Ted video summary

HOW TO MAKE STRESS YOUR FRIEND

By Kelly McGonigal

Summarized by: Najmiatul Fauza

Kelly McGonigal is a health psychologist. Her mission is to help people be happier and healthier, but she has been telling people that stress made them sick and it increased the risk of dying. After that, she changed her mind about stress. She explained a study which tracked 30.000 adults in the United States. For eight years, they were asked the questions (how much stress have you experience in the last year and do you believe that stress is harmful for your health). Then, they used public death records to find out who died. The result showed that people who experienced a lot of stress in the last year had a 43% increased the risk of dying but that was only true for the people who believed that stress is harmful. On the contrary, people who believed that stress is not harmful was not likely to die ( they had the lowest risk of dying).

For eight years of the research, the researcher estimated that 182.000 people died because of the beliefs that stress is bad for them. This study could change how do we think about stress. When we change our mind about stress we can change our body’s response to stress.

Another study was conducted in the Harvard University about social stress test. Before testing the people were taught that stress response as helpful. In this study, when the participants viewed their stress response as helpful, their blood vessels stayed relaxed, their hearts were still pounding but this was a much healthier cardiovascular profile. The new science of stress revealed that how you think about stress matters.

In addition, one of the most under-appreciated aspects of the stress response, the idea  is stress makes you social. Stress released a hormone called oxytocin. Oxytocin is a neuro-hormone  it fine- tunes our brains’ social instincts.  It primes us to do things that strengthen close relationship. When oxytocin released, it is motivating people to seek  support , so when they got stress, it is nudging them to tell someone how they feel when their lives are difficult. Their stress response wanted them to be surrounded by people who care about them. The stress response has a built-in mechanism for stress resilience and that mechanism is human connection.

The last study tracked about 1000 adults in USA and they ranged in age from 34-93. The study started by asking question( how much stress have you experienced in the last year and how much time have you spent  helping out people). The next five years, they used public death records to find out who died. The result showed that the major stress factor increased the risk of dying by 30% , but people who spent time caring for others showed absolutely no stress-related increase in dying. How we think and how we act will transform our experience of stress. When we view our stress response as helpful, we create the biological of courage and we choose to connect with others under stress we can create resilience.

In conclusion, this speech gave us much knowledge about the belief of stress, it was very helpful to people to change their beliefs about stress is harmful for their health. Based on the research, stress response is helpful and it will the risk of dying.