I came across a Ted talk about stress that I found quite interesting and helpful. We all will undoubtedly come across stress, whether while studying for GREs, making graduate school deadlines, or juggling school, work, and life. The talk with Kelly McGonigal discussions studies which have found that in changing your perceptions about the psychological onset of stress on your body can change and negative health effects of stress into positive ones of courage and resistance. Examples provided include thinking about stress as a positive and exciting challenge and your body’s reaction of an increased heart rate and sweating are there to help “pump you up” and get you ready to meet the challenge, instead of there to negatively affect your performance.
2 thoughts on “TedTalk How to Deal with Stress”
Comments are closed.
Thanks for sharing this! I actually kind of always thought of the pressure and physiological changes of stress as a good thing because it lets me get things done and gives me creative ideas. What I didn’t know was that it also motivates you to seek out others. During stressful times, I actually have avoided others, but now I know I should embrace others and tell them how I feel, as well as listen to how they feel.
It’s very interesting to see how stress can benefit. I think especially as aspiring researchers or counselors in psychology, it is important to remember these sort of self-care benefits. Our careers will always be rigorous and demanding, probably more than midterms. The APA puts out a very helpful guide (http://www.apapracticecentral.org/ce/self-care/acca-promoting.aspx) that I think is so important in that much like in the ethics discussion, the work we do is so critical. Even an honest mistake has such horrific implications, so even though I feel a bit overwhelmed by the work at Columbia and for REU, I must do better to know when to step back and evaluate so that I can do my best work possible.