Kelly McGonigal Says Stress is Good for You!

Kelly McGonigal says stress is good for you! She is not the only one. When Laura Silva talks about stress in the Silva Life System, she calls this kind of good stress, eustress.

Imagine that you work for an organization with hundreds of employees and you’re about to give a presentation to the entire group. The CEO and all the board members are in the audience. You’ve been anxious about this talk all week, and now your heart is pounding. Your palms are sweating. Your mouth feels dry.

What is the best thing to do in this moment: try to calm down, or try to feel excited?

When Harvard Business School professor Alison Wood Brooks asked hundreds of people this question, the responses were nearly unanimous: 91 percent thought the best advice was to try to calm down.

You’ve probably told yourself or others in moments of stress that if you don’t calm down, you’ll blow it. This is what most people believe. But is it true? Is trying to relax the best strategy for performing under pressure? Or is it better to embrace the anxiety?

In a previous article, we learned

The latest science reveals that stress can make you smarter, stronger, and more successful. It helps you learn and grow. It can even inspire courage and compassion.

The new science also shows that changing your mind about stress can make you healthier and happier. How you think about stress affects everything from your cardiovascular health to your ability to find meaning in life. The best way to manage stress isn’t to reduce or avoid it, but rather to rethink and even embrace it.

So, my goal as a health psychologist has changed. I no longer want to help you get rid of your stress—I want to make you better at stress. That is the premise of the new science of stress, and the purpose of this book.
–Kelly McGonigal from The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It

With my upcoming talk next Thursday at The Club at Harbor Point in Mill Valley, California, I’m feeling a lot of stress, but it is good stress. What will I say? How will it be received? Who will show up? Will they want to buy books? You know the drill.

Then, there is my three hour workshop in Los Angeles on September 24 coinciding with the launch of . Details to follow.

Any advice other then to get excited (which I am, already)?

Books by Kelly McGonigal

The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It by Kelly McGonigal The author of The Willpower Instinct delivers a controversial and groundbreaking new book that overturns long-held beliefs about stress. More than forty-four percent of Americans admit to losing sleep over stress. And while most of us do everything we can to reduce it, Stanfo… [Read More…]