Self-Improvement
How To Win Any Stressful Opportunity
Stress can be utilized in order to help you achieve success.
Exams, job interviews, and public speaking are undeniably stressful. However, what if I told you that stress can be used as a tool? That’s right — with the correct techniques, stress can be utilized in order to help you achieve success.
It all boils down to one’s understanding of the complicated correlation between memory and stress. In order for memories to be formed, there must be three steps: acquisition, consolidation, and retrieval (Sandi, 2013). When exposed to fresh data, the brain activates different areas involved in processing sensory experience. The hippocampus then proceeds by storing these memories thanks to its interaction with another part called the amygdala, which is responsible for emotions.
This is where anxiety comes into play. Surprisingly enough, moderate levels of it actually aid the first two stages of memory formation. During this period, corticosteroid hormones released by your brain upon experiencing stress act as a catalyst that makes the amygdala and hippocampus consolidate such events into memories (Vogel & Schwabe, 2016). Thus, it becomes easy to recall necessary knowledge like significant dates or facts.
