Stress Happens.

How to turn lemons into lemonade.

Is there a way to use stress to your advantage?

We are constantly told to breathe, take a walk or get more sleep to relieve stress. But do stress and anxiety have beneficial effects?

Research has found that different tasks require different levels of activation for optimal performance. For example, difficult or intellectually demanding tasks may require a lower level of activation (to facilitate concentration), whereas tasks demanding stamina or persistence may be performed better with higher levels of activation (to increase motivation).

But compared with those who attempt to calm down, some studies have shown that people who embrace their anxiety as excitement feel and perform better.

How do you do this?

You say out loud, “I feel excited!”. Verbalizing your excitement helps change the way you perceive your increased anxiety from negative and harmful to positive and exhilarating.

The Journal of Experimental Psychology stated that “Anxiety and excitement have divergent effects on performance, but the experience of these two emotions is quite similar”. Attempting to calm down from anxiety is an entirely different emotion than feeling excited from anxiety.

Next time you are facing a stressful situation, do your best to change the direction of your stress and tell yourself to be positive and excited about what’s to come.

The study, “Get Excited: Reappraising Pre-Performance Anxiety as Excitement” appeared in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Other articles from Pager about stress:
Read more about relieving stress and improving mental health.
Is stress making you sick?