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Speaker 1: Pushkin. I was having my annual medical checkup. The nurse

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Speaker 1: measured my weight in blood pressure, She listened to my heart,

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Speaker 1: and then did some blood work. Most of my test

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Speaker 1: results came back fine except one. My CRP levels were

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Speaker 1: kind of high. But I didn't actually know what CRP

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Speaker 1: levels were, so I turned to Google. Turns out, high

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Speaker 1: CRP levels are a sign of bodily inflammation, which can

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Speaker 1: increase the risk of chronic health conditions like kidney disease, cancer, dementia,

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Speaker 1: and premature death. I'm no medical doctor, but that did

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Speaker 1: not sound good. I returned to the clinic to go

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Speaker 1: over the results. So this inflammation thing, I asked, what's

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Speaker 1: causing it? Inflammation? My doctor replied, can be lots of things,

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Speaker 1: but it's usually a sign that your immune system is

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Speaker 1: on the defense. But we often see levels like that

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Speaker 1: when patients are experiencing a period of intense stress. Have

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Speaker 1: you been going through any stress lately? I fidgeted, well,

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Speaker 1: I said, then launched into all the stuff on my plate.

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Speaker 1: I talked about how I'd cared for over five hundred

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Speaker 1: students during a pandemic while also running a lab while

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Speaker 1: also making a podcast. I admitted I hadn't been exercising

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Speaker 1: or eating well, and that I was feeling totally overwhelmed.

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Speaker 1: My doctor, a fan of the show, gave a smirk.

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Speaker 1: So the famous happiness expert has been all stressed out?

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Speaker 1: Huh yeah, yeah, I guess she has been, and apparently

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Speaker 1: it's making her ill. Stress is a normal bodily response.

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Speaker 1: It can be triggered by external factors like major life changes,

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Speaker 1: relationship troubles, financial worries, and troubles at work, but also

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Speaker 1: by internal things like self criticism, unrealistic expectations, and being

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Speaker 1: too busy all the time. Stress is just the body's

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Speaker 1: natural response to a perceived threat. But as I know well,

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Speaker 1: that response doesn't feel good. It can make us anxious, sad,

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Speaker 1: and irritable. But it also hurts us physically, causing headaches

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Speaker 1: and insomnia and digestive problems. And if we leave stress unchecked,

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Speaker 1: it can badly damage our bodies and our immune systems.

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Speaker 1: Stress is a happiness challenge that I and so many

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Speaker 1: others face on a daily basis. But is there anything

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Speaker 1: we can do about it for my own sake? I

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Speaker 1: really hope so. Our minds are constantly telling us what

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Speaker 1: to do to be happy. But what if our minds

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Speaker 1: are wrong? What if our minds are lying to us,

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Speaker 1: leading us away from what will really make us happy.

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Speaker 1: The good news is that understanding the science of the

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Speaker 1: mind can point us all back in the right direction.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Happiness Lab with doctor Laurie Santos.

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Speaker 1: At around the time I was thinking about my own

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Speaker 1: struggle with stress, a new book landed on my desk.

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Speaker 1: There seemed to be an odd mismatch between the author

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Speaker 1: and the subject matter, but after reading it, I realized

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Speaker 1: there was a lot I could learn from his experience.

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Speaker 2: Hey, Steve, I'm in the car because for some reason,

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Speaker 2: all the traffic lights on since sent Boulevard are out.

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Speaker 1: When scientists studies stress, they often turn to one particular

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Speaker 1: group of very stressed out people, caregivers, and there's no

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Speaker 1: shortage of such research subjects. Around thirty percent of US

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Speaker 1: adults provide some form of care to say a child

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Speaker 1: with special needs, a sick partner, or even an aging parent.

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Speaker 1: It's around the clock job that's often really brutal. Thanks

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Speaker 1: so much for taking the time. Of course, the person

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Speaker 1: I wanted to talk to had a hectic life before

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Speaker 1: he took on the tough role of a caretaker, and

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Speaker 1: he's still rushing around La from meeting to meeting today

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Speaker 1: traffic allowing, of course, do you want to talk now?

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Speaker 1: Do you want to wait till you get back to

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Speaker 1: your place? What's better?

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Speaker 2: Let's start right now because I have another appointment.

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Speaker 1: But I'm thrilled to talk to you, but not as

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Speaker 1: thrilled as I was. You see, I'm not just a

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Speaker 1: fan of Steve's book, Time to Think Caregiving for my Hero.

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Speaker 1: I'm also a fan of Steve's acting. Steve Gutenberg is

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Speaker 1: the star of some of my favorite eighties movies, Three

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Speaker 1: Men in a Baby Cocoon and Short Circuit Number Five

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Speaker 1: is a Lie, and Steve attributes much of his amazing

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Speaker 1: career success to his father.

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Speaker 2: He was my hero, and my dad was really a

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Speaker 2: very tough guy who was a US Army Airborne ranger,

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Speaker 2: one of the first Jewish ones. And then my dad

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Speaker 2: became a New York City policeman and he actually went

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Speaker 2: to the New York City Police Academy. So when I

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Speaker 2: auditioned for Police Academy the movie, he said, why don't

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Speaker 2: you wear my police Academy shirt? And I said, yeah,

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Speaker 2: that would be great.

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Speaker 1: The director asked about Steve's shirt and seemed impressed by

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Speaker 1: the actor's attention to detail. After all, Steve was reading

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Speaker 1: for character Kerrie Mahoney, who was also the son of

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Speaker 1: a police officer. It was a great start, but the

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Speaker 1: audition went terribly.

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Speaker 2: I called my dad and I said, Dad, you know,

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Speaker 2: I wore your shirt, but I don't think I got

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Speaker 2: this thing. You know, nobody laughed, nobody clapped, nothing. He said, well,

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Speaker 2: you never go just give it a little time. My

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Speaker 2: dad was really positive thinker. He just said it'll all

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Speaker 2: work out. Take your time with it. About ten minutes later,

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Speaker 2: my agent called and I said, oh, I feel lousy.

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Speaker 2: I did terrible. He goes, no, you got it. He

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Speaker 2: said what? And that was the phone call that changed

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Speaker 2: my life. And I think that my dad's lucky shir

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Speaker 2: It really helped me.

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Speaker 1: So Steve was going to star in Police Academy. What

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Speaker 1: could possibly go wrong?

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Speaker 2: Actually, my manager saw Police Academy. He said, this is

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Speaker 2: going to be the worst movie ever. I'm going to

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Speaker 2: put you in a TV series Tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: Steve landed a role in a spy series made by

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Speaker 1: Blake Edwards.

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Speaker 2: He was a great director, directed Breakfast and Tiffany's and

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Speaker 2: all the Pink Panthers.

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Speaker 1: Steve's dad was incredibly supportive of his new role and

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Speaker 1: wanted to join his son on set, but that might

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Speaker 1: have also had something to do with Blake Edward's famous wife.

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Speaker 2: My dad wanted to come out because he thought maybe

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Speaker 2: you'd get to meet Julie.

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Speaker 1: Andrews Stanley Gutenberg. Set visit coincided with a short delay

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Speaker 1: in shooting. Steve's character was supposed to jump off a

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Speaker 1: thirty foot roof and Steve didn't want to do the

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Speaker 1: stunt himself.

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Speaker 2: And my dad was looking up there and said to

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Speaker 2: Blake Edwards, you know I could do that, and the

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Speaker 2: director Blake Edwards said yeah, but you don't want to

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Speaker 2: do it, do you? And he said, yeah, I'll do it.

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Speaker 2: I'm airborn rajor. I jumped from airplane some thousands of feet.

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Speaker 1: Stanley made the jump, and as he was finishing up

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Speaker 1: the stunt, it became clear that he wasn't the only

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Speaker 1: visitor on the lot.

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Speaker 2: All of a sudden, this Rose Royce pulls up and

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Speaker 2: out of it comes Julie Andrews, and my dad looks

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Speaker 2: down there and says, Julie Andrews Julia Hedgers and Julie

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Speaker 2: Andrews looked up and I guess asked who that was.

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Speaker 2: He said, oh, was a good bug. And he said,

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Speaker 2: oh my god, I wanted to meet you. He says, well,

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Speaker 2: here I am.

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Speaker 1: So Steve's dad got to play the hero and meet

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Speaker 1: his movie.

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Speaker 2: Idol, and that was a big kick for me.

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Speaker 1: Steve's dad was a caring, positive guy who also took

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Speaker 1: great joy at his powerful physique. But age and infirmity

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Speaker 1: pay little respect to such things.

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Speaker 2: He said, look at my thigh, Yes, look how big

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Speaker 2: my thighs are. And I would say, dad, but you're

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Speaker 2: still tough, Dad, You're still tough.

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Speaker 1: Stanley was diagnosed with kidney failure, a disease that immediately

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Speaker 1: reversed the Gutenberg family roles. Steve, along with his sister

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Speaker 1: were now cast as caregivers with all the stress that entails.

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Speaker 2: And I was a reluctant caregiver because I didn't want

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Speaker 2: to see my dad like that.

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Speaker 3: As many of us know, being a caregiver is very challenging.

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Speaker 1: Doctor Alissa Epple is one of many scientists studying stress

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Speaker 1: and caregivers.

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Speaker 3: It's a job that doesn't end twenty four to seven,

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Speaker 3: and that's because we care so much, We're so connected

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Speaker 3: to another's well being, we feel responsible for it, and

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Speaker 3: that doesn't end.

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Speaker 1: Alyssa is a professor a UCSF and the author of

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Speaker 1: the Stress prescription seven Days to More Joy and Ease.

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Speaker 1: She explained that caregivers, like so many of us, are

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Speaker 1: often harmed by the very biological reaction that's supposed to

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Speaker 1: help us.

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Speaker 3: Our stress response is the only reason we're all here,

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Speaker 3: the only reason our ancestors have survived.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to those ancestors, we've inherited a unique biological control center,

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Speaker 1: the autonomic nervous system, which allows our brains to switch

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Speaker 1: instantly from normal processes like breathing or digesting food, to

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Speaker 1: the high energy fighter flight activities we need for emergencies

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Speaker 1: like sprinting away from a tiger or punching an attacker.

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Speaker 1: Whenever our brains perceive a threat, this fighter flight system

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Speaker 1: kicks into high gear. We breathe quicker, our hearts pump faster,

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Speaker 1: our pupils dilate, and our brains release energy rich glucose

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Speaker 1: into the blood. This response allows us to react faster,

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Speaker 1: see better, and summon the muscle power required to flee

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Speaker 1: or tackle an oncoming threat. Neuro Scientists like to think

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Speaker 1: of this fight or flight response kind of like jamming

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Speaker 1: your foot on a gas pedal, and if the brain

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Speaker 1: decides a particular threat isn't going away, it will keep

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Speaker 1: that response pressed to the metal. That's when we launch

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Speaker 1: a hormone cyclone orem glands release substances like cortisol, which

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Speaker 1: keep our energy up and our muscles at the ready

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Speaker 1: at least until the threat passes. And that's when our

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Speaker 1: brains finally hit the brakes. We relax, our muscles and

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Speaker 1: our bodies switch back to running the normal rest and

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Speaker 1: digest processes we need for everyday life. The problem is

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Speaker 1: the modern world leaves our fight or flight mode switched

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Speaker 1: on way longer than it should, which means our digestive, sexual,

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Speaker 1: and sleep functioning gets all screwed up. We up our

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Speaker 1: risk for high blood pressure and headaches. We spend our

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Speaker 1: days feeling irritable and.

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Speaker 3: Anxious, our bodies really living in a chronically aroused state

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Speaker 3: that we don't even notice anymore.

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Speaker 1: All this would be bad enough if we only freaked

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Speaker 1: out about our actual daily stressors, but part of.

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Speaker 3: The problem with our stress today is that we keep

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Speaker 3: it alive with our thoughts, because things aren't always happening,

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Speaker 3: but they can be in our mind if we take

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Speaker 3: them with us and we ruminate about what's happened, or

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Speaker 3: we are worrying about what might happen next, and we're

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Speaker 3: all challenged by that to some extent, and especially right now,

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Speaker 3: because things are more unstable than they used to be.

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Speaker 3: We live in an unstable climate, in an unstable political world,

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Speaker 3: and then we still have our daily drama that we

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Speaker 3: need to cope with as well.

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Speaker 1: It's a lot, and as I have definitely experienced in

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Speaker 1: my own life, we usually react to these daily mental

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Speaker 1: dramas in ways that make things even worse.

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Speaker 3: For so many of us, it really is about rushing,

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Speaker 3: about creating a schedule that has no spaciousness in it,

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Speaker 3: that has no time for breaks, and it doesn't match

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Speaker 3: our value as usually we don't have time for people,

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Speaker 3: we don't have time for health or eating healthy meals.

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Speaker 3: We no longer want to eat normal food. We want

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Speaker 3: to eat highly palatable food, high sugar food, high fat food,

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Speaker 3: and for some of us, high salt food. And we

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Speaker 3: call this comfort food because it is biologically comforting to

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Speaker 3: the body and brain.

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Speaker 1: Ah comfort food, I could honestly spend a whole episode

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Speaker 1: in this series talking about this happiness challenge. When my

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Speaker 1: Yale students disappeared during lockdown, I comforted myself with whatever

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Speaker 1: sugary food looked good. I wound up putting on the

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Speaker 1: so called COVID nineteen pounds and then some But Alyssa says,

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Speaker 1: this wasn't a willpower failure. It was just my basic

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Speaker 1: biology at work. Take one experiment in which researchers stressed

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Speaker 1: out a bunch of rats and then gave them access

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Speaker 1: not just to their usual meals but also to human

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Speaker 1: junk food like cookies and candy. The rats switched over

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Speaker 1: to the fatty stuff, but they also changed their approach

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Speaker 1: to feeding time.

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Speaker 3: The addition of stress on top of giving rats access

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Speaker 3: to oreos creates this craving an addiction in these rats.

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Speaker 3: So each time they get access to the oreos, they're

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Speaker 3: not just eating leisurely and saying, what a fine meal,

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Speaker 3: this feels great. They're binge eating. They will eat more,

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Speaker 3: and they'll develop greater or intro abdominal fat, and that

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Speaker 3: is just a little disease making machine. To have a

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Speaker 3: lot of introbdominal fat means that We're also having a

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Speaker 3: lot of lipids and our blood and insulin resistance. So

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Speaker 3: stress plus comfort food means we're becoming more apple shaped

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Speaker 3: in our body.

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Speaker 1: But chronic stress doesn't just change the size of our

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Speaker 1: mid sections, as my own heightened CRP marker show, it

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Speaker 1: can also affect our immune systems.

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Speaker 3: Our immune cells have receptors for cortisol, but when we're

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Speaker 3: chronically stressed and cortisol gets too high, then the immune

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Speaker 3: cells are not turning off inflammation in response to cortisol,

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Speaker 3: and those cells are more prone flammatory during stress.

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Speaker 1: Chronic stress results in exactly the same inflammation profile that

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Speaker 1: I presented with at my doctor's visit. What researchers are

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Speaker 1: referring to as inflammating chronic stress also damages our DNA.

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Speaker 1: It destroys the part of our chromosomes that we need

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Speaker 1: for cell division.

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Speaker 3: What are known as teeling telomeres are these caps at

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Speaker 3: the tips of our chromosomes and they protect our genes,

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Speaker 3: so they have this incredibly important role in the cell.

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Speaker 3: Telomeres are basically the sentinels or these guards, and when

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Speaker 3: there's too much stress in the cell, the telomeres tend

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Speaker 3: to shorten quickly. And more excessively.

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Speaker 1: Telomeres work like the plastic tip at the top of

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Speaker 1: our shoelaces, which the Internet tells me is actually called

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Speaker 1: an ag lit. Did not know that. In any case,

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Speaker 1: if you've ever had a shoelace lose it zag lit,

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Speaker 1: you know what happens next. The lease starts to fray

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Speaker 1: and fall apart. Telomeres at the top of a DNA

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Speaker 1: strand work the same way. When they get messed up,

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Speaker 1: our DNA winds up frayed and broken.

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Speaker 3: And once they get too short, they start sending out

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Speaker 3: distress signals saying this cell is no longer good. We

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Speaker 3: got to call it quits. Time for this cell to

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Speaker 3: become senescent.

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Speaker 1: Dyeing sinescent cells, higher abdominal fat levels, long standing anxiety, irritability, inflammating,

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Speaker 1: and an increased risk for premature death. Apparently this is

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Speaker 1: where all my self imposed pressures over the last few

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Speaker 1: years have gotten me. At this point in my conversation

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Speaker 1: with Alyssa, things were starting to sound kind of hopeless,

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Speaker 1: but Alyssa assured me that chronic stress doesn't have to

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Speaker 1: be a cellular death sentence. In fact, her newest research

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Speaker 1: has shown that healthier stress responses are possible even in

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Speaker 1: a population that experiences some of the hardest possible stressors.

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Speaker 3: We've learned more about chroduct stress from these caregiving studies

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Speaker 3: than other types of stressors.

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Speaker 1: But what lessons can we learn from the painful experience

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Speaker 1: of stressed out caregivers. We'll find out when the Happiness

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Speaker 1: Lab returns from the break.

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Speaker 2: When you were a caregiver, beautiful responsibility to be more

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Speaker 2: than a human being, you just do.

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Speaker 1: When his father Stanley became ill, movie star Steve Guttenberg

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Speaker 1: was forced to trade the glamor of Hollywood for the

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Speaker 1: hard job of a long term caretaker.

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Speaker 2: You have to be superhuman because it takes a superhuman

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Speaker 2: to clean somebody up when they go to the bathroom,

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Speaker 2: when they throw up, when they have a seizure, when

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Speaker 2: they have bouts of true darkness. You have to be

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Speaker 2: more than an average human being.

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Speaker 1: Step and his sister joined the thirty four million other

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Speaker 1: Americans offering unpaid care to an older person in need.

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Speaker 2: I would call them angels, super angels, muscular, strong, super

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Speaker 2: powered angels, because when you're looking at somebody at two

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Speaker 2: in the morning and they have to go to the

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Speaker 2: bathroom and you have to pick them up out of

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Speaker 2: bed and they can't make it to the regular bathroom,

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Speaker 2: and you have to put them on their commode, and

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Speaker 2: you have to give them their privacy and their dignity

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Speaker 2: at the same time being there to help them. You're

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Speaker 2: not a human being, You're way above a human being,

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Speaker 2: because the average human being walks out of the room.

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Speaker 2: Can't do it, cannot do it. Now, I'm not going

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Speaker 2: to tell you that I didn't have my moments of

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Speaker 2: gagging and dry eaving, because some of it was really

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Speaker 2: hard to watch. And I feel my metal coming up

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Speaker 2: in me when I'm talking about this, because you have

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Speaker 2: to be made of metal to deal with this.

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Speaker 1: The range of daily challenges that carers face is immense

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Speaker 1: medical bills, dealing with hospitals and insurance companies, negotiating time

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Speaker 1: off work, and that doesn't include the heartbreaking pain of

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Speaker 1: watching once healthy loved ones deteriorate.

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Speaker 2: The reason I wrote the book is caregiving is a

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Speaker 2: really lonely occupation. You're basically sitting in the room with

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Speaker 2: that one person who's very ill, and you're looking at

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Speaker 2: them constantly, monitoring their health well and seeing what you

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Speaker 2: can do for them, and at the same time, you're

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Speaker 2: trying to figure out your own life and what you're

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Speaker 2: doing with it and what you have to give up

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Speaker 2: to be part of this process.

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Speaker 1: The problems caregivers contend with can last day after day

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Speaker 1: after day, and as doctor Elyssa Epple explained earlier, such

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Speaker 1: sustained stress can be really bad for our bodies. Melissa

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Speaker 1: likes to point to one caregiver study in particular.

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Speaker 3: Showing that their wounds heal almost ten days longer than

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Speaker 3: low stress age matched older controls, And that really is

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Speaker 3: about the chronic stress response, the excesses of the exposure

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Speaker 3: to cortisol.

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Speaker 1: It wouldn't be surprising if Steve Gutenberg's cortisol levels were

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Speaker 1: through the roof during his time as a caregiver. Steve

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Speaker 1: was living in LA when his father was diagnosed with

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Speaker 1: renal failure, so taking care of him meant regular drives

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Speaker 1: to his father's house in Arizona mile.

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Speaker 2: Round trip every week. And I started listening to podcasts

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Speaker 2: or music, but quickly I stopped and just started thinking.

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Speaker 2: So what I would think about was when my dad

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Speaker 2: was younger, and my dad was really fit and young

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Speaker 2: and healthy and enthusiastic, sitting.

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Speaker 1: Behind the wheel for long hours isn't ideal, but ruminating

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Speaker 1: about his father's physical decline during those long drives was

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Speaker 1: bound to trigger even more stress.

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Speaker 2: My dad was in such pain, physical pain, mental pain,

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Speaker 2: he did not want to die.

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Speaker 1: Steve says his father's final years were the most depressing

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Speaker 1: period of his entire life. And Steve's not alone. It's

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Speaker 1: estimated that half of caregivers have major depression, a rate

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Speaker 1: that's twice as high as the general population. Even more shockingly,

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Speaker 1: twelve percent of dementia caregivers die before their sick loved.

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Speaker 1: One one study estimated that a caregiver's mortality risk was

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Speaker 1: sixty three percent higher than they're not caregiving peers. With

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Speaker 1: stats like these, it's probably not surprising that many caregivers

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Speaker 1: like Steve wind up neglecting their own self care.

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Speaker 2: It fell by the wayside. I did not exercise for

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Speaker 2: so many years. I didn't sleep very well at all.

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Speaker 2: There was about a month before he passed where he

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Speaker 2: would be up all night, that he would be screaming

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Speaker 2: all night. So my self care did go to the side.

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Speaker 1: But researcher Alyssa Apple has found that not all caregivers

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Speaker 1: succumbed to the effects of stress.

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Speaker 3: The good news is that there are ways to be

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Speaker 3: with this life situation.

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Speaker 1: Alissa studied caregivers telomeres, that part of our DNA that

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Speaker 1: gets prematurely shortened by chronic stress. She found that many

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Speaker 1: of her subjects telomeres were badly affected. They showed all

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Speaker 1: the expected hallmarks of inflammating, but the telomeres of some

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Speaker 1: caregivers were fine. Even though the these people face the

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Speaker 1: same stresses as those with the shortened tail of mirrors,

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Speaker 1: their bodies weren't affected in the same way. How is

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Speaker 1: that possible? Alyssa discovered that one factor was the narrative

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Speaker 1: these caregivers created to explain the difficulties they were facing.

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Speaker 1: The healthier caregivers embraced what's known as radical acceptance.

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Speaker 3: I don't control outcomes. I don't control the disease course.

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Speaker 3: I don't control someone else's behavior. I can control X

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Speaker 3: and Y. So really separating out a situation to understand

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Speaker 3: there is a little bit that we can control. We

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Speaker 3: can control our response, and we can do things to

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Speaker 3: show compassion, to be with someone with a loving presence,

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Speaker 3: spend our time with them showing that we care. There

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Speaker 3: are ways that we can be our best self in

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Speaker 3: these uncontrollable situations that allow us to not be in

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Speaker 3: this chronically stressed state of striving, of hitting a brick wall.

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Speaker 1: If you're a caregiver, you might be saying, well, that's

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Speaker 1: easier said than done. Radical acceptance was definitely something Steve

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Speaker 1: Gutenberg struggled with.

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Speaker 2: I was reluctant to accept the reality of the situation.

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Speaker 2: I just couldn't accept it. I wouldn't accept it. Everyone

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Speaker 2: else knew my dad was dying. I knew it, but

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Speaker 2: wouldn't accept it, so I never talked about it. I

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Speaker 2: always said, he's going to get better, He's going to

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Speaker 2: come through this, even at the very end.

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Speaker 1: Alyssa shared one strategy we can use to bring a

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Speaker 1: healthier narrative to times of stress. We can try out

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Speaker 1: what's known as expressive writing. Take time to journal about

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Speaker 1: all the crap on your plate and how it makes

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Speaker 1: you feel.

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Speaker 3: I suggest just starting off with a massive list without

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Speaker 3: any editing or censoring, just writing down everything that you

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Speaker 3: feel bothered by, worried by, pressured by, and then thinking

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Speaker 3: about your day. You know what stresses you out most

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Speaker 3: during the day. We often don't give ourselves the opportunity

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Speaker 3: to step back and reflect on the level that we're carrying.

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Speaker 1: The act of putting all your stresses down on paper

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Speaker 1: can also reveal all the things you're doing that inadvertently

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Speaker 1: add to your stress levels.

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Speaker 3: We're very routine animals, you know. We get into this

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Speaker 3: I'll call it a daily stress routine, and we can

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Speaker 3: break that routine. We can see where we're creating unnecessary stress.

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Speaker 1: You can then take stock of all the neglected stuff

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Speaker 1: you can control about your situation practices like sleep, or

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Speaker 1: food or time with friends. You can also take some

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Speaker 1: time to count your blessings. Gratitude, it turns out, is

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Speaker 1: a powerful tool for tackling stress. Fortunately, this was a

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Speaker 1: practice that did come naturally for caregivers. Steve Gutenberg his

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Speaker 1: dad was a gratitude role model.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, my dad was grateful for anything. Had told

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Speaker 2: get a cup of coffee. H coffee. My dad taught me,

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Speaker 2: you know, Stephen, enjoy your life. Enjoy your life. Be happy.

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Speaker 2: That's it. Just be happy. Everything else will come.

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Speaker 1: Steve called his book a Time to Think, because in

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Speaker 1: spite of his father's difficult illness, he still managed to

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Speaker 1: remember all the many ways in which he was fortunate.

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Speaker 2: Thank god I have a job that I could stop

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Speaker 2: and just sit there with my dad all the time.

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Speaker 2: How lucky I was that I didn't have to be

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Speaker 2: in some office hearing about my dad on the telephone.

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Speaker 1: Steve hated seeing Stanley's physical decline, but the time Steve

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Speaker 1: spent with his dad in those final months allowed him

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Speaker 1: to remember the dead of gratitude. He owed the old man.

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Speaker 2: I think gratitude it's a verb. I think like love

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Speaker 2: is a verb. You know. My dad used to say

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Speaker 2: to me, you could either love someone or you can

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Speaker 2: love someone and show up. You know. That's that's gratitude.

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Speaker 2: That's gratitude. That's the deep part of gratitude.

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Speaker 1: Research shows that strategies like gratitude and radical acceptance can

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Speaker 1: protect us from the negative effects of chronic stress. But

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Speaker 1: as I read through a list is work, I learned

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Speaker 1: one additional way to handle stress that sounded kind of odd.

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Speaker 1: It turns out we can fight stress by looking for

437
00:24:16,676 --> 00:24:19,556
Speaker 1: new chances to get stressed out. This is the insight

438
00:24:19,636 --> 00:24:22,436
Speaker 1: behind what effective scientists call hermetic stress.

439
00:24:23,276 --> 00:24:27,996
Speaker 3: Her Medic stress is absolutely fascinating because it's so counterintuitive.

440
00:24:28,796 --> 00:24:34,516
Speaker 3: We know very well from fly studies that organisms like

441
00:24:35,076 --> 00:24:39,276
Speaker 3: a little shock of moderate repeated stress, and in fact

442
00:24:39,716 --> 00:24:43,396
Speaker 3: it's strengthening. It's like a vaccination, so it really is

443
00:24:43,436 --> 00:24:48,396
Speaker 3: building up biological resistance. It's exercise for our nervous system.

444
00:24:48,596 --> 00:24:51,276
Speaker 1: What you're looking to create is a short episode of stress,

445
00:24:51,796 --> 00:24:54,236
Speaker 1: something that will get your heart racing and blood pumping,

446
00:24:54,556 --> 00:24:57,276
Speaker 1: but also an episode that you can stop so you

447
00:24:57,276 --> 00:24:59,996
Speaker 1: can train your autonomic nervous system to go back into

448
00:24:59,996 --> 00:25:03,356
Speaker 1: recovery mode. And it doesn't have to involve finding true

449
00:25:03,356 --> 00:25:06,596
Speaker 1: fight or flight danger. Hermetic stress can be way easier

450
00:25:06,596 --> 00:25:06,836
Speaker 1: than that.

451
00:25:07,476 --> 00:25:09,796
Speaker 3: The best example, of course, is extra and we know

452
00:25:09,876 --> 00:25:12,396
Speaker 3: exercise is good for our health, but we haven't thought

453
00:25:12,396 --> 00:25:16,076
Speaker 3: about the fact that short bursts of exercise are creating

454
00:25:16,156 --> 00:25:18,236
Speaker 3: that positive hormetic stress response.

455
00:25:18,676 --> 00:25:21,516
Speaker 1: One study found that caretakers who were asked to exercise

456
00:25:21,556 --> 00:25:23,836
Speaker 1: three to five times a week showed less short in

457
00:25:23,876 --> 00:25:27,196
Speaker 1: telomeres than those who didn't move their bodies. The blast

458
00:25:27,236 --> 00:25:30,036
Speaker 1: of stress that comes from exercise seems to slow down

459
00:25:30,236 --> 00:25:35,036
Speaker 1: and possibly even reverse the effects of inflammating Exercise was

460
00:25:35,076 --> 00:25:38,556
Speaker 1: another strategy that came easily to the Gutenberg family. When

461
00:25:38,556 --> 00:25:41,356
Speaker 1: Steve's great grandfather first came to the US, his physical

462
00:25:41,356 --> 00:25:42,596
Speaker 1: fitness came in handy.

463
00:25:42,876 --> 00:25:44,476
Speaker 2: What he would do for extra money is he would

464
00:25:44,476 --> 00:25:46,916
Speaker 2: go down to the Brooklyn Bridge and he feats of strength.

465
00:25:47,196 --> 00:25:50,276
Speaker 2: He would carry people on his dock. He would carry

466
00:25:50,676 --> 00:25:52,916
Speaker 2: huge weights and at the end he had a Shetland

467
00:25:52,956 --> 00:25:55,076
Speaker 2: pony and he would pick up this little Shetland party

468
00:25:55,156 --> 00:25:55,756
Speaker 2: walk around it.

469
00:25:56,036 --> 00:25:58,836
Speaker 1: Steve's grandfather was a powerlifter who then passed on the

470
00:25:58,916 --> 00:26:00,556
Speaker 1: jim bug to his son Stanley.

471
00:26:00,956 --> 00:26:04,476
Speaker 2: My dad started lifting weights when he was twelve years old.

472
00:26:04,836 --> 00:26:07,676
Speaker 2: My dad was a handstand king. My dad could do

473
00:26:07,716 --> 00:26:09,876
Speaker 2: a handstand for by four straight.

474
00:26:10,556 --> 00:26:12,796
Speaker 1: As a skinny teen, Steve turned to his dad for

475
00:26:12,836 --> 00:26:16,516
Speaker 1: exercise tips. Under Stanley's tutelage, Steve was able to put

476
00:26:16,556 --> 00:26:20,076
Speaker 1: on fifty pounds of muscle. I'm building a mean, lean monster,

477
00:26:20,236 --> 00:26:23,796
Speaker 1: his dad had announced proudly. But like many stressed out folks,

478
00:26:23,956 --> 00:26:27,516
Speaker 1: Steve let his usual exercise routine slide at exactly the

479
00:26:27,556 --> 00:26:30,796
Speaker 1: time he needed it most. As Steve explained just how

480
00:26:30,836 --> 00:26:33,436
Speaker 1: infrequently he hit the gym during his time as a caretaker,

481
00:26:33,916 --> 00:26:37,236
Speaker 1: I felt a bit called out. I mean I rarely

482
00:26:37,276 --> 00:26:39,956
Speaker 1: make my yoga classes or hit the elliptical. What I'm

483
00:26:39,996 --> 00:26:43,676
Speaker 1: feeling frantic, but Ironically, a jolt of hermetic stress was

484
00:26:43,676 --> 00:26:46,196
Speaker 1: probably the perfect remedy for the strain I was under.

485
00:26:46,756 --> 00:26:49,356
Speaker 1: But giving our bodies additional bursts of stress to fight

486
00:26:49,436 --> 00:26:52,316
Speaker 1: stress isn't even the most surprising way we can protect

487
00:26:52,356 --> 00:26:55,756
Speaker 1: ourselves from chronic overwhelm. We also need to train our

488
00:26:55,756 --> 00:27:00,036
Speaker 1: brains to think differently about stress. I'll explain more when

489
00:27:00,076 --> 00:27:09,236
Speaker 1: the happiness Lab returns after the break. What someone says

490
00:27:09,236 --> 00:27:11,996
Speaker 1: they're feeling stressed, we usually assume that they're having a

491
00:27:11,996 --> 00:27:14,996
Speaker 1: bad time. My own periods of stress are accompanied by

492
00:27:15,076 --> 00:27:19,436
Speaker 1: yucky feelings like irritability, interrupted sleep, digestive issues, and a

493
00:27:19,476 --> 00:27:23,996
Speaker 1: sort of forehead clenching. Feeling stressed sucks, and I usually

494
00:27:24,036 --> 00:27:25,356
Speaker 1: just wish that I could avoid it.

495
00:27:25,756 --> 00:27:28,196
Speaker 4: Your heart is facing your pomps or sweaty or butterflies

496
00:27:28,196 --> 00:27:30,756
Speaker 4: in your stomach, so of course, in that circumstance, it

497
00:27:30,796 --> 00:27:32,876
Speaker 4: feels like self evidence the stress is bad.

498
00:27:33,156 --> 00:27:36,436
Speaker 1: Right, This is ut Austin psychologist David Yeager.

499
00:27:36,916 --> 00:27:40,196
Speaker 4: Your stress could be viewed in a debilitating way that

500
00:27:40,316 --> 00:27:43,276
Speaker 4: it's a sign your body is preparing for damage and defeat.

501
00:27:43,796 --> 00:27:46,716
Speaker 1: Who wants damage and defeat? Seems like we're all agreed.

502
00:27:46,716 --> 00:27:51,236
Speaker 1: Then stress sucks. But David says that's not the whole story.

503
00:27:51,876 --> 00:27:53,916
Speaker 4: There are lots of times when we face a stressor

504
00:27:54,036 --> 00:27:57,756
Speaker 4: and we're thrilled and excited, and that energy allows us

505
00:27:57,796 --> 00:27:59,876
Speaker 4: to show what we know. I mean, if you talk

506
00:27:59,916 --> 00:28:02,236
Speaker 4: to great athletes, right, they talk about performing at the

507
00:28:02,316 --> 00:28:04,396
Speaker 4: level of your preparation, and one of the ways they

508
00:28:04,436 --> 00:28:05,716
Speaker 4: do that is they kind of get in a zone

509
00:28:05,716 --> 00:28:09,116
Speaker 4: in their heads and they're like amped up before a performance, right.

510
00:28:09,396 --> 00:28:11,956
Speaker 4: And so in those cases, that's a much better situation

511
00:28:12,036 --> 00:28:13,916
Speaker 4: to be in than to have no stress at all,

512
00:28:13,916 --> 00:28:15,116
Speaker 4: where you're like about to fall asleep.

513
00:28:15,516 --> 00:28:18,156
Speaker 1: David is an expert on the power of mindsets, the

514
00:28:18,196 --> 00:28:21,036
Speaker 1: beliefs we have about things like our abilities and how

515
00:28:21,076 --> 00:28:24,556
Speaker 1: our brains respond to challenges. David's work has shown that

516
00:28:24,596 --> 00:28:26,916
Speaker 1: how we think about things has a huge impact on

517
00:28:26,956 --> 00:28:30,316
Speaker 1: how we behave His early research focused on what's known

518
00:28:30,356 --> 00:28:33,356
Speaker 1: as the growth mindset, the belief that our abilities and

519
00:28:33,396 --> 00:28:36,156
Speaker 1: talents can improve over time if we're willing to put

520
00:28:36,156 --> 00:28:39,276
Speaker 1: in some work in practice. But these days David has

521
00:28:39,276 --> 00:28:42,516
Speaker 1: started thinking about a different type of mindset, the beliefs

522
00:28:42,516 --> 00:28:45,396
Speaker 1: we have about the effects of stress. If we think

523
00:28:45,436 --> 00:28:48,076
Speaker 1: about stress is terrible, we may behave in ways that

524
00:28:48,196 --> 00:28:50,716
Speaker 1: lead us to suffer. But if we greet stress as

525
00:28:50,716 --> 00:28:54,916
Speaker 1: a potential friend, couldn't improve our lives. Researchers have begun

526
00:28:54,996 --> 00:28:59,196
Speaker 1: conducting some elegant laboratory experiments to test this possibility. But

527
00:28:59,276 --> 00:29:02,276
Speaker 1: David's favorite illustration of the importance of our stress mindset

528
00:29:02,596 --> 00:29:04,876
Speaker 1: occurred when he was on vacation with his daughters.

529
00:29:04,836 --> 00:29:08,796
Speaker 4: Scarlet, we when water skiing in Wisconsin, and she'd never

530
00:29:08,876 --> 00:29:11,556
Speaker 4: keep She's a fourth or fifth grader, and She's sitting

531
00:29:11,596 --> 00:29:14,196
Speaker 4: there bobbing in the lake and I'm holding the back

532
00:29:14,236 --> 00:29:17,076
Speaker 4: of her skis and she says, Daddy, I'm so nervous.

533
00:29:17,116 --> 00:29:19,156
Speaker 4: I have butterflies on my stomach. I don't think I

534
00:29:19,156 --> 00:29:22,396
Speaker 4: can do this. And I was like, well, Scarlet, you

535
00:29:22,436 --> 00:29:25,516
Speaker 4: know that that's stress and that energy that's just getting

536
00:29:25,516 --> 00:29:28,156
Speaker 4: oxygenated blood to your muscles and your brain, and those

537
00:29:28,756 --> 00:29:31,396
Speaker 4: muscles with that oxygenated blood are going to be stronger.

538
00:29:31,436 --> 00:29:33,556
Speaker 4: You can hold onto the rope a little more, and

539
00:29:33,596 --> 00:29:35,076
Speaker 4: once you do that, you're gonna pop up and just

540
00:29:35,076 --> 00:29:36,476
Speaker 4: have the most fun of your life and it's gonna

541
00:29:36,516 --> 00:29:40,996
Speaker 4: be thrilling. And what I was doing was just giving

542
00:29:40,996 --> 00:29:43,396
Speaker 4: her a different way of appraising or making meaning out

543
00:29:43,436 --> 00:29:47,436
Speaker 4: of that bodily experience. She's like, okay, and she got

544
00:29:47,516 --> 00:29:49,276
Speaker 4: right up and I just stayed there bobbing in the

545
00:29:49,316 --> 00:29:51,356
Speaker 4: water for I don't know, twenty minutes. Well, she just

546
00:29:51,356 --> 00:29:52,996
Speaker 4: did laughs around this lake in Wisconsin.

547
00:29:53,716 --> 00:29:57,276
Speaker 1: Justice Scarlet initially interpreted her stress response as a signal

548
00:29:57,356 --> 00:30:00,156
Speaker 1: that she shouldn't try water skiing. David says that many

549
00:30:00,236 --> 00:30:02,676
Speaker 1: of us greet the early signs of stress the wrong way.

550
00:30:03,356 --> 00:30:05,716
Speaker 4: In general and society, people tend to have a stress

551
00:30:05,796 --> 00:30:08,636
Speaker 4: is debilitating mindset. You see that if you just google

552
00:30:08,676 --> 00:30:12,116
Speaker 4: image s, stress and well being memes, they all take

553
00:30:12,156 --> 00:30:15,556
Speaker 4: this assumption that stress is always bad and should be avoided. Right.

554
00:30:15,636 --> 00:30:18,476
Speaker 4: It's like depleting you. It is something that you need

555
00:30:18,516 --> 00:30:21,116
Speaker 4: to suppress. Most people are convinced there's only one way

556
00:30:21,156 --> 00:30:22,796
Speaker 4: to look at stress, which is that it's always bad,

557
00:30:22,916 --> 00:30:25,156
Speaker 4: and when they do that, it spirals on itself and

558
00:30:25,196 --> 00:30:28,316
Speaker 4: it becomes self confirming for them. But we know from

559
00:30:28,596 --> 00:30:31,116
Speaker 4: just basic science of stress in both animals and humans

560
00:30:31,476 --> 00:30:34,196
Speaker 4: that the stress response is simply there to keep us alive,

561
00:30:34,316 --> 00:30:37,316
Speaker 4: to overcome and meet the demands that are imposed on us.

562
00:30:37,396 --> 00:30:40,036
Speaker 4: And so there's a different kind of mindset or belief

563
00:30:40,076 --> 00:30:42,036
Speaker 4: you can have about stress, which is the stress can

564
00:30:42,036 --> 00:30:43,036
Speaker 4: be enhancing mindset.

565
00:30:43,716 --> 00:30:46,716
Speaker 1: Stanford psychologist Alia Crumb was the first to show the

566
00:30:46,756 --> 00:30:49,836
Speaker 1: harmful effects of the wrong stress mindset. She found that

567
00:30:49,876 --> 00:30:53,756
Speaker 1: people who expected stress to be debilitating experienced more anxiety

568
00:30:53,836 --> 00:30:56,916
Speaker 1: and lower happiness ratings than people who thought stress was enhancing.

569
00:30:57,516 --> 00:30:59,836
Speaker 1: The people she studied who believed that stress was good

570
00:30:59,836 --> 00:31:03,356
Speaker 1: for them also showed more optimism, better performance at work,

571
00:31:03,556 --> 00:31:06,796
Speaker 1: and even better physical health. Crumb's work showed it's not

572
00:31:06,876 --> 00:31:08,956
Speaker 1: our stress that seems to be hurting us, it's how

573
00:31:08,996 --> 00:31:12,316
Speaker 1: we think about it, which got David wondering could people

574
00:31:12,356 --> 00:31:15,236
Speaker 1: shift from one stress mindset to the other, just as

575
00:31:15,236 --> 00:31:17,716
Speaker 1: he did with Scarlet at the Lake? Could David encourage

576
00:31:17,716 --> 00:31:19,796
Speaker 1: people to reframe how they saw stress.

577
00:31:20,476 --> 00:31:25,676
Speaker 4: Could you just tell people what their physiology means one

578
00:31:25,676 --> 00:31:28,476
Speaker 4: way or the other and could that change their performance

579
00:31:28,756 --> 00:31:30,196
Speaker 4: when they're in a stressful situation.

580
00:31:30,716 --> 00:31:34,036
Speaker 1: David and a colleague, Jeremy Jamison, recruited college students planning

581
00:31:34,036 --> 00:31:36,396
Speaker 1: to take the Jerry Exam and presented them with a

582
00:31:36,436 --> 00:31:39,756
Speaker 1: practice version of the test. Everyone was reminded that it's

583
00:31:39,756 --> 00:31:42,316
Speaker 1: normal for people to feel stressed out before an exam.

584
00:31:42,676 --> 00:31:45,316
Speaker 1: Behalf of participants were given a list of reasons why

585
00:31:45,356 --> 00:31:47,636
Speaker 1: their stress response might improve their performance.

586
00:31:48,156 --> 00:31:50,636
Speaker 4: You know, the bodies releasing catecola means and those catacola

587
00:31:50,676 --> 00:31:53,156
Speaker 4: means are going to enhance performance. And the reason your

588
00:31:53,156 --> 00:31:55,196
Speaker 4: heart is pumping so much is because it's getting more

589
00:31:55,236 --> 00:31:57,076
Speaker 4: blood to your brain and to your muscles. It's going

590
00:31:57,116 --> 00:31:57,996
Speaker 4: to help you perform better.

591
00:31:58,276 --> 00:32:01,916
Speaker 1: The results were striking. Students who reappraised their stress response

592
00:32:01,916 --> 00:32:04,756
Speaker 1: as beneficial showed way better scores than those in the

593
00:32:04,756 --> 00:32:08,156
Speaker 1: control condition. On some parts of the exam, their scores

594
00:32:08,196 --> 00:32:09,796
Speaker 1: were more than one hundred points higher.

595
00:32:10,156 --> 00:32:12,596
Speaker 4: But the interesting thing is that a month later students

596
00:32:12,636 --> 00:32:14,916
Speaker 4: went and took the real gre and brought their scores back,

597
00:32:15,356 --> 00:32:17,436
Speaker 4: and they did much better. The difference is like the

598
00:32:17,436 --> 00:32:20,236
Speaker 4: difference between getting into a mid tier top fifty graduate

599
00:32:20,276 --> 00:32:22,316
Speaker 4: program or a top five graduate program.

600
00:32:22,636 --> 00:32:26,236
Speaker 1: But GIRE exams are acute stressors. David wanted to know

601
00:32:26,276 --> 00:32:29,396
Speaker 1: whether the same mindset shift could also reduce the chronic

602
00:32:29,436 --> 00:32:32,556
Speaker 1: stress that dogs people like me day after day. So

603
00:32:32,636 --> 00:32:34,636
Speaker 1: he turned to a group of high school students from

604
00:32:34,636 --> 00:32:35,756
Speaker 1: low income backgrounds.

605
00:32:36,316 --> 00:32:39,076
Speaker 4: And these are almost exclusively black or Latino students whose

606
00:32:39,116 --> 00:32:41,756
Speaker 4: parents had not gone to college. And we explicitly wanted

607
00:32:41,796 --> 00:32:45,796
Speaker 4: to choose this situation because we know kids experienced lots

608
00:32:45,836 --> 00:32:50,036
Speaker 4: of stressors. They might experience racial discrimination, prejudice, but also

609
00:32:50,196 --> 00:32:52,996
Speaker 4: for kids whose parents are experiencing poverty, food and security,

610
00:32:53,196 --> 00:32:56,796
Speaker 4: things like that, So could a little mindset shift have

611
00:32:56,876 --> 00:32:58,476
Speaker 4: an impact in that kind of population.

612
00:32:58,916 --> 00:33:02,076
Speaker 1: David's students watched a thirty minute video that explained both

613
00:33:02,116 --> 00:33:05,036
Speaker 1: the importance of a growth mindset and why stress can

614
00:33:05,076 --> 00:33:08,316
Speaker 1: have beneficial effects on performance. Would this be enough to

615
00:33:08,396 --> 00:33:11,316
Speaker 1: change how they great stress? Would the video help students

616
00:33:11,316 --> 00:33:14,076
Speaker 1: react better to the annoying challenges of everyday life.

617
00:33:14,396 --> 00:33:16,276
Speaker 4: So, over the course of the first semester of high

618
00:33:16,316 --> 00:33:19,636
Speaker 4: school kids completed daily diary surveys three times a day,

619
00:33:19,996 --> 00:33:23,076
Speaker 4: provided cortisol samples several times per day, And what we

620
00:33:23,116 --> 00:33:25,516
Speaker 4: find is that on days in which kids say, yeah,

621
00:33:25,516 --> 00:33:28,356
Speaker 4: this is a really stressful day, like I'm feeling judged

622
00:33:28,356 --> 00:33:30,476
Speaker 4: and evaluated by my teachers, I'm feeling left out by

623
00:33:30,516 --> 00:33:33,636
Speaker 4: my friends, kids were saying I can handle this, I'm

624
00:33:33,636 --> 00:33:36,996
Speaker 4: feeling good about myself, I feel positive. So it's by

625
00:33:37,036 --> 00:33:40,276
Speaker 4: definition stress resilience. And then what we see also is

626
00:33:40,276 --> 00:33:42,716
Speaker 4: just lower cortisol levels almost across the board and That's

627
00:33:42,716 --> 00:33:45,676
Speaker 4: significant because the body produces cortisol in part when the

628
00:33:45,676 --> 00:33:49,916
Speaker 4: mind expects damaged tissue, and so if you are expecting defeat,

629
00:33:50,436 --> 00:33:53,516
Speaker 4: then you see increase in cortisol. But if you're expecting

630
00:33:53,676 --> 00:33:55,556
Speaker 4: to do well to take on the challenge, then you

631
00:33:55,556 --> 00:33:58,236
Speaker 4: should see less cortisol. And that's what we see over

632
00:33:58,276 --> 00:33:59,516
Speaker 4: the rest of the semester.

633
00:34:00,076 --> 00:34:03,676
Speaker 1: This is an amazing finding. By merely thinking of stress

634
00:34:03,756 --> 00:34:06,156
Speaker 1: not as a prelude to damage and defeat, but is

635
00:34:06,236 --> 00:34:09,556
Speaker 1: something helpful and useful, You can prevent your boy from

636
00:34:09,636 --> 00:34:13,636
Speaker 1: chronically releasing the very substances that cause the inflammating effects

637
00:34:13,796 --> 00:34:17,156
Speaker 1: usually experienced by stressed out people like me. That is

638
00:34:17,196 --> 00:34:19,916
Speaker 1: really cool, But there is a trick to getting the

639
00:34:19,916 --> 00:34:23,116
Speaker 1: benefits of the right stress mindset. You need to practice

640
00:34:23,156 --> 00:34:26,396
Speaker 1: long term. You need to carry over that positive mindset

641
00:34:26,436 --> 00:34:28,716
Speaker 1: from one situation to the next. So if you train

642
00:34:28,756 --> 00:34:31,556
Speaker 1: yourself to appreciate exam stress, you need to return to

643
00:34:31,596 --> 00:34:34,276
Speaker 1: that same positive mindset when your car breaks down, or

644
00:34:34,276 --> 00:34:36,156
Speaker 1: when you lose your wallet, or when you face a

645
00:34:36,196 --> 00:34:39,796
Speaker 1: tough meeting at work. Again, David's daughter Scarlet is there

646
00:34:39,836 --> 00:34:42,756
Speaker 1: to show us the way. Remember the mindset pep talk

647
00:34:42,916 --> 00:34:45,116
Speaker 1: David gave Scarlet before she went water skiing.

648
00:34:45,916 --> 00:34:48,036
Speaker 4: Fast forward two years later and she's getting in the

649
00:34:48,076 --> 00:34:50,716
Speaker 4: car on the way to a cello audition. She's like, Daddy,

650
00:34:50,716 --> 00:34:53,076
Speaker 4: I'm so nervous, Like I don't know if I can

651
00:34:53,076 --> 00:34:54,396
Speaker 4: do well in this. I was like, Scarlett, you know

652
00:34:54,396 --> 00:34:56,356
Speaker 4: what I'm going to say. She's like, yeah, you're going

653
00:34:56,396 --> 00:34:58,356
Speaker 4: to say that. The butterflies on my stomach are there

654
00:34:58,596 --> 00:35:00,796
Speaker 4: just to pump, you know, good energy through my body

655
00:35:00,836 --> 00:35:02,956
Speaker 4: and give me adrenaline and oxygen et cetera, et cetera.

656
00:35:02,996 --> 00:35:05,316
Speaker 4: I was like, how did you know that? She's like, oh,

657
00:35:05,356 --> 00:35:07,676
Speaker 4: you total to me two years ago whenever we're skiing.

658
00:35:08,116 --> 00:35:10,676
Speaker 4: And so what I love about that is, first of all,

659
00:35:10,716 --> 00:35:12,316
Speaker 4: it's proof that at least once in my life, my

660
00:35:12,396 --> 00:35:15,356
Speaker 4: kids listen to me, which is not always happening. But

661
00:35:15,396 --> 00:35:20,796
Speaker 4: second of all, she's transferring some appraisal about her stress

662
00:35:20,876 --> 00:35:23,436
Speaker 4: to a totally different situation years later. And I think

663
00:35:23,436 --> 00:35:26,116
Speaker 4: about that a lot. With our interventions, we're often like

664
00:35:26,676 --> 00:35:29,756
Speaker 4: giving you a different mindset right before you need it,

665
00:35:29,996 --> 00:35:32,596
Speaker 4: and there's some stressful situation, and then you kind of

666
00:35:32,636 --> 00:35:36,516
Speaker 4: see that it works for you, and then you carry

667
00:35:36,556 --> 00:35:39,596
Speaker 4: that new mindset with you and apply it to new situations,

668
00:35:40,036 --> 00:35:41,996
Speaker 4: and I knew that from our research, but I'd never

669
00:35:42,036 --> 00:35:45,276
Speaker 4: seen that firsthand until the scarlet situation happened.

670
00:35:46,956 --> 00:35:49,196
Speaker 1: Making this episode has made me realize that I'm way

671
00:35:49,196 --> 00:35:52,276
Speaker 1: too negative about stress. I can remember lots of times

672
00:35:52,276 --> 00:35:54,756
Speaker 1: in my own life when small bursts of stress have

673
00:35:54,836 --> 00:35:57,556
Speaker 1: felt good. That rush I get before a big talk,

674
00:35:58,036 --> 00:36:00,596
Speaker 1: or that push I experienced during a tough yoga session.

675
00:36:01,196 --> 00:36:04,236
Speaker 1: The adrenaline I experience in those moments doesn't feel stressful

676
00:36:04,316 --> 00:36:08,356
Speaker 1: or debilitating. It feels exciting. A reaction's going to help

677
00:36:08,396 --> 00:36:11,476
Speaker 1: me perform better. I need to harness that and apply

678
00:36:11,516 --> 00:36:15,516
Speaker 1: it across other situations in life. Our daily stressors probably

679
00:36:15,556 --> 00:36:18,476
Speaker 1: aren't going away anytime soon, but that doesn't mean we're

680
00:36:18,476 --> 00:36:22,356
Speaker 1: stuck experiencing the negative health and happiness effects of chronic stress.

681
00:36:22,836 --> 00:36:25,396
Speaker 1: We can examine our feelings and create a narrative that

682
00:36:25,476 --> 00:36:27,876
Speaker 1: lets us accept the things we're not able to control,

683
00:36:28,316 --> 00:36:30,556
Speaker 1: while at the same time trying to control the stuff

684
00:36:30,596 --> 00:36:33,356
Speaker 1: that will help us improve our lives. All those self

685
00:36:33,356 --> 00:36:37,716
Speaker 1: care essentials like sleep, exercise, diet, and social interaction, and

686
00:36:37,876 --> 00:36:40,556
Speaker 1: like Steve Gutenberg, we can work to greet tough times

687
00:36:40,596 --> 00:36:44,196
Speaker 1: with gratitude and seize the opportunity to notice the blessings

688
00:36:44,196 --> 00:36:47,556
Speaker 1: in life. With strategies like these, I'm hopeful that my

689
00:36:47,636 --> 00:36:50,076
Speaker 1: inflammation markers will be a bit lower at my next

690
00:36:50,156 --> 00:36:53,756
Speaker 1: annual checkup, and that my doctor will have fewer opportunities

691
00:36:53,796 --> 00:36:56,716
Speaker 1: to mock me for not practicing what I preach. But

692
00:36:56,996 --> 00:36:59,396
Speaker 1: there are still plenty of other happiness challenges that I

693
00:36:59,436 --> 00:37:01,996
Speaker 1: still mess up. So join me next time as I

694
00:37:02,076 --> 00:37:05,196
Speaker 1: learn some new strategies for being nicer to my future self,

695
00:37:05,716 --> 00:37:08,516
Speaker 1: ones that involve a trip down memory lane and through

696
00:37:08,636 --> 00:37:12,396
Speaker 1: a ton I realized my skin would look so bad.

697
00:37:13,276 --> 00:37:17,396
Speaker 1: That's really disturbing all that next week on the Happiness

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00:37:17,476 --> 00:37:19,476
Speaker 1: Lab with me Doctor Laurie Santos