The Upside of Stress

The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good At It by Kelly McGonigal, PhD.             Audio Book: 8 hours, 32 minutes      Hardback Book:  304 pages       

Very good book on how to rethink and embrace stress to allow it to be a helpful resource instead of a mind numbing, body at risk horror show.    She talks about how the mind can make us so believe a thing that our bodies actually undergo the symptoms that can lead to our demise it is all about mindset.    All of us have heard about the patients whose medical tests got switched, a dying person was told they were perfectly healthy and miraculously recovered while the perfectly healthy patient was told they only had 6 months to live and at the end of six months believed themselves ill and died.    I have seen people believe so much in what they were told that it became true to them which is why I strongly advocate anyone in a teaching or counselling career never say detrimental things to people because whatever their initial outward reaction they take unkind words to heart and often believe them and act accordingly to their own detriment.   Just like it is funny to see how easily a good hypnotist can put a person under and that person can be coerced to do and see things that are beyond their norm.    The power of mindset is a very powerful tool and when used  properly can accomplish monumental things.   In this book Dr. McGonigal teaches how the power of positive channeling of stress can take us from dread to rapture if we let our mindset process it to be so.     Using the anxious feelings that come when we dwell on stressful situations and allowing gthe adrenaline to help us accomplish what we need done can move us from OMgosh I will never be able to do this to Omgosh I can channel this rush of emotion and instead of letting it beat me I can think of it as excitement at accomplishing something radical!  It is all in the mindset.    Don’t allow the rapid breathing and elevated blood pressure stop you, let it boost you through the blues into hyper happiness and use that pumping blood to push through the anxiety.   She says when you are experiencing stress your body is also pushing loads of endorphins and other useful chemicals through your bloodstream that will enable you to think faster, perform quicker because your body is in fight or flight mode to boost your power too think clearer and focus better on what situation you have to get out of.   She points out that stress is working toward our good to save us and if we can grasp onto that concept, we can turn that moment we want to scream in utter helplessness to a scream of victory in achieving our goals by deciding all that comes with stress reactions can be turned around for our good – it is all in how we think about it and choose to react with it.    This book is full of good information and I highly recommend it to anyone feeling put upon by all the many directions where stress can take hold of us.    This book will liberate the reader from looking at stress as a bad thing to welcoming that adrenalin boost to pump harder, think quicker and solve the puzzles that pop up in our lives and trip us up from time to time that are inevitable but how we choose to react is up to us and requires changing our mindset on how we will deal with or succumb to stress.   Go for the gusto – put your stress to work positively for you.   You will be amazed by what all you can accomplish and how great you feel once you realize all the goals you had been losing sleep over.   Stress rally can be our friend – it is all in our mindset.    Good book!

 - Shirley J.