I have a confession to make

I have a

confession

to make, but first, I want you to make a little

confession

to

me. In

the

past year, I want

you to

just

raise

your

you've experienced relatively little stress. Anyone?

How about a

moderate

amount of stress?Who has experienced

a

lot

of

stress? Yeah.

Me

that

is

not

my

confession. My

confession is this: I am a health psychologist, and my mission is to

help people be happier and healthier. But I fear that something I've

been

teaching for

the

last

10

years

is

doing

more

harm

than

good, and

it

has

to

do

with

stress. For

years

I've

been

telling

people, stress makes you sick. It increases the risk of everything

from

the

common

cold to

cardiovascular

lly,

I've

turned stress into the enemy. But I

have

changed

my

mind

about

stress, and

today,

I

want

to

change me start with the study that made me rethink my

whole approach to stress. This study tracked 30,000 adults in the

United

States for

eight

years,

and

they

started

by

asking

people,

much

stress

have

you

experienced

in

the

last

year?

your health?

who died.

Some bad news first. People who experienced a lot of stress in the

previous

（以前的）

year had

a

43

percent

increased

risk

of

dying. But that was only true for the people who also believed that

stress is harmful for your health. People who experienced a lot of

stress but

did

not

view

stress

as

harmful were

no

more

likely

to

die. In fact, they had the lowest risk of dying of anyone in the study,

including people who had relatively little stress.

Now

the

researchers

estimated

that

over

the

eight

years they

were

tracking

deaths, 182,000

Americans

died

prematurely, not

from stress, but from the belief that stress is bad for you. That is

over

20,000

deaths

a

year. Now,

if

that

estimate

is

correct, that

would make believing stress is bad for you the 15th largest cause

of

death in

the

United

States

last

year, killing

more

people

than

skin cancer, HIV/AIDS and

homicide

.You can see why this study

freaked me out

. Here I've been spending so much energy telling

people

stress

is

bad

for

your

this

study

got

me

wondering: Can

changing

how

you

think

about

stress make

you

healthier? And here the science says yes. When you change your

mind

about

stress, you

can

change

your

body's

response

to

to explain how this works, I want you all to pretend that

you

are

participants in

a

study

designed

to

stress

you

out. It's

called

the

social

stress

test. You

come

into

the

laboratory

, and

you're

told

you

have

to

give

a

five-minute

impromptu

speech

on

your personal weaknesses to a panel of expert

evaluators

sitting

right in front of you, and to make sure you feel the pressure, there

are bright lights and a camera in your face, kind of like this. And

the

evaluators

have

been

trained to

give

you

discouraging,

non-verbal feedback

like this.

Now that you're

sufficiently demoralized,

time for part two: a math

test. And

unbeknownst

to you, the experimenter has been trained

to harass you during it. Now we're going to all do this together. It's

going to be fun

For me.

okay. I want you all to count backwards from 996 in

increments

（增量）

of seven. You're going to do this out loud as fast as you

can, starting with 996. Go! Audience: (Counting) Go faster. Faster

please. You're

going

too

slow. Stop.

Stop,

stop,

stop. That

guy

made a mistake. We are going to have to start all over again.

You're

not

very

good

at

this,

are

you? Okay,

so

you

get

the

idea. Now, if you were actually in this study, you'd probably be a

little

stressed

out.

Your

heart

might

be

pounding, you

might

be

breathing faster, maybe

breaking out into

a sweat. And normally,

we

interpret

these

physical

changes as

anxiety or

signs

that

we

aren't

coping

very

well

with

the

what

if

you

viewed

them

instead as

signs

that

your

body

was

energized, was

preparing

you

to

meet

this

challenge? Now

that

is

exactly

what

participants

were

told in

a

study

conducted

at

Harvard

University. Before

they

went

through

the

social

stress

test, they

were

taught

to

rethink

their

stress

response

as

helpful. That

pounding

heart

is

preparing

you

for

action. If

you're

breathing

faster, it's no problem. It's getting more oxygen to your brain. And

participants who learned to view the stress response as helpful for

their performance, well, they were less stressed out, less anxious,

more

confident, but

the

most

fascinating

finding

to

me was

how

their

physical

stress

response

,

in

a

typical

stress

response, your

heart

rate

goes

up, and

your

blood

vessels

constrict

like

this

is

one

of

the

reasons

that

chronic

stress is

sometimes

associated

with

cardiovascular

's

not really healthy to be in this state all the time. But in the study,

when

participants

viewed their

stress

response

as

helpful, their

blood

vessels

stayed

relaxed

like

this. Their

heart

was

still

pounding,but

this

is

a

much

healthier

cardiovascular

profile. It

actually

looks

a

lot

like

what

happens in

moments

of

joy

and

courage. Over

a

lifetime

of

stressful

experiences, this

one

biological

change could

be

the

difference between

a

stress-induced

heart

attack

at

age

50 and

living

well

into

your

90s. And this is really what the new science of stress reveals, that

how

you

think

about

stress

my

goal

as

a

health

psychologist

has

changed. I

no

longer

want

to

get

rid

of

your

stress. I want to make you better at stress. And we just did a little

intervention. If

you

raised

your

hand

and

said you'd

had

a

lot

of

stress

in

the

last

year, we

could

have

saved

your

life, because

hopefully the next time your heart is pounding from stress, you're

going

to

remember

this

talk and

you're

going

to

think

to

yourself,this

is

my

body

helping

me

rise

to

this

challenge. And

when

you

view

stress

in

that

way, your

body

believes

you, and

your stress response becomes healthier.

Now I said I have over a decade of

demonizing

stress to

redeem

myself from, so we are going to do one more intervention. I want

to tell you about one of the most under-appreciated aspects of the

stress response, and the idea is this: Stress makes you

understand this side of stress, we need to talk about a hormone,

oxytocin, and I know oxytocin has already gotten as much hype as

a hormone can get. It even has its own cute nickname, the cuddle

hormone, because it's released when you hug someone. But this

is a very small part of what oxytocin is involved in. Oxytocin is a

neuro- hormone. It fine-tunes your brain's social instincts. It primes

you

to

do

things that

strengthen

close

relationships. Oxytocin

makes you crave physical contact with your friends and family. It

enhances

your

empathy. It

even

makes

you

more

willing to

help

and support the people you care about. Some people have even

suggested we

should

snort

oxytocin to

become

more

compassionate and caring.

But

here's

what

most

people

don't

understand about

oxytocin. It's

a

stress

hormone. Your

pituitary

gland

pumps

this

stuff out as part of the stress response. It's as much a part of your

stress

response as

the

adrenaline

that

makes

your

heart

pound. And when oxytocin is released in the stress response, it is

motivating you to seek support. Your biological stress response is

nudging

you

to

tell

someone

how

you

feel instead

of

bottling

it

up. Your

stress

response

wants

to

make

sure

you

notice when

someone

else

in

your

life

is

struggling so

that

you

can

support

each

other. When

life

is

difficult,

your

stress

response

wants

you to be surrounded by people who care about you.

9:32Okay, so how is knowing this side of stress going to make

you healthier? Well, oxytocin doesn't only act on your brain. It also