Hello, it's Sam here.

Welcome to Radio Headspace and to Tuesday.

So lately, I've been leading a book club and we're currently reading The Upside of Stress

by Stress Researcher Kelly McGonagall.

In the book, she talks about how avoiding stress can negatively impact us and how changing

our mindset about stress can help us to use it to our advantage.

And of course, it's natural for us to want to avoid stress.

It comes with worry, uncertainty, and self-doubt.

But if we take a step back, a lot of our growth can come from the kind of stressful situations

that lead to positive changes, from interviewing for a dream job to going on a first date.

So today, let's talk about the upside of stress and how we can use it in a more skillful

way.

Let's just take a moment to break down what happens in the body when we experience stress.

So when your body senses a real or imagined threat to your safety, it releases sugar

into your bloodstream and you get a surge of energy.

Then, there's extra oxygen sent to the brain which promotes alertness and our senses

become sharper to allow us to take in our immediate surroundings.

In order to counteract the instinct to run away, we can remind ourselves that we're feeling

these sensations because what we're about to do is important to us.

And this plays into McGonagall's core message in the book that the way we think about stress

itself substantially affects how our bodies interpret it and then respond to it.

So let me give you an example.

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