How do you feel in your body when you hear the word stress? I'll give you a second to tune in.  We spend so much time trying to avoid stress, but what would happen if we leaned into it?  What would happen if we allowed ourselves to feel it? How we relate to stress is important to making it work for us in a positive way.

Oftentimes, we view stress as a constricting, negative input that we associate with feelings of overwhelm and feelings of being unsettled.  Stress can certainly create those feelings in the body, but we usually feel this way when the stressful feelings become unmanageable.  Stress can also become too elevated when it turns into anxiety.  Stress turns into anxiety when we start asking too many questions and trying to predict the future when there is no way to actually do that.  Stress also becomes a challenge when we try to ignore the discomfort it may be causing.  The problem with trying to ignore discomfort is that it will not make it go away. In fact, suppressing the feelings around stress will only make it worse.

Our relationship with stress, especially in the form of mindset and attitude is actually more impactful than the stimulus that is causing the stress itself.  There's a wealth of scientific research on stress and how we can use your mind and self-awareness to optimize stress.

As athletes, we intentionally put our bodies under stress because we need stress to grow and improve. Our workouts create stress and our muscles breakdown, and our recovery days are what enable us to recover from that stress and get stronger.  If you've had a big project at work, the stimulus or pressure of having to get something done can create stress. Sometimes that acute stress can be motivating and have you do focused work. Other times, having a big project can create too much stress and anxiety.  So how do we manage and how should we think about stress?

What is the Stress Response?

Our body needs to react to life-threatening situations- it's the body's response to keeping us safe.  From an evolutionary standpoint, it kept us alive from tigers lurking in the grass. Today's tigers are a little more insidious- start lines, our job, mortgages, potential sickness... and our minds love to take the ball and run with thoughts about future negative outcomes that haven't even happened yet.  If you want to know why we tend to focus on the negative, here's my podcast and article on our negativity bias.

Our body responds accordingly when we encounter a stress response.  Our culture has labeled this response as a negative thing, but really?  The stress response gives us energy, focus, and oxygen.

Here's how it works:

• adrenaline increases heart rate, preparing you for action
• your breathing speeds up when your heart rate increases, giving you extra oxygen
• cortisol increases sugar levels giving you extra energy

Extra energy, focus, and oxygen doesn't sound all that bad, does it?

Mantra: "Stress gives me extra energy, focus, and oxygen so I can perform at my best."

What Can We Learn From Leaning Into Stress?

As I mentioned earlier, avoiding stress and even shrinking away from the discomfort it might initially cause is simply not effective.  Avoiding stress or stuffing it can cause health issues and anxiety.

The first step to making stress work for you is simply to notice and acknowledge it.

The way you think about stress after acknowledging it gives you power.  Treating yourself with self-compassion saying something like, "It's okay" or "This feeling is normal" or even "This is going to help me perform at my best" makes a measurable difference.  The

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.