4 Ways to Manage Stress

ONSCREEN TEXT: If you’ve watched our video about how stress can boost performance…

…you’ve ­learned about the power of Cognitive Reappraisal.

 What is Cognitive Reappraisal?

PROFESSOR KATIE MCLAUGHLIN: So that’s a fancy way of describing a process where you think about a situation differently to change the way that it makes you feel.

And what’s fascinating is that if you teach people to rethink those experiences, those feelings of being stressed, rather than as being negative but as something that’s actually really helpful, that’s going to help you perform in the moment, it has an enormous impact on your performance.

ONSCREEN TEXT: So, think “I am excited” instead of “I am anxious”. What are other ways to cope with stress?

PROFESSOR KATIE MCLAUGHLIN: Another example that’s a really simple one that I think people are less aware of is actually sleep. … What’s really interesting is that people who get a regular night’s sleep are not only protected against some of the mental health consequences of stress, the physical health consequences, but in the moment, when you put them in a challenging situation, they exhibit a more physiologically adaptive response to stress. So getting a good night’s sleep is a simple and very effective stress management strategy.

Then a third strategy that people may have heard a little bit about is the role that social support can play. Research suggests that social support is potentially one of the most powerful buffers against the negative effects of stress. People who have a large social network or who have a smaller network but feel very supported emotionally in that network, have people they can reach out to when something bad happens, are less likely to develop depression; when they experienced stress, they’re less likely to develop physical health problems; their immune system is actually more resilient to stress if they have good social support.

But one recent finding that I think is really interesting suggests that it’s not only receiving support from other people that can help to buffer the effects of stress. But actually giving support to others can serve as a very powerful buffer against the negative consequences of stress. So in that particular study, they found that people who engaged in at least a couple of hours a week of activities that were designed to help other people—something like volunteering at a food bank, or even you know, volunteering as a coach for your kids soccer team—that doing a few hours of those kinds of activities designed to help and support other people was associated with a very powerful buffering effect against the effects of stress on health over time.

ONSCREEN TEXT:

4 Ways to Manage Stress:

1. Reappraise It: “I am excited”
2. Sleep
3. Have Social Support
4. Give Social Support]