Managing stress in order to make it an ally

Stress is a series of physiological responses of our body to a threatening situation - or at least to a situation that is experienced as such. Faced with this source of anxiety or fear, we feel our heart beating faster, our breathing accelerates, our blood pressure increases, our muscles tense up, we sweat, we feel the need to urinate, our digestion is less efficient... 

All these bodily reactions have an adaptive function. In other words, they are useful. These reactions are there to prepare our body for two possible actions: run away or fight. The acceleration of our heart and breathing rates brings more oxygenated blood to our brain and muscles. The aim is to mobilise our attentional capacities and our muscular strength in order to act more quickly. 

In a stressful situation, blood is distributed differently in our body: it concentrates on our muscles and our brain. This is why our body extremities can suddenly become colder, and why we speak of “cold sweat” because our skin gets cooler. Some biological functions that are not needed to escape or fight - such as digestion - are even slowed down. Finally, the urge to urinate can be explained. Freeing our bladder allows us to lighten up and thus be faster. Quite practical! 

The problem is when stress is too intense or lasts too long. It can then have harmful consequences on our physical and mental health. 

The double-edged impact of stress 

If stress is too intense, the contraction of blood vessels it causes can increase the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. It is therefore best not to expose our bodies to this physiological state repeatedly. Another impact of stress is the glucose release from our liver, which serves as an energy source or fuel for our muscles. However, over a long period of time, the enhanced concentration of sugar in our blood increases the risk of developing diabetes. 

Finally, the extended mobilisation of our resources to prepare for action and the excess of toxins linked to this state exhausts our body. It needs to be able to return to a relaxed level quickly or risks cardiovascular complications and a syndrome of physical, psychological and emotional exhaustion, also known as burn-out. But these negative impacts are only true when we perceive our stress negatively.

A positive attitude to counter stress

A study conducted over 8 years on 30,000 adults in the United States showed that the increased risk of death observed in people under stress is not related to the stress itself but rather to the belief of these people that stress is dangerous to their health. People who did not believe that stress was bad for their health, even when they had experienced significant stress, had the lowest risk of death in the study. They were even lower than those who had little stress but thought stress was bad for their health. So, it's definitely worth looking at stress as a positive thing. 

Keeping our stress under control leads to better performance

Another Harvard study showed that when people were encouraged to think of their body's stress signals as useful elements that prepare them for action, they performed better on stressful tasks. They were less anxious, felt less psychological stress, and were more confident. 

Better: these people showed no contraction of blood vessels despite their increased heart rate. Therefore, there was no increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, and we observed a physiological response that was quite similar to a moment of joy and courage (increased heart rate and relaxed blood vessels). 

How can we change our representation of stress?

In order to change our body's response to stress, we must rethink and associate new, more positive representations with the physiological manifestations of stress. For instance, we need to start perceiving body signals such as sweating, or the acceleration of our heart rate, as signs that our body has just been stimulated, that it is getting ready to take on a challenge, rather than negatively, as signs of anxiety that we tend to hide, or that we are ashamed of. 

Oxytocin: the secret weapon of stress... against stress 

Another positive aspect of stress is that it makes us sociable. And this is thanks to oxytocin. A hormone that is also called ‘the cuddle hormone’ because it is triggered off when we touch another person. Oxytocin is also involved in activating prosocial behaviour in us, i.e. a behaviour that strengthens emotional and intimate bonds. It increases the desire for physical contact with our friends and family and increases empathy. It also increases the willingness to help and support those around us and makes us more compassionate and caring. However, oxytocin is one of the stress hormones - in a stressful situation, our bodies also release cortisol, vasopressin and adrenaline. 

In order to encourage us to seek help to cope with the threatening situation, oxytocin makes us, for instance, tell the people around us how we feel rather than keeping it to ourselves. The cuddle hormone also protects our cardiovascular system from the deleterious physiological effects of stress. It is a natural anti-inflammatory that helps the blood vessels to stay relaxed during the stressful situation. And it even allows the heart cells to regenerate and heal from any stress-related damage. 

Social contact reinforces all these positive physiological aspects of stress related to oxytocin! That is why it is important to follow this biological imperative to reach out to our loved ones when faced with a stressful situation. All this allows us to recover more quickly from stress. 

Helping others to help oneself

Our physiological response to stress is a defence mechanism against stress: social relationships. Studies show, in fact, that people who spend time helping others show no increased risk of stress-related mortality. This is in contrast to people who have not put these resilience strategies into place. To quote Kelly McGonigal, a well-known researcher on the subject whose work inspired this article: “When you choose to see your response to stress as helpful, you create the biology of courage. And when you choose to communicate with others under stress, you can create resilience.”