Why do some people seem to thrive under stress? Research has shown that this is because they think and respond differently to stress. The difference is that they embrace stress and become more resilient. They have a different mindset because they accept stress as a normal part of life. Resilient people have a growth mindset and believe that to learn and grow they will have to endure difficult experiences to find their strengths to follow their goals.
Embracing stress can change the way you think about yourself and what you can achieve. It can help you to discover your strengths, courage and compassion.
Learning to see the good in stress and see it as a friend rather than an enemy can enable you to meet the challenges in your life and thrive. You can change how you perceive and respond to stress and use it to improve your life both personally and professionally. Recent science has indicated that we are capable of transforming stress into something good. Stress can enable us to learn, grow, connect and engage in all aspects of our life.
The psychologist, Salvatore Maddi, named this attitude and the associate coping strategies as ‘hardiness.’ Hardiness is the courage to grow from stress and enables you to thrive before, during and after the stressful event.
How to change your attitude to stress
To help you think about stress in a different way take a little time to answer these three questions.
- Identify situations when you have been challenged and felt stronger as a result?
- When has anxiety helped you to rise to a challenge?
- How can you embrace stress and become more resilient?
So rather than stress being something you think is damaging to your health and wellbeing you can rethink it. You can become more resilient by learning to embrace stress and use it to pursue what matters to you. Developing a growth mindset will help you become stronger, smarter, healthier, happier and more successful.
Act now! Learn how to embrace stress and make stress work for you. If this post has resonated with you and you would like to find out more please contact kate@finerthinking.com or call 07736 649584