WEBVTT 00:00:00.435 --> 00:00:04.613 I have a confession to make, 00:00:04.613 --> 00:00:07.876 but first, I want you 00:00:07.876 --> 00:00:11.469 to make a little confession to me. 00:00:11.469 --> 00:00:14.557 In the past year, I want you to just raise your hand NOTE Paragraph 00:00:14.557 --> 00:00:17.971 if you've experienced relatively little stress. 00:00:17.971 --> 00:00:20.604 Anyone? NOTE Paragraph 00:00:20.604 --> 00:00:23.133 How about a moderate amount of stress? NOTE Paragraph 00:00:23.133 --> 00:00:26.441 Who has experienced a lot of stress? 00:00:26.441 --> 00:00:28.849 Yeah. Me too. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:28.849 --> 00:00:31.113 But that is not my confession. 00:00:31.113 --> 00:00:34.803 My confession is this: I am a health psychologist, 00:00:34.803 --> 00:00:39.392 and my mission is to help people be happier and healthier. 00:00:39.392 --> 00:00:42.926 But I fear that something I've been teaching 00:00:42.926 --> 00:00:47.254 for the last 10 years is doing more harm than good, 00:00:47.254 --> 00:00:49.678 and it has to do with stress. 00:00:49.678 --> 00:00:52.853 For years I've been telling people, stress makes you sick. 00:00:52.853 --> 00:00:55.748 It increases the risk of everything from the common cold 00:00:55.748 --> 00:00:57.890 to cardiovascular disease. 00:00:57.890 --> 00:01:02.383 Basically, I've turned stress into the enemy. 00:01:02.383 --> 00:01:05.095 But I have changed my mind about stress, 00:01:05.095 --> 00:01:09.010 and today, I want to change yours. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:09.010 --> 00:01:11.390 Let me start with the study that made me rethink 00:01:11.390 --> 00:01:13.825 my whole approach to stress. 00:01:13.825 --> 00:01:17.244 This study tracked 30,000 adults in the United States 00:01:17.244 --> 00:01:21.190 for eight years, and they started by asking people, 00:01:21.190 --> 00:01:24.728 "How much stress have you experienced in the last year?" 00:01:24.728 --> 00:01:28.012 They also asked, "Do you believe 00:01:28.012 --> 00:01:32.165 that stress is harmful for your health?" 00:01:32.165 --> 00:01:34.043 And then they used public death records 00:01:34.043 --> 00:01:36.124 to find out who died. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:36.124 --> 00:01:37.101 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:37.101 --> 00:01:41.350 Okay. Some bad news first. 00:01:41.350 --> 00:01:44.636 People who experienced a lot of stress in the previous year 00:01:44.636 --> 00:01:48.405 had a 43 percent increased risk of dying. 00:01:48.405 --> 00:01:52.395 But that was only true for the people 00:01:52.395 --> 00:01:56.931 who also believed that stress is harmful for your health. 00:01:56.931 --> 00:01:58.537 (Laughter) 00:01:58.537 --> 00:02:01.140 People who experienced a lot of stress 00:02:01.140 --> 00:02:03.103 but did not view stress as harmful 00:02:03.103 --> 00:02:04.805 were no more likely to die. 00:02:04.805 --> 00:02:08.459 In fact, they had the lowest risk of dying 00:02:08.459 --> 00:02:10.486 of anyone in the study, including people 00:02:10.486 --> 00:02:12.896 who had relatively little stress. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:12.896 --> 00:02:15.182 Now the researchers estimated that over the eight years 00:02:15.182 --> 00:02:16.776 they were tracking deaths, 00:02:16.776 --> 00:02:20.334 182,000 Americans died prematurely, 00:02:20.334 --> 00:02:22.879 not from stress, but from the belief 00:02:22.879 --> 00:02:26.257 that stress is bad for you. (Laughter) 00:02:26.257 --> 00:02:29.709 That is over 20,000 deaths a year. 00:02:29.709 --> 00:02:32.759 Now, if that estimate is correct, 00:02:32.759 --> 00:02:34.851 that would make believing stress is bad for you 00:02:34.851 --> 00:02:37.297 the 15th largest cause of death 00:02:37.297 --> 00:02:39.215 in the United States last year, 00:02:39.215 --> 00:02:40.979 killing more people than skin cancer, 00:02:40.979 --> 00:02:44.428 HIV/AIDS and homicide. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:44.428 --> 00:02:47.311 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:02:47.311 --> 00:02:50.136 You can see why this study freaked me out. 00:02:50.136 --> 00:02:53.827 Here I've been spending so much energy telling people 00:02:53.827 --> 00:02:56.797 stress is bad for your health. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:56.797 --> 00:02:58.786 So this study got me wondering: 00:02:58.786 --> 00:03:01.287 Can changing how you think about stress 00:03:01.287 --> 00:03:04.726 make you healthier? And here the science says yes. 00:03:04.726 --> 00:03:06.808 When you change your mind about stress, 00:03:06.808 --> 00:03:10.327 you can change your body's response to stress. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:10.327 --> 00:03:12.441 Now to explain how this works, 00:03:12.441 --> 00:03:15.322 I want you all to pretend that you are participants 00:03:15.322 --> 00:03:17.929 in a study designed to stress you out. 00:03:17.929 --> 00:03:20.613 It's called the social stress test. 00:03:20.613 --> 00:03:22.667 You come into the laboratory, 00:03:22.667 --> 00:03:25.574 and you're told you have to give a five-minute 00:03:25.574 --> 00:03:29.301 impromptu speech on your personal weaknesses 00:03:29.301 --> 00:03:32.958 to a panel of expert evaluators sitting right in front of you, 00:03:32.958 --> 00:03:34.519 and to make sure you feel the pressure, 00:03:34.519 --> 00:03:37.811 there are bright lights and a camera in your face, 00:03:37.811 --> 00:03:40.620 kind of like this. 00:03:40.620 --> 00:03:43.380 And the evaluators have been trained 00:03:43.380 --> 00:03:48.246 to give you discouraging, non-verbal feedback like this. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:53.076 --> 00:03:56.534 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:56.534 --> 00:03:59.356 Now that you're sufficiently demoralized, 00:03:59.356 --> 00:04:02.156 time for part two: a math test. 00:04:02.156 --> 00:04:04.257 And unbeknownst to you, 00:04:04.257 --> 00:04:08.153 the experimenter has been trained to harass you during it. 00:04:08.153 --> 00:04:10.826 Now we're going to all do this together. 00:04:10.826 --> 00:04:12.220 It's going to be fun. 00:04:12.220 --> 00:04:13.289 For me. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:13.289 --> 00:04:18.291 Okay. I want you all to count backwards 00:04:18.291 --> 00:04:21.138 from 996 in increments of seven. 00:04:21.138 --> 00:04:22.666 You're going to do this out loud 00:04:22.666 --> 00:04:26.627 as fast as you can, starting with 996. 00:04:26.627 --> 00:04:27.769 Go! 00:04:27.769 --> 00:04:29.110 Audience: (Counting) 00:04:29.110 --> 00:04:31.699 Go faster. Faster please. 00:04:31.699 --> 00:04:33.968 You're going too slow. 00:04:33.968 --> 00:04:36.114 Stop. Stop, stop, stop. 00:04:36.114 --> 00:04:37.703 That guy made a mistake. 00:04:37.703 --> 00:04:40.475 We are going to have to start all over again. (Laughter) 00:04:40.475 --> 00:04:42.753 You're not very good at this, are you? 00:04:42.753 --> 00:04:44.556 Okay, so you get the idea. 00:04:44.556 --> 00:04:46.299 Now, if you were actually in this study, 00:04:46.299 --> 00:04:48.244 you'd probably be a little stressed out. 00:04:48.244 --> 00:04:49.825 Your heart might be pounding, 00:04:49.825 --> 00:04:53.229 you might be breathing faster, maybe breaking out into a sweat. 00:04:53.229 --> 00:04:56.209 And normally, we interpret these physical changes 00:04:56.209 --> 00:04:57.825 as anxiety 00:04:57.825 --> 00:05:00.841 or signs that we aren't coping very well with the pressure. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:00.841 --> 00:05:02.910 But what if you viewed them instead 00:05:02.910 --> 00:05:05.362 as signs that your body was energized, 00:05:05.362 --> 00:05:08.804 was preparing you to meet this challenge? 00:05:08.804 --> 00:05:11.650 Now that is exactly what participants were told 00:05:11.650 --> 00:05:14.311 in a study conducted at Harvard University. 00:05:14.311 --> 00:05:17.417 Before they went through the social stress test, 00:05:17.417 --> 00:05:20.378 they were taught to rethink their stress response as helpful. 00:05:20.378 --> 00:05:24.167 That pounding heart is preparing you for action. 00:05:24.167 --> 00:05:26.761 If you're breathing faster, it's no problem. 00:05:26.761 --> 00:05:29.846 It's getting more oxygen to your brain. 00:05:29.846 --> 00:05:32.543 And participants who learned to view the stress response 00:05:32.543 --> 00:05:34.780 as helpful for their performance, 00:05:34.780 --> 00:05:36.119 well, they were less stressed out, 00:05:36.119 --> 00:05:38.287 less anxious, more confident, 00:05:38.287 --> 00:05:40.380 but the most fascinating finding to me 00:05:40.380 --> 00:05:43.763 was how their physical stress response changed. 00:05:43.763 --> 00:05:45.655 Now, in a typical stress response, 00:05:45.655 --> 00:05:47.623 your heart rate goes up, 00:05:47.623 --> 00:05:51.944 and your blood vessels constrict like this. 00:05:51.960 --> 00:05:54.950 And this is one of the reasons that chronic stress 00:05:54.950 --> 00:05:57.809 is sometimes associated with cardiovascular disease. 00:05:57.809 --> 00:06:01.415 It's not really healthy to be in this state all the time. 00:06:01.415 --> 00:06:03.432 But in the study, when participants viewed 00:06:03.432 --> 00:06:05.559 their stress response as helpful, 00:06:05.559 --> 00:06:09.065 their blood vessels stayed relaxed like this. 00:06:09.065 --> 00:06:10.372 Their heart was still pounding, 00:06:10.372 --> 00:06:13.728 but this is a much healthier cardiovascular profile. 00:06:13.728 --> 00:06:16.383 It actually looks a lot like what happens 00:06:16.383 --> 00:06:21.092 in moments of joy and courage. 00:06:21.092 --> 00:06:23.935 Over a lifetime of stressful experiences, 00:06:23.935 --> 00:06:27.125 this one biological change 00:06:27.125 --> 00:06:28.429 could be the difference 00:06:28.429 --> 00:06:31.433 between a stress-induced heart attack at age 50 00:06:31.433 --> 00:06:34.297 and living well into your 90s. 00:06:34.297 --> 00:06:37.441 And this is really what the new science of stress reveals, 00:06:37.441 --> 00:06:40.980 that how you think about stress matters. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:40.980 --> 00:06:44.110 So my goal as a health psychologist has changed. 00:06:44.110 --> 00:06:46.272 I no longer want to get rid of your stress. 00:06:46.272 --> 00:06:49.230 I want to make you better at stress. 00:06:49.230 --> 00:06:51.935 And we just did a little intervention. 00:06:51.935 --> 00:06:53.293 If you raised your hand and said 00:06:53.293 --> 00:06:55.552 you'd had a lot of stress in the last year, 00:06:55.552 --> 00:06:57.395 we could have saved your life, 00:06:57.395 --> 00:06:58.926 because hopefully the next time 00:06:58.926 --> 00:07:00.946 your heart is pounding from stress, 00:07:00.946 --> 00:07:02.793 you're going to remember this talk 00:07:02.793 --> 00:07:04.955 and you're going to think to yourself, 00:07:04.955 --> 00:07:10.129 this is my body helping me rise to this challenge. 00:07:10.129 --> 00:07:12.553 And when you view stress in that way, 00:07:12.553 --> 00:07:14.525 your body believes you, 00:07:14.525 --> 00:07:18.204 and your stress response becomes healthier. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:18.204 --> 00:07:22.380 Now I said I have over a decade of demonizing stress 00:07:22.380 --> 00:07:24.354 to redeem myself from, 00:07:24.354 --> 00:07:26.964 so we are going to do one more intervention. 00:07:26.964 --> 00:07:28.946 I want to tell you about one of the most 00:07:28.946 --> 00:07:31.987 under-appreciated aspects of the stress response, 00:07:31.987 --> 00:07:34.001 and the idea is this: 00:07:34.001 --> 00:07:37.266 stress makes you social. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:37.266 --> 00:07:38.855 To understand this side of stress, 00:07:38.855 --> 00:07:41.917 we need to talk about a hormone, oxytocin, 00:07:41.917 --> 00:07:44.918 and I know oxytocin has already gotten 00:07:44.918 --> 00:07:46.865 as much hype as a hormone can get. 00:07:46.865 --> 00:07:50.204 It even has its own cute nickname, the cuddle hormone, 00:07:50.204 --> 00:07:52.890 because it's released when you hug someone. 00:07:52.890 --> 00:07:57.383 But this is a very small part of what oxytocin is involved in. 00:07:57.383 --> 00:07:59.870 Oxytocin is a neuro-hormone. 00:07:59.870 --> 00:08:03.444 It fine-tunes your brain's social instincts. 00:08:03.444 --> 00:08:05.975 It primes you to do things 00:08:05.975 --> 00:08:09.486 that strengthen close relationships. 00:08:09.486 --> 00:08:12.342 Oxytocin makes you crave physical contact 00:08:12.342 --> 00:08:14.334 with your friends and family. 00:08:14.334 --> 00:08:15.920 It enhances your empathy. 00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:18.628 It even makes you more willing to help and support 00:08:18.628 --> 00:08:21.596 the people you care about. 00:08:21.596 --> 00:08:23.291 Some people have even suggested 00:08:23.291 --> 00:08:26.886 we should snort oxytocin 00:08:26.886 --> 00:08:31.340 to become more compassionate and caring. 00:08:31.340 --> 00:08:33.756 But here's what most people don't understand 00:08:33.756 --> 00:08:36.164 about oxytocin. 00:08:36.164 --> 00:08:39.130 It's a stress hormone. 00:08:39.130 --> 00:08:42.248 Your pituitary gland pumps this stuff out 00:08:42.248 --> 00:08:43.796 as part of the stress response. 00:08:43.796 --> 00:08:46.047 It's as much a part of your stress response 00:08:46.047 --> 00:08:50.155 as the adrenaline that makes your heart pound. 00:08:50.155 --> 00:08:52.969 And when oxytocin is released in the stress response, 00:08:52.969 --> 00:08:56.330 it is motivating you to seek support. 00:08:56.330 --> 00:08:58.383 Your biological stress response 00:08:58.383 --> 00:09:01.813 is nudging you to tell someone how you feel 00:09:01.813 --> 00:09:04.306 instead of bottling it up. 00:09:04.306 --> 00:09:07.410 Your stress response wants to make sure you notice 00:09:07.410 --> 00:09:09.729 when someone else in your life is struggling 00:09:09.729 --> 00:09:12.228 so that you can support each other. 00:09:12.228 --> 00:09:16.019 When life is difficult, your stress response wants you 00:09:16.019 --> 00:09:21.158 to be surrounded by people who care about you. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:21.158 --> 00:09:23.687 Okay, so how is knowing this side of stress 00:09:23.687 --> 00:09:25.503 going to make you healthier? 00:09:25.503 --> 00:09:28.271 Well, oxytocin doesn't only act on your brain. 00:09:28.271 --> 00:09:30.772 It also acts on your body, 00:09:30.772 --> 00:09:32.861 and one of its main roles in your body 00:09:32.861 --> 00:09:35.581 is to protect your cardiovascular system 00:09:35.581 --> 00:09:37.956 from the effects of stress. 00:09:37.956 --> 00:09:40.524 It's a natural anti-inflammatory. 00:09:40.524 --> 00:09:43.969 It also helps your blood vessels stay relaxed during stress. 00:09:43.969 --> 00:09:47.366 But my favorite effect on the body is actually on the heart. 00:09:47.366 --> 00:09:51.032 Your heart has receptors for this hormone, 00:09:51.032 --> 00:09:54.806 and oxytocin helps heart cells regenerate 00:09:54.806 --> 00:09:58.579 and heal from any stress-induced damage. 00:09:58.579 --> 00:10:03.160 This stress hormone strengthens your heart, 00:10:03.160 --> 00:10:06.857 and the cool things is that all of these physical benefits 00:10:06.857 --> 00:10:10.374 of oxytocin are enhanced by social contact 00:10:10.374 --> 00:10:11.907 and social support, 00:10:11.907 --> 00:10:14.826 so when you reach out to others under stress, 00:10:14.826 --> 00:10:18.099 either to seek support or to help someone else, 00:10:18.099 --> 00:10:20.107 you release more of this hormone, 00:10:20.107 --> 00:10:22.369 your stress response becomes healthier, 00:10:22.369 --> 00:10:25.467 and you actually recover faster from stress. 00:10:25.467 --> 00:10:27.801 I find this amazing, 00:10:27.801 --> 00:10:31.729 that your stress response has a built-in mechanism 00:10:31.729 --> 00:10:34.446 for stress resilience, 00:10:34.446 --> 00:10:38.808 and that mechanism is human connection. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:38.808 --> 00:10:42.490 I want to finish by telling you about one more study. 00:10:42.490 --> 00:10:46.474 And listen up, because this study could also save a life. 00:10:46.474 --> 00:10:49.930 This study tracked about 1,000 adults in the United States, 00:10:49.930 --> 00:10:54.093 and they ranged in age from 34 to 93, 00:10:54.093 --> 00:10:56.362 and they started the study by asking, 00:10:56.362 --> 00:11:00.586 "How much stress have you experienced in the last year?" 00:11:00.586 --> 00:11:04.162 They also asked, "How much time have you spent 00:11:04.162 --> 00:11:07.379 helping out friends, neighbors, 00:11:07.379 --> 00:11:10.133 people in your community?" 00:11:10.133 --> 00:11:12.908 And then they used public records for the next five years 00:11:12.908 --> 00:11:15.531 to find out who died. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:15.531 --> 00:11:18.212 Okay, so the bad news first: 00:11:18.212 --> 00:11:21.171 For every major stressful life experience, 00:11:21.171 --> 00:11:24.220 like financial difficulties or family crisis, 00:11:24.220 --> 00:11:28.158 that increased the risk of dying by 30 percent. 00:11:28.158 --> 00:11:32.445 But -- and I hope you are expecting a but by now -- 00:11:32.445 --> 00:11:34.876 but that wasn't true for everyone. 00:11:34.876 --> 00:11:38.538 People who spent time caring for others 00:11:38.538 --> 00:11:44.646 showed absolutely no stress-related increase in dying. Zero. 00:11:44.646 --> 00:11:48.190 Caring created resilience. 00:11:48.190 --> 00:11:49.716 And so we see once again 00:11:49.716 --> 00:11:52.354 that the harmful effects of stress on your health 00:11:52.354 --> 00:11:54.316 are not inevitable. 00:11:54.316 --> 00:11:57.038 How you think and how you act 00:11:57.038 --> 00:12:00.835 can transform your experience of stress. 00:12:00.835 --> 00:12:03.359 When you choose to view your stress response 00:12:03.359 --> 00:12:05.656 as helpful, 00:12:05.656 --> 00:12:10.667 you create the biology of courage. 00:12:10.667 --> 00:12:13.988 And when you choose to connect with others under stress, 00:12:13.988 --> 00:12:17.381 you can create resilience. 00:12:17.381 --> 00:12:20.056 Now I wouldn't necessarily ask 00:12:20.056 --> 00:12:23.160 for more stressful experiences in my life, 00:12:23.160 --> 00:12:25.465 but this science has given me 00:12:25.465 --> 00:12:29.237 a whole new appreciation for stress. 00:12:29.237 --> 00:12:33.671 Stress gives us access to our hearts. 00:12:33.671 --> 00:12:37.580 The compassionate heart that finds joy and meaning 00:12:37.580 --> 00:12:39.118 in connecting with others, 00:12:39.118 --> 00:12:42.680 and yes, your pounding physical heart, 00:12:42.680 --> 00:12:47.945 working so hard to give you strength and energy, 00:12:47.945 --> 00:12:51.288 and when you choose to view stress in this way, 00:12:51.288 --> 00:12:53.800 you're not just getting better at stress, 00:12:53.800 --> 00:12:57.627 you're actually making a pretty profound statement. 00:12:57.627 --> 00:13:00.680 You're saying that you can trust yourself 00:13:00.680 --> 00:13:03.715 to handle life's challenges, 00:13:03.715 --> 00:13:06.640 and you're remembering that 00:13:06.640 --> 00:13:09.351 you don't have to face them alone. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:09.351 --> 00:13:10.733 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:10.733 --> 00:13:20.014 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:13:20.014 --> 00:13:22.912 Chris Anderson: This is kind of amazing, what you're telling us. 00:13:22.912 --> 00:13:27.017 It seems amazing me to me that a belief about stress 00:13:27.017 --> 00:13:31.500 can make so much difference to someone's life expectancy. 00:13:31.500 --> 00:13:33.726 How would that extend to advice, 00:13:33.726 --> 00:13:35.811 like, if someone is making a lifestyle choice 00:13:35.811 --> 00:13:39.772 between, say, a stressful job and a non-stressful job, 00:13:39.772 --> 00:13:42.453 does it matter which way they go? 00:13:42.453 --> 00:13:45.526 It's equally wise to go for the stressful job 00:13:45.526 --> 00:13:48.027 so long as you believe that you can handle it, in some sense? NOTE Paragraph 00:13:48.027 --> 00:13:49.881 Kelly McGonigal: Yeah, and one thing we know for certain 00:13:49.881 --> 00:13:52.611 is that chasing meaning is better for your health 00:13:52.611 --> 00:13:54.215 than trying to avoid discomfort. 00:13:54.215 --> 00:13:57.200 And so I would say that's really the best way to make decisions, 00:13:57.200 --> 00:13:59.947 is go after what it is that creates meaning in your life 00:13:59.947 --> 00:14:03.225 and then trust yourself to handle the stress that follows. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:03.225 --> 00:14:05.767 CA: Thank you so much, Kelly. It's pretty cool. KM: Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:05.767 --> 00:14:09.767 (Applause)