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How You Think About Stress Actually Matters
Health psychologist Kelly McGonigal speaks to the truth about stress
Last week was stressful, to say the least. I had a job interview that went south due to my kids banging on my door (I’d told them prior to the interview, “Mommy has a meeting so she needs to be by herself for at least an hour”) and screaming as if they were stuck in a burning building, which caused the dog to become agitated and she began yelping as well. It happened not once but twice. Not only that, my husband worked overtime and was gone all day for six out of the seven days. On Friday morning, my toilet overflowed, causing a major flood in the bathroom, to which I spent the next hour cleaning up the mess. By 1 p.m. that day, I was exhausted.
BIG SIGH.
Perhaps serendipitously or not, my saving grace came in the form of an email from TED. In it was a smiling photo of Kelly McGonigal in her Ted Talk “How to make stress your friend”. Watching her TED talk reminded me of an episode of The Jordan Harbinger Show podcast that I listened to awhile back, and how much I enjoyed it. I was reminded (again) that stress inevitably a part of life, and how you think about it matters. I realized that what happened was due in part to my disorganization — I had no solid plans for the week when I normally had to-do lists…
