Turn Stress Into Happiness!

For years, stress has been painted as something to avoid at all costs. But now experts are helping us harness its power…

- Cathy Struthers

WHAT COMES to mind when you think of being under stress? Feeling overwhelmed and worried? Or pumped up and primed for action? Well, research is revealing that what you expect is exactly what you’ll get. Believe that stress is a positive, enhancing benefit and it will be. Believe it’s debilitating and you’ll find it harder to process.

For years, the prevalent message has been that stress has a negative impact on wellbeing. We are told it increases the risk of everything from heart disease to mental health problems. But now, experts are discovering a flip side: stress can be good for you, and the power to unlock its positivity lies within you.

‘Stress is not just caused by thoughts, but the thoughts that you believe to be true,’ explains Shamash Alidina, author of The Mindful Way Through Stress (£12.99, Guildford Press).

Stress is your body’s natural defence to danger. Under stress, your body is flushed with hormones and chemicals to prepare for ‘fight or flight’. Adrenaline, nor adrenaline and cortisol raise blood pressure and heart rate and pump blood and oxygen to your muscles and brain, heightening alertness and narrowing focus. In the distant past this allowed our ancestors to act fast in the face of danger, and even today, in extreme situations such as a fire or traffic accident it could help you rescue yourself and others quickly and instinctively. But, if you’re stuck in an everyday situation – such as when someone cuts you up in traffic – and this response kicks in, you don’t need to fight or run away, so you can’t use up the chemicals your body has produced to stimulate you into action. Over time, this can damage your health by keeping your blood pressure high, overworking your heart, and affecting your metabolism.

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