How to make your stress work for you

Learning how to manage your stress is a

skill just like riding a bike. It is

something that you can teach your brain

to do and it is something that you can

teach yourself to do. You can rewire

your brain and body for less stress and

more resilience.

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Not all stress is created equal. In

fact, there are two kinds of stress.

There is healthy productive stress. In

scientific terms, we say that that is

adaptive stress. Getting a new job or a

promotion, falling in love. Healthy

stress moves your life forward. But when

stress goes unchecked and is untamed,

dysfunctional, and unproductive, that's

when stress goes from being adaptive to

maladaptive. And those two are very

different when it comes to how they

impact your brain and your body.

Most people believe that there is one

way that the body responds to stress.

You know, everyone's heard the fight

orflight response. And it turns out that

the brain and the body actually has

another way of responding to these kind

of highstakes challenges. And that other

way of responding to stress is called a

challenge response. It's a way for your

brain and body to give you maximum

focus, attention, and energy. When you

have a threat response, it's going to

feel more like dread or overwhelm. When

you have a challenge response, the brain

and body actually shift into a state

that gives you more access to your

resources. You know, your heart might

still be pounding, but your blood

vessels are going to relax and open up.

So, you get more blood flow to your

muscles and to your brain. All of your

senses open to all the information

that's available to you, which means

you're basically smarter under stress.

>> We are virtually continually bombarded

by thoughts. They are like weather

patterns in the mind. And there are

sometimes night nice clear sunny days

but there are an awful lot of cloudy

days, tumultuous days, rainy days. And

when you get in touch with what

awareness really is, the first thing you

realize is that those thoughts are not

me and they're not mine. People

misunderstand meditation is, oh, I just

sweep all my thoughts away and then I'm

in this like honor. There's no way to

sweep your thoughts away. They will get

you every time. But when you see that

you're not your thoughts, then you can

watch them in this kind of impersonal

observing way. You can see that if you

don't touch them, they self-liberate

naturally.

>> The goal of life is not to live a life

with zero stress. It's in fact

biologically impossible to do this. It's

to live a life with healthy, manageable

stress. So stress can serve you rather

than harm you. Literally just embracing

your own stress, energy, arousal, or

anxiety can transform what's happening

in your brain and body to really help

you rise to the challenge.