Now, Experts Say Stress Can Be Good for Your Health—Really

I just came across an idea that may have the ability to change me forever—or at least the remainder of this eight-hour international flight (during which I must file this article for my editor, buy last-minute Christmas gifts on Amazon using the spotty in-flight Wi-Fi, and watch RBG, the documentary about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, because I haven’t yet and it’s shameful).

Stress, according to psychology experts, may in fact be good for you.

It’s not a new notion, though not yet wildly popular—and it’s not total bullshit either, which is the first word that came to mind upon reading about it. I always thought stress, like smoking, kills. And here’s the thing: If I keep thinking stress will kill me, it likely will. In 2012, a group of scientists looked at the mortality records surrounding participants in a 1998 National Health Interview Survey, which asked almost 30,000 people if they had experienced stress in the last year, and whether they thought it harmed their health. According to their findings, those who reported both high stress and the belief it negatively affected their health, had a 43 percent higher risk of premature death compared to those who reported neither. (Independently, neither stress nor the belief that stress affects health predicted premature mortality.)

“It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy,” says Tal Ben-Shahar, a positive psychology professor who, for many years, taught a popular course about how to get happy at Harvard University. “If you see stress as bad, catastrophic, and something you need to avoid at all costs, each time you get stressed, it’s going to have a very negative effect on you. If you see it as something that can make you more resilient, then you will experience it very differently.”

It’s this shift in perception that Stanford University’s Dr. Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist, deems necessary in her book, The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You and How to Get Good at It. The premise, she theorizes, is that a better attitude, and a greater awareness about what happens in our bodies during the “fight or flight” mode, will lead to a better, albeit still stressful, lifestyle. Because, according to Ben-Shahar, and, well, history, stress is inevitable. Here, a guide to navigating the nonnegotiable.

Identify What Is Making You Stressed
You’ve heard it before: Don’t avoid stress. Bills pile up, family drama heightens, and unanswered emails don’t suddenly go away. Instead, pinpoint the source of your stress, which, according to world-renowned stress expert Alia Crum as well as recently published neuroscience research, causes the neural activity in your brain to move from its automatic, emotional center (the amygdala region) to the more conscious and deliberate one (the prefrontal cortex), in turn creating a clearer and more enhanced path to success.

Consider, too, going one step further by differentiating between the good, the bad, and the ugly (or chronic) types of stress. Positive stress, or eustress, is caused by the likes of a job promotion, which comes with greater responsibility, more hours at the office, increased face time with your boss, et cetera. Negative stress, or distress, is caused by something like a loss of a family member; an overwhelming feeling that can paralyze you, or send you straight to bed. Both have the ability to be viewed as growth opportunities—as long as there’s time for recovery, says Ben-Shahar. “Stress without recovery is what we call chronic, which can become unhealthy.”

Take, for example, the analogy of lifting weights at the gym, an act that quite literally stresses your muscles. “You lift weights, two days later you go back to the gym and lift more weights, and over time, you get stronger, more resilient, and healthier,” he says. “The trouble only begins when you go to the gym and you lift weights, and more weights the following day, even more weights after that, and so on, that you get injured and weaker rather than stronger. The problem is not the stress, it’s the lack of recovery, whether it’s in the gym, physiologically, or life, psychologically.”

Now, Change Your Perception Around It
Of course, stress varies for everybody. But the ways in which we cope, urge experts like Ben-Shahar, McGonigal, and Crum, have as much to do with our subjective interpretation as our objective circumstance. There are plenty of studies that show a drastic shift in results—for example, achieving better test scores or overcoming a fear like public speaking—when individuals look at stress through an “enhancing lens” rather than a threatening one.

“Personally, I’m an introvert, but I’m constantly on the road teaching,” says Ben-Shahar over the phone, mere minutes before he is due at the University of Miami, where he will implement the first graduate program on the study of happiness. “So when I feel anxious, I always reframe my challenges into an opportunity. Using words like exciting can make a big difference; we have a lot more control over our experiences than we think.”

Be Open to Growing From Stress
The best part about stress? The ability to grow from it, writes McGonigal, is built into our basic biology of the stress response, which many know as “fight or flight.” Not only does stress trigger a surge of adrenaline and dopamine—both of which fuel the body with blood and oxygen, in turn calling for more alertness and focus, as well as a release of chemicals that rebuild cells, synthesize proteins, and enhance immunity—it also induces the body to produce more DHEA, a hormone associated with brain growth. This allows you to learn from your experience and apply it in the future (hence why practice stress techniques are used when training for NASA, the FBI, and other high-risk fields of work).

Studies have shown that when people are given positive reinforcement before a challenge, DHEA levels outweigh those of cortisol, which is associated with negative responses such as impaired immune function and even depression. This ratio of DHEA to cortisol, continues McGonigal, is called the growth index, and a higher one lets you thrive rather than buckle under pressure, and sometimes, even extreme trauma.

What’s more? Not only does the stress response encourage internal growth, but McGonigal claims it also strengthens external bonds, as our bodies release oxytocin, the same hormone that is released when humans hug one another. Known as the “cuddle hormone,” because it increases compassion and caring, when put in a stress context, it signals the mind to seek support, and share how you feel. At the same turn, it protects the heart from added stress, allowing the body to remain resilient. This chemical reactivity, says McGonigal, looks a lot like the biology of courage.

. . . But Know When to Turn Stress Off
Appreciating the idea of stress is key, but it’s equally important to know when to turn off when possible, says Ben-Shahar. “Happy, healthy, and successful people experience stress like everyone else. The difference is they punctuate their crazy-busy lives with periods of recovery.” That could range from a good night’s sleep to a one- or two-week vacation, from 10 to 15 minutes of deep breathing meditation to having a meal with your friend—“as long as your phone is off, since that could potentially cause even more stress,” he says. “Recovery requires focus and being present as opposed to being distracted. What we need are more periods in which we disconnect from technology, what I call ‘Islands of Sanity.’ ” Sounds like a pretty great place to visit.