Brain scientist says stress can make you stronger

You feel the tension creeping up your spine. Heart begins to pound. Anxiety. Do you need to pop a pill to stop it? Or maybe what you need to do is feel the stress and use it.

In his new book, The Stress Test: How Pressure Can Make You Stronger and Sharper, neuroscientist Ian Robertson points out that anxiety and stress can be a signal to get going, not relax.

Robertson’s idea challenges all the vogue psychology that says stress is dangerous to your health and peace of mind. Instead, Robertson says stress is an energy that can be harnessed.

Quoted in the UK Telegraph, Robertson says stress is essential for achievement.
He proposes a four-step process to employ stress.

First step: When feeling stress in a difficult situation, trick the brain into reinterpreting the feeling by saying out loud once or twice: I feel excited. The brain can now interpret the feeling differently. Stress isn’t a challenge or a threat, it becomes excitement.

Step two: Control breathing. In an emotional stage, people quit breathing. Fight this by taking control. Breathe slowly through the nose several times.

Step Three: Become a superhero. Stand straight, chest out, hands on hips — this is a stance of confidence and power, triggering the fight response, not the flight.

Step Four: Squeeze your right hand closed for 45 seconds, then release for 15 seconds. Repeat. Robertson believes this increases activity in the left side of the brain and puts it in a challenge mode, lessoning anxiety and improving performance.

Robertson believes the brain is a programmable machine that will respond with creativity in the face of trauma.