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Stanford Psychologist Says Embracing Stress Is More Important Than Reducing It

If you were an oak tree, you might find the California dry season stressful. But these trees have grown to thrive in it.

A Reader Sent This Article To Me

And while it is not exactly “The Work of Byron Katie” in external form, is exactly The Work of Byron Katie. The more I do The Work, the more I realize that The Work is everywhere.

It’s just not called The Work. It’s called intelligence. It’s called discrimination. It’s called wisdom.

The Work is a formalized practice for finding non-stressful ways of experiencing stressful situations. People have been doing this forever. Byron Katie just came up with a systematic way of doing it. She simply formalized it.

Here’s How This Scientist Did Inquiry

Check out her article here.

What I love about what she wrote is how she basically did The Work. She started with the stressful thought, “Stress is bad.” And she basically asked, “Is that true?”

She even looked at what happens from a scientific point of view when you believe the thought or not. That’s basically questions 3 and 4 of The Work.

“One study found that simply having the goal to avoid stress increased the long-term risk of outcomes like depression, divorce and getting fired, by increasing people’s reliance on harmful coping strategies.” (This answers question 3 of The Work, “How do you react, what happens, when you believe the thought that stress is bad?”)

“In contrast, viewing stress more positively seems to encourage people to cope in ways that help them thrive, whether it’s tackling the source of stress, seeking social support or finding meaning in it.” (This answers question 4 of The Work, “Who would you be without the thought that stress is bad?”)

And Look At Her Examples For The Turnaround

She basically turned it around to “Stress is good.” And here’s the evidence she found to support the turnaround.

1. “…when you feel your heart pounding from anxiety, you think about how your body is trying to give you the energy you need to rise to the challenge.”

2. “Rather than being a sign that something is wrong with your life, feeling stressed can be a barometer for how engaged you are in activities and relationships that are personally meaningful.”

3. “For several hours after you have a strong stress response, the brain is rewiring itself to remember and learn from the experience. Stress leaves an imprint on your brain that prepares you to handle similar stress the next time you encounter it. Psychologists call the process of learning and growing from a difficult experience stress inoculation. Going through the experience gives your brain and body a stress vaccine. This is why putting people through practice stress is a key training technique for NASA astronauts, emergency responders, elite athletes and others who have to thrive under high levels of stress.”

I Encourage You To Read The Article Itself

The whole thing supports nicely the turnarounds we often use for line 6 of the Judge-Your-Neighbor Worksheet, “I am willing to… I look forward to…” encountering a similar situation in the future.

These turnarounds often help me see that I really do look forward to getting triggered again. Because I really do like growing and getting better at dealing with stressful situations. Just like practicing a sport or a musical instrument, the more I practice, the better I get.

So stress is starting to lose its stigma. As it turns out, even scientific research is starting to show that stress may be more like a friend than an enemy.

Have a great week,
Todd

“Thoughts are friends, not enemies. They’re just what is. They appear. They’re innocent. We’re not doing them. They’re not personal. They’re like the breeze or the leaves on the trees or the raindrops falling. Thoughts arise like that, and we can make friends with them. Would you argue with a raindrop? Raindrops aren’t personal, and neither are thoughts. It’s the meaning you attach to those thoughts that you think is personal. Inquire. Meet them with understanding. Once a painful concept is met with understanding the next time it appears you may find it interesting. What used to be the nightmare is now just interesting. The next time it appears, you may find it funny. The next time, you may not even notice it.” Byron Katie, Question Your Thinking, Change The World

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Todd Smith has been doing The Work of Byron Katie on an almost daily basis since 2007. He is just as excited about this simple process of self-inquiry today as he was when he first came across it. He also enjoys writing about The Work, and training others in the subtleties of this meditative process. Join Todd for The Work 101 online course, private sessions, virtual retreats, and his ongoing Inquiry Circle group.