows that he will probably perform badly.

Get rid of negative thoughts

We've all found ourselves in unpleasant situations where stress, anxiety, and negative thoughts seemed impossible to get rid of.

In fact, every thought is a complex form of activity of proteins, hormones, genes, and neural connections in the brain. The more often we think in a certain way, the stronger these connections become.

If you react to stress with anxiety, self-doubt, fear, then there is a high probability that you will feel the same in a similar situation. But psychologists found a way out. This is "cognitive rethinking."

I advise patients to think like scientists. Observing and describing your feelings without evaluations are just dry facts. Hooria Jazaieri family psychologist

Therefore, instead of letting stress take its course, you should determine at what point you start to feel anxiety and insecurity, and stop yourself.

Writer Elizabeth Bernstein advises writing down your thoughts and trying to understand what causes them. For example: “The boss sent an e-mail and asked him to call back. I began to think that he didn't like my job and that I would be fired."

Dump all thoughts on paper, and then introduce yourself to a scientist. Make assumptions and challenge your hypotheses: "Am I doing a poor job?", "Could I get fired because of this?"

Chances are, once you start thinking about the problem, you will not find confirmation of your initial doubts. But don't stop there. Look for evidence to the contrary: "What success have I had at work lately?", "Can I get a promotion soon?"

Write down any counterarguments that get in the way of your self-confidence. Writing down helps to keep those thoughts in mind. The more you fixate thoughts that counteract doubt, the more difficult it will be to knock you off course in a stressful situation.

But what if this approach doesn't work? Take everything to the extreme. Think you are not doing your job very well? Tell yourself that you are not doing well. Tell yourself that there is no worse copywriter / designer / developer in the world and that if you get thrown overboard, everyone will only get better.

Laugh at yourself. Steve Orma, a practicing psychologist and author of Stop Worrying and Go to Sleep, is convinced that laughter can help you feel better and realize the absurdity of your negative thoughts.

Work on yourself

If you want to stay fit, strenuous gym workout alone is not enough. And this also applies to the brain.

Learning to rethink your stressful behavior and deal with negativity by turning it around to your advantage also takes time. But, in truth, not that much.

A 2014 study found that people who cognitively rethought their own behavior were able to release negative emotions in an average of 16 weeks.

Just 4 months to get better, happier and more productive. And for this you just need to change your attitude a little.