Let’s play a game of Would You Rather. Would you rather speak in front of 500 people for an hour or be stuck in an elevator with your ex? Would you rather get a cavity drilled or be forced to take a four-hour Zumba class? Would you rather lose your wallet on the subway or lose your internet connection right before a big online presentation?
It’s a feeling most of us dread and left unchecked, it can manifest in harmful physical and mental symptoms. But it’s time to consider an alternative view of stress. What if we stopped seeing stress as something abnormal or threatening to our health and instead thought of it as something that empowers us to be our best? Here are some mental strategies to help you do this, but first, it helps to understand exactly what we mean when we say we’re stressed.
The power of control
When the experiment begins, both the executive rat and the subordinate rat show signs of stress, indicated by a sudden surge of the stress hormone cortisol. Then, something interesting happens. The executive rat’s stress levels drop back to normal, while the subordinate rat’s stress remains high. Why? In a word, control.
Once the executive rat discovers that it can turn off the stressful stimulus (the random shocks) by pressing the lever in its cage, the physiological effects of the stressful situation essentially disappear completely. In contrast, the subordinate rat’s health steadily declines due to the stress, leading to secondary effects including a suppressed immune system.
On a psychological level, it’s the feeling of control that makes all the difference. Let’s consider why that’s the case, and what it means for our ability to cope with the daily stress we all face in the human rat race.