Have you ever wondered why some people seem to thrive under stress? Research has shown that this is because they respond differently to stress. The difference is their attitude or their mindset. They accept stress as a normal part of life and instead of trying to avoid or reduce it, they choose to embrace it. 

Resilient people have more of a growth mindset. They accept that they will have to endure difficult experiences and adversity to find their strengths to follow their goals. They view challenges, criticism or mistakes as an opportunity to learn because they believe it will help them grow, increase their sense of wellbeing and reach higher levels of achievement. 

Embracing stress can change the way you perceive challenges, think about yourself and what you can achieve. It can help you to discover your strengths, courage and potential. 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 more confidently and thrive.

Recent scientific studies have indicated that we are capable of transforming the way we think and live with stress. Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist, has explored how her thinking and teaching about stress has radically changed in her book, The Upside Of Stress. From her extensive research she supports the belief that “stress is helpful, and should be accepted, utilised and embraced.” The evidence is that stress and adversity enables us to learn, grow, connect and engage in all aspects of our life.

You probably know people who have been able to transform difficulties and challenges into opportunities and possibilities by learning from their experiences. Whether it's problems in the workplace, at home, with relationships or health issues you have witnessed how they thrived, demonstrated courage and resourcefulness as a result. This is because they responded by looking for the opportunity to learn and grow from their stressful situation. In fact you can see it happening all around you everyday. I have witnessed this in my friends, family and clients. I have personally experienced stressful life events, redundancy, divorce and severe injury. I continue my own journey to develop a growth mindset, learning to embrace and utilise stress and adversity in a positive way. Working on changing my attitude towards stress has helped me to be mentally and emotionally stronger, more flexible in my thinking, able to face challenges more confidently, persist in the face of setbacks and learn from criticism.  

How to rethink your attitude to stress

To help you to start thinking about stress in a different way consider how you would answer these 3 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 explore how you can rethink it. Seeing the positive side of stress is not about deciding whether stress is all good or all bad. It's about how choosing to see the good in stress can help you face the difficulties and challenges in your life. 

You can become more resilient by learning to accept, embrace and utilise stress and use it to pursue what really matters to you. Changing your attitude to stress and working on developing a growth mindset will help you become your resourceful best, stronger,  happier and more successful. 

If this has resonated with you and you would like to find out more how to embrace stress and make stress work for you please contact kate@finerthinking.com or call 07736 649584