Psychologist Kelly McGonigal has been teaching people for more than ten years how to avoid stress, turning it into the enemy. Now, recent research has changed her mind, and so she wants to do with us: stress isn't harmful for our bodies, but how we face it can bring serious increase of heart disease risk.
It shows up that the effects on our bodies such as sweat and heart pounding that we've always associated with negative feelings aren't that bad. Stress is preparing us to face challenges, to do our best on whatever we're doing and consequently, succeed. Another amazing result of being stressed is that we become more social: the pituitary gland pumps out oxytocin, a neuro-hormon that makes us become more compassionate, empathetic and even sorround ourselves by people we care about.
To conclude, I must say that with this talk I haven't only learnt about how to stand stress but also some new vocabulary such as nudge (gentle encouragement or reminder), seek (search, look for) or vessels (where blood flows through)... So I feel like the only thing I can say about it is thanks. Thanks Kelly for teaching us! :)
