WEBVTT

00:00:00.841 --> 00:00:03.511
I have a confession to make.

00:00:04.968 --> 00:00:10.443
But first, I want you to make
a little confession to me.

00:00:11.779 --> 00:00:14.533
In the past year,
I want you to just raise your hand

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:14.557 --> 00:00:17.947
if you've experienced
relatively little stress.

00:00:17.971 --> 00:00:18.998
Anyone?

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:20.604 --> 00:00:22.879
How about a moderate amount of stress?

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:23.840 --> 00:00:26.417
Who has experienced a lot of stress?

00:00:26.441 --> 00:00:28.825
Yeah. Me too.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:28.849 --> 00:00:30.973
But that is not my confession.

00:00:30.997 --> 00:00:32.758
My confession is this:

00:00:32.782 --> 00:00:34.779
I am a health psychologist,

00:00:34.803 --> 00:00:38.646
and my mission is to help people
be happier and healthier.

00:00:39.699 --> 00:00:42.902
But I fear that something
I've been teaching

00:00:42.926 --> 00:00:47.230
for the last 10 years
is doing more harm than good,

00:00:47.254 --> 00:00:49.084
and it has to do with stress.

00:00:49.826 --> 00:00:52.829
For years I've been telling people,
stress makes you sick.

00:00:52.853 --> 00:00:55.724
It increases the risk of everything
from the common cold

00:00:55.748 --> 00:00:57.520
to cardiovascular disease.

00:00:58.134 --> 00:01:01.666
Basically, I've turned stress
into the enemy.

00:01:02.383 --> 00:01:05.071
But I have changed my mind about stress,

00:01:05.095 --> 00:01:08.264
and today, I want to change yours.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:09.010 --> 00:01:11.366
Let me start with the study
that made me rethink

00:01:11.390 --> 00:01:13.377
my whole approach to stress.

00:01:14.004 --> 00:01:18.639
This study tracked 30,000 adults
in the United States for eight years,

00:01:18.663 --> 00:01:21.166
and they started by asking people,

00:01:21.190 --> 00:01:24.382
"How much stress have you
experienced in the last year?"

00:01:25.088 --> 00:01:26.628
They also asked,

00:01:26.652 --> 00:01:30.984
"Do you believe that stress
is harmful for your health?"

00:01:32.430 --> 00:01:35.986
And then they used public death records
to find out who died.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:36.010 --> 00:01:37.191
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:37.215 --> 00:01:39.013
Okay.

00:01:39.037 --> 00:01:41.187
Some bad news first.

00:01:41.211 --> 00:01:44.612
People who experienced a lot of stress
in the previous year

00:01:44.636 --> 00:01:47.389
had a 43 percent increased risk of dying.

00:01:48.612 --> 00:01:52.371
But that was only true for the people

00:01:52.395 --> 00:01:56.032
who also believed that stress
is harmful for your health.

00:01:56.056 --> 00:01:58.816
(Laughter)

00:01:58.840 --> 00:02:01.116
People who experienced a lot of stress

00:02:01.140 --> 00:02:03.080
but did not view stress as harmful

00:02:03.104 --> 00:02:04.781
were no more likely to die.

00:02:04.805 --> 00:02:08.348
In fact, they had the lowest risk of dying

00:02:08.372 --> 00:02:09.672
of anyone in the study,

00:02:09.696 --> 00:02:12.153
including people
who had relatively little stress.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:12.896 --> 00:02:15.516
Now the researchers estimated
that over the eight years

00:02:15.540 --> 00:02:17.110
they were tracking deaths,

00:02:17.134 --> 00:02:20.310
182,000 Americans died prematurely,

00:02:20.334 --> 00:02:21.772
not from stress,

00:02:21.796 --> 00:02:24.977
but from the belief
that stress is bad for you.

00:02:25.001 --> 00:02:26.233
(Laughter)

00:02:26.257 --> 00:02:29.299
That is over 20,000 deaths a year.

00:02:29.931 --> 00:02:32.735
Now, if that estimate is correct,

00:02:32.759 --> 00:02:34.998
that would make
believing stress is bad for you

00:02:35.022 --> 00:02:39.093
the 15th largest cause of death
in the United States last year,

00:02:39.117 --> 00:02:43.100
killing more people than skin cancer,
HIV/AIDS and homicide.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:45.172 --> 00:02:47.287
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:47.311 --> 00:02:50.112
You can see why this study freaked me out.

00:02:50.136 --> 00:02:54.185
Here I've been spending
so much energy telling people

00:02:54.209 --> 00:02:56.050
stress is bad for your health.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:57.090 --> 00:02:58.762
So this study got me wondering:

00:02:58.786 --> 00:03:02.858
Can changing how you think
about stress make you healthier?

00:03:02.882 --> 00:03:04.702
And here the science says yes.

00:03:04.726 --> 00:03:06.784
When you change your mind about stress,

00:03:06.808 --> 00:03:10.060
you can change
your body's response to stress.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:10.084 --> 00:03:12.417
Now to explain how this works,

00:03:12.441 --> 00:03:15.298
I want you all to pretend
that you are participants

00:03:15.322 --> 00:03:17.905
in a study designed to stress you out.

00:03:17.929 --> 00:03:20.589
It's called the social stress test.

00:03:20.613 --> 00:03:22.643
You come into the laboratory,

00:03:22.667 --> 00:03:24.638
and you're told you have to give

00:03:24.662 --> 00:03:29.277
a five-minute impromptu speech
on your personal weaknesses

00:03:29.301 --> 00:03:32.934
to a panel of expert evaluators
sitting right in front of you,

00:03:32.958 --> 00:03:34.816
and to make sure you feel the pressure,

00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:37.787
there are bright lights
and a camera in your face,

00:03:37.811 --> 00:03:39.270
kind of like this.

00:03:39.294 --> 00:03:40.452
(Laughter)

00:03:40.476 --> 00:03:43.356
And the evaluators have been trained

00:03:43.380 --> 00:03:47.072
to give you discouraging,
non-verbal feedback,

00:03:47.096 --> 00:03:48.270
like this.

00:03:53.334 --> 00:03:54.335
(Exhales)

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:54.359 --> 00:03:56.756
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:57.264 --> 00:03:59.332
Now that you're sufficiently demoralized,

00:03:59.356 --> 00:04:02.132
time for part two: a math test.

00:04:02.156 --> 00:04:04.233
And unbeknownst to you,

00:04:04.257 --> 00:04:07.816
the experimenter has been trained
to harass you during it.

00:04:08.285 --> 00:04:10.635
Now we're going to all do this together.

00:04:10.659 --> 00:04:12.029
It's going to be fun.

00:04:12.404 --> 00:04:13.427
For me.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:13.451 --> 00:04:14.468
Okay.

00:04:14.492 --> 00:04:15.699
(Laughter)

00:04:15.723 --> 00:04:19.722
I want you all to count backwards from 996

00:04:19.746 --> 00:04:21.114
in increments of seven.

00:04:21.138 --> 00:04:22.742
You're going to do this out loud,

00:04:22.766 --> 00:04:24.750
as fast as you can,

00:04:24.774 --> 00:04:26.866
starting with 996.

00:04:26.890 --> 00:04:27.928
Go!

00:04:27.952 --> 00:04:29.309
(Audience counting)

00:04:29.333 --> 00:04:32.122
Go faster. Faster please.

00:04:32.146 --> 00:04:33.512
You're going too slow.

00:04:33.536 --> 00:04:34.574
(Audience counting)

00:04:34.598 --> 00:04:36.090
Stop. Stop, stop, stop.

00:04:36.114 --> 00:04:37.520
That guy made a mistake.

00:04:37.544 --> 00:04:39.742
We are going to have to start
all over again.

00:04:39.766 --> 00:04:40.767
(Laughter)

00:04:40.791 --> 00:04:43.003
You're not very good at this, are you?

00:04:43.027 --> 00:04:44.477
Okay, so you get the idea.

00:04:44.501 --> 00:04:46.316
If you were actually in this study,

00:04:46.340 --> 00:04:48.262
you'd probably be a little stressed out.

00:04:48.286 --> 00:04:49.801
Your heart might be pounding,

00:04:49.825 --> 00:04:53.205
you might be breathing faster,
maybe breaking out into a sweat.

00:04:53.229 --> 00:04:57.801
And normally, we interpret
these physical changes as anxiety

00:04:57.825 --> 00:05:00.690
or signs that we aren't coping
very well with the pressure.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:01.142 --> 00:05:02.991
But what if you viewed them instead

00:05:03.015 --> 00:05:05.338
as signs that your body was energized,

00:05:05.362 --> 00:05:08.342
was preparing you to meet this challenge?

00:05:09.064 --> 00:05:11.626
Now that is exactly
what participants were told

00:05:11.650 --> 00:05:14.104
in a study conducted
at Harvard University.

00:05:14.596 --> 00:05:17.393
Before they went
through the social stress test,

00:05:17.417 --> 00:05:20.599
they were taught to rethink
their stress response as helpful.

00:05:20.623 --> 00:05:23.868
That pounding heart
is preparing you for action.

00:05:24.408 --> 00:05:26.737
If you're breathing faster,
it's no problem.

00:05:26.761 --> 00:05:28.972
It's getting more oxygen to your brain.

00:05:29.846 --> 00:05:32.519
And participants who learned to view
the stress response

00:05:32.543 --> 00:05:34.756
as helpful for their performance,

00:05:34.780 --> 00:05:38.263
well, they were less stressed out,
less anxious, more confident,

00:05:38.287 --> 00:05:40.356
but the most fascinating finding to me

00:05:40.380 --> 00:05:43.319
was how their physical
stress response changed.

00:05:43.906 --> 00:05:45.631
Now, in a typical stress response,

00:05:45.655 --> 00:05:47.447
your heart rate goes up,

00:05:47.471 --> 00:05:50.851
and your blood vessels
constrict like this.

00:05:52.343 --> 00:05:54.926
And this is one of the reasons
that chronic stress

00:05:54.950 --> 00:05:57.785
is sometimes associated
with cardiovascular disease.

00:05:57.809 --> 00:06:00.542
It's not really healthy to be
in this state all the time.

00:06:01.518 --> 00:06:02.606
But in the study,

00:06:02.630 --> 00:06:05.637
when participants viewed
their stress response as helpful,

00:06:05.661 --> 00:06:08.629
their blood vessels
stayed relaxed like this.

00:06:09.176 --> 00:06:10.953
Their heart was still pounding,

00:06:10.977 --> 00:06:13.704
but this is a much healthier
cardiovascular profile.

00:06:13.728 --> 00:06:16.359
It actually looks a lot like what happens

00:06:16.383 --> 00:06:20.351
in moments of joy and courage.

00:06:21.391 --> 00:06:23.911
Over a lifetime of stressful experiences,

00:06:23.935 --> 00:06:27.101
this one biological change

00:06:27.125 --> 00:06:28.405
could be the difference

00:06:28.429 --> 00:06:31.409
between a stress-induced
heart attack at age 50

00:06:31.433 --> 00:06:33.657
and living well into your 90s.

00:06:34.356 --> 00:06:37.417
And this is really what the new
science of stress reveals,

00:06:37.441 --> 00:06:40.443
that how you think about stress matters.

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:41.197 --> 00:06:44.086
So my goal as a health
psychologist has changed.

00:06:44.110 --> 00:06:46.248
I no longer want
to get rid of your stress.

00:06:46.272 --> 00:06:49.206
I want to make you better at stress.

00:06:49.230 --> 00:06:51.403
And we just did a little intervention.

00:06:51.935 --> 00:06:53.459
If you raised your hand and said

00:06:53.483 --> 00:06:55.528
you'd had a lot of stress
in the last year,

00:06:55.552 --> 00:06:57.371
we could have saved your life,

00:06:57.395 --> 00:07:00.922
because hopefully the next time
your heart is pounding from stress,

00:07:00.946 --> 00:07:02.769
you're going to remember this talk

00:07:02.793 --> 00:07:04.931
and you're going to think to yourself,

00:07:04.955 --> 00:07:09.520
this is my body helping me
rise to this challenge.

00:07:10.129 --> 00:07:12.444
And when you view stress in that way,

00:07:12.468 --> 00:07:14.501
your body believes you,

00:07:14.525 --> 00:07:17.008
and your stress response
becomes healthier.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:18.204 --> 00:07:22.356
Now I said I have over a decade
of demonizing stress

00:07:22.380 --> 00:07:24.330
to redeem myself from,

00:07:24.354 --> 00:07:26.940
so we are going to do
one more intervention.

00:07:26.964 --> 00:07:28.068
I want to tell you

00:07:28.092 --> 00:07:31.963
about one of the most under-appreciated
aspects of the stress response,

00:07:31.987 --> 00:07:33.822
and the idea is this:

00:07:33.846 --> 00:07:36.241
Stress makes you social.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:37.266 --> 00:07:39.026
To understand this side of stress,

00:07:39.050 --> 00:07:41.893
we need to talk about a hormone, oxytocin,

00:07:41.917 --> 00:07:46.841
and I know oxytocin has already gotten
as much hype as a hormone can get.

00:07:46.865 --> 00:07:50.180
It even has its own cute nickname,
the cuddle hormone,

00:07:50.204 --> 00:07:52.866
because it's released
when you hug someone.

00:07:52.890 --> 00:07:56.815
But this is a very small part
of what oxytocin is involved in.

00:07:57.572 --> 00:07:59.846
Oxytocin is a neuro-hormone.

00:07:59.870 --> 00:08:03.420
It fine-tunes
your brain's social instincts.

00:08:03.978 --> 00:08:05.951
It primes you to do things

00:08:05.975 --> 00:08:08.891
that strengthen close relationships.

00:08:09.486 --> 00:08:14.310
Oxytocin makes you crave physical contact
with your friends and family.

00:08:14.334 --> 00:08:15.896
It enhances your empathy.

00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:18.604
It even makes you more willing
to help and support

00:08:18.628 --> 00:08:20.312
the people you care about.

00:08:21.672 --> 00:08:25.626
Some people have even suggested
we should snort oxytocin...

00:08:27.179 --> 00:08:29.867
to become more compassionate and caring.

00:08:31.340 --> 00:08:35.116
But here's what most people
don't understand about oxytocin.

00:08:36.164 --> 00:08:38.230
It's a stress hormone.

00:08:39.130 --> 00:08:42.224
Your pituitary gland pumps this stuff out

00:08:42.248 --> 00:08:43.772
as part of the stress response.

00:08:43.796 --> 00:08:46.023
It's as much a part
of your stress response

00:08:46.047 --> 00:08:49.374
as the adrenaline that makes
your heart pound.

00:08:50.271 --> 00:08:52.945
And when oxytocin is released
in the stress response,

00:08:52.969 --> 00:08:55.575
it is motivating you to seek support.

00:08:56.330 --> 00:08:58.359
Your biological stress response

00:08:58.383 --> 00:09:01.902
is nudging you to tell
someone how you feel,

00:09:01.926 --> 00:09:03.614
instead of bottling it up.

00:09:04.306 --> 00:09:07.386
Your stress response wants
to make sure you notice

00:09:07.410 --> 00:09:09.705
when someone else
in your life is struggling

00:09:09.729 --> 00:09:11.688
so that you can support each other.

00:09:12.299 --> 00:09:13.959
When life is difficult,

00:09:13.983 --> 00:09:18.570
your stress response wants you
to be surrounded

00:09:18.594 --> 00:09:20.113
by people who care about you.

NOTE Paragraph

00:09:21.158 --> 00:09:25.313
Okay, so how is knowing this side
of stress going to make you healthier?

00:09:25.686 --> 00:09:28.247
Well, oxytocin doesn't only act
on your brain.

00:09:28.271 --> 00:09:30.638
It also acts on your body,

00:09:30.662 --> 00:09:32.837
and one of its main roles in your body

00:09:32.861 --> 00:09:37.522
is to protect your cardiovascular system
from the effects of stress.

00:09:37.956 --> 00:09:40.500
It's a natural anti-inflammatory.

00:09:40.524 --> 00:09:43.945
It also helps your blood vessels
stay relaxed during stress.

00:09:43.969 --> 00:09:47.342
But my favorite effect on the body
is actually on the heart.

00:09:47.366 --> 00:09:51.304
Your heart has receptors for this hormone,

00:09:51.328 --> 00:09:54.782
and oxytocin helps heart cells regenerate

00:09:54.806 --> 00:09:57.940
and heal from any stress-induced damage.

00:09:58.774 --> 00:10:02.473
This stress hormone
strengthens your heart.

00:10:03.591 --> 00:10:06.833
And the cool thing
is that all of these physical benefits

00:10:06.857 --> 00:10:11.883
of oxytocin are enhanced
by social contact and social support.

00:10:11.907 --> 00:10:14.802
So when you reach out
to others under stress,

00:10:14.826 --> 00:10:18.075
either to seek support
or to help someone else,

00:10:18.099 --> 00:10:20.083
you release more of this hormone,

00:10:20.107 --> 00:10:22.345
your stress response becomes healthier,

00:10:22.369 --> 00:10:25.020
and you actually recover
faster from stress.

00:10:25.658 --> 00:10:27.777
I find this amazing,

00:10:27.801 --> 00:10:31.705
that your stress response
has a built-in mechanism

00:10:31.729 --> 00:10:34.610
for stress resilience,

00:10:34.634 --> 00:10:37.015
and that mechanism is human connection.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:39.174 --> 00:10:42.374
I want to finish by telling you
about one more study.

00:10:42.398 --> 00:10:45.516
And listen up, because this study
could also save a life.

00:10:46.651 --> 00:10:49.906
This study tracked about 1,000 adults
in the United States,

00:10:49.930 --> 00:10:54.069
and they ranged in age from 34 to 93,

00:10:54.093 --> 00:10:56.338
and they started the study by asking,

00:10:56.362 --> 00:10:59.565
"How much stress have you
experienced in the last year?"

00:11:00.779 --> 00:11:02.280
They also asked,

00:11:02.304 --> 00:11:06.939
"How much time have you spent
helping out friends, neighbors,

00:11:06.963 --> 00:11:08.801
people in your community?"

00:11:10.133 --> 00:11:12.884
And then they used public records
for the next five years

00:11:12.908 --> 00:11:14.287
to find out who died.

NOTE Paragraph

00:11:15.531 --> 00:11:18.188
Okay, so the bad news first:

00:11:18.212 --> 00:11:21.147
For every major stressful life experience,

00:11:21.171 --> 00:11:24.196
like financial difficulties
or family crisis,

00:11:24.220 --> 00:11:27.390
that increased the risk
of dying by 30 percent.

00:11:28.451 --> 00:11:32.421
But -- and I hope you
are expecting a "but" by now --

00:11:32.445 --> 00:11:34.852
but that wasn't true for everyone.

00:11:34.876 --> 00:11:38.514
People who spent time caring for others

00:11:38.538 --> 00:11:43.041
showed absolutely no stress-related
increase in dying.

00:11:43.065 --> 00:11:44.065
Zero.

00:11:44.738 --> 00:11:46.813
Caring created resilience.

00:11:48.233 --> 00:11:49.692
And so we see once again

00:11:49.716 --> 00:11:52.330
that the harmful effects
of stress on your health

00:11:52.354 --> 00:11:53.994
are not inevitable.

00:11:54.578 --> 00:11:57.014
How you think and how you act

00:11:57.038 --> 00:12:00.078
can transform your experience of stress.

00:12:00.998 --> 00:12:05.912
When you choose to view
your stress response as helpful,

00:12:05.936 --> 00:12:09.069
you create the biology of courage.

00:12:10.547 --> 00:12:13.964
And when you choose to connect
with others under stress,

00:12:13.988 --> 00:12:16.106
you can create resilience.

00:12:17.606 --> 00:12:23.136
Now I wouldn't necessarily ask
for more stressful experiences in my life,

00:12:23.160 --> 00:12:28.168
but this science has given me
a whole new appreciation for stress.

00:12:29.237 --> 00:12:32.349
Stress gives us access to our hearts.

00:12:33.897 --> 00:12:37.556
The compassionate heart
that finds joy and meaning

00:12:37.580 --> 00:12:39.094
in connecting with others,

00:12:39.118 --> 00:12:42.656
and yes, your pounding physical heart,

00:12:42.680 --> 00:12:46.541
working so hard to give you
strength and energy.

00:12:47.945 --> 00:12:51.264
And when you choose to view
stress in this way,

00:12:51.288 --> 00:12:53.776
you're not just getting better at stress,

00:12:53.800 --> 00:12:56.543
you're actually making
a pretty profound statement.

00:12:57.627 --> 00:13:02.636
You're saying that you can trust yourself
to handle life's challenges.

00:13:03.928 --> 00:13:08.691
And you're remembering
that you don't have to face them alone.

NOTE Paragraph

00:13:09.659 --> 00:13:10.709
Thank you.

NOTE Paragraph

00:13:10.733 --> 00:13:12.930
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:13:20.014 --> 00:13:23.062
Chris Anderson: This is kind
of amazing, what you're telling us.

00:13:23.086 --> 00:13:26.993
It seems amazing to me
that a belief about stress

00:13:27.017 --> 00:13:30.958
can make so much difference
to someone's life expectancy.

00:13:31.500 --> 00:13:33.702
How would that extend to advice,

00:13:33.726 --> 00:13:35.869
like, if someone is making
a lifestyle choice

00:13:35.893 --> 00:13:39.748
between, say, a stressful job
and a non-stressful job,

00:13:39.772 --> 00:13:42.429
does it matter which way they go?

00:13:42.453 --> 00:13:44.958
It's equally wise to go
for the stressful job

00:13:44.982 --> 00:13:47.895
so long as you believe
that you can handle it, in some sense?

NOTE Paragraph

00:13:47.919 --> 00:13:50.179
KM: Yeah, and one thing
we know for certain

00:13:50.203 --> 00:13:52.587
is that chasing meaning
is better for your health

00:13:52.611 --> 00:13:54.191
than trying to avoid discomfort.

00:13:54.215 --> 00:13:57.263
And so I would say that's really
the best way to make decisions,

00:13:57.287 --> 00:14:00.010
is go after what it is
that creates meaning in your life

00:14:00.034 --> 00:14:03.091
and then trust yourself to handle
the stress that follows.

NOTE Paragraph

00:14:03.758 --> 00:14:06.130
CA: Thank you so much, Kelly.
It's pretty cool.

NOTE Paragraph

00:14:06.154 --> 00:14:08.952
(Applause)