How can we benefit from stress?

So what can we do to stay in control and actually benefit from a stressful situation? There are four key things we can change: our resources, our beliefs, our actions, and our reactions.

A simple definition of stress is when the demands placed on you (e.g. a major contract negotiation) are greater than your resources (e.g. zero experience with large contract negotiations). In my negotiation example, the demands of the situation required a greater level of experience and knowledge (resources) to perform well. I learned my lesson. In our next meeting with the customer I brought one of our corporate attorneys with me. My stress was definitely reduced.

A research study published in 2012 observed nearly 30,000 people for eight years. The focus was on major stressors and their perception of stress as either good or bad for their health. There was a strong correlation between those who thought stress was bad for their health and their higher likelihood of mortality. In other words, if we positively believe that what we feel on the inside during a stressful situation is actually our body preparing us to deal with the situation, we are more likely to benefit from the situation with better health.

A research study done at the University of Buffalo followed 846 individuals who had experienced recent significant stressful situations. The subjects who spent more of their time helping others (service projects, charity, etc.) had a profoundly higher level of health after the stressful situation. “Our conclusion,” Michael Poulin, Assistant professor of psychology said, “is that helping others reduced mortality specifically by buffering the association between stress and mortality.”