What is stress?
Stress is the perception that something is more than the
resources you have for dealing with it.
That word perception is really important. It's your interpretation
that gives rise to stress.
What researchers are finding is that being able to have positive emotions during times of extreme
stress helps people cope better. That does not mean you don't have negative feelings. Dealing with
tough situations is hard. They can make you feel sad, angry worried.
But…. Positive emotions can make a difference.
What science is saying: Understanding our brains and nervous system
As we grow older neural pathways form like superhighways
of nerve cells that transmit messages in our brains. When
you travel over theses superhighways many times, the
pathway becomes more and more solid. Think of it like a set
of Christmas tree lights that light up in automatically. Chronic
stress and habits will create certain solid pathways. That is
why our reactions to things may seem "automatic".
There is some good news about all this. Research has
shown that we can actively affect how our brains work and
we can rewire to create new pathways.
Positive mental activity can help us form new pathways,
since "neurons that fire together, wire together."
But because of the brain's well-known negativity bias - like
Velcro for the bad but Teflon for the good to make these changes takes sustained and deliberate
effort.
To strengthen more positive pathways use your positive emotions:-
• Take in the good: having a good experience in the first place
• Enrich it: helping it last 10 or more seconds while you experience it
• Absorb it: sensing that it's sinking into you.
Using positive emotions
in the midst of stress
The power
of positive
emotions
"Neurons that
fire together,
wire together."