Believe It or Not, Stress Can Be Good For You | Big Think
Believe It or Not, Stress Can Be Good For You
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Dr. Kelly McGonigal is author of the book The Upside of Stress, so it’s fitting she’s here on Big Think chatting about … well … the upside of stress. McGonigal reveals that the body responds to stress in more ways than just fight-or-flight. Those two approaches stem from a threat response. Anxiety sits in and dictates your emotional state. Fight-or-flight thus tends to be detrimental to success. We perform much better in stressful situations when we enter what is called a challenge response. Instead of panic or recklessness, our brains maximize focus so that we perform at our best. The key to making stress an asset is to train the brain into forgoing threat response in favor of challenge response.
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KELLY MCGONIGAL:
Kelly McGonigal is a health psychologist who is known for her work in the field of ‘science help’—popular explication of scientific research—as it relates to achieving personal goals despite inner conflict. Mainstream media articles about inner-conflict-related aspects of modern lifestyles regularly quote her. A longtime advocate of self-compassion and mindfulness as stress-coping strategies, McGonigal has latterly altered her focus on the problematic aspects of stress; in a talk at the TED Global 2013, she emphasized the importance of an individual’s subjective belief in themselves as someone who is able to cope successfully as being a crucial factor in their actual response to stress. Her new book is titled The Upside of Stress.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Kelly McGonigal: Most people believe that there is one way that the body responds to stress, you know. Everyone’s heard the fight-or-flight response. But it actually turns out that that’s just one way that the body and brain can respond to a stressful circumstance. And it’s often not a very helpful way to respond to a stressful circumstance, especially one in which you really want to rise to the challenge and perform your best where it’s really not about survival mode. And it turns out that the brain and the body actually has another way of responding to these kind of high-stakes challenges, you know, whether it’s an important negotiation or you have to give a speech or an athletic competition. Those moments where you really want to show up and do your best. And that other way of responding to stress is called a challenge response. That it’s a way for your brain and body to give you maximum focus, attention, and energy. And it’s physically different than the sort of the fight-or-flight response that we have when we feel- deeply threatened by a stressful situation. When you have a threat response, you know, your body and brain are shifting into the state that is really sort of the classic association with the harmful stress response.
It’s going to make you more likely to choke under pressure. It’s going to feel more like dread or overwhelm. When you have a challenge response, the brain and body actually sift into a state that gives you more access to your resources. You know your heart might still be pounding, but your blood vessels are going to relax and open up so you get more blood flow to your muscles and to your brain. Your brain shifts into a state — it’s actually better at paying attention to everything in your environment rather than sort of being laser-focused like you might be in a fight-or-flight response on what’s going wrong or what’s dangerous. When you have a challenge response, all of your senses open to all the information that’s available to you, which means that you’re basically smarter under stress. And researchers have gotten really interested in figuring out how do you get people to shift from a threat response into a challenge response. Because unless your life is on the line in some sort of crazy emergency situation, it’s going to be better for you to have a challenge response than a threat response. You’ll perform better and that’s been shown in situations ranging from people performing surgery to athletes on the field to students taking difficult exams. That when you have a challenge response, you just do better. And it seems like one of the best ways to shift from a threat response to a challenge response is actually to view your own stress response as a resource…
To read the transcript, please go to https://bigthink.com/videos/the-threat-and-challenge-response
@salim7701
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
Stress for me,
is when something that have a big impact on my life or people that I care about, I can't control,
since there are some signs that it won't be good.and uncerain about it will end up
@AbianahTheGemini
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
Im sorry these stressors are not natural at all… I have never heard of a challenge response. It just sounds like some fake study the big corporations created to make their crimes against humanity seem to be normal and beneficial. That's just my opinion.
@aidi4886
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
Mate there is motr that 5 gates of human state you can open. This is not a discovery children call this second breath
@beldonhuang
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
Totally makes sense and easy to understand. Short and sweet. Fabulous
@MindyZielfelderArt
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
What if the thing that is stressing you out is just something you really, really, really don't want to do? There's nothing that can make me see miserable chores as positive or exciting challenges… especially when they are right after each other over and over again day after day ….
@internalinjectiontrulyhere6182
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
Lift your self
@internalinjectiontrulyhere6182
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
Sci.
@Sayed.Kabuli.1
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
But PTSD is not fun. When you suffer from intense Stress and flashbacks everyday..
@216trixie
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
I'm laughing at the commenters who "disagree" with her. What she's saying is factual.
@TheOfficialJingo
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
Thanks for taking on a new topic.
@Markus9705
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
What's next week? "Being overworked actually reduces the risk for cancer!"
@lake4ishikawa
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
Isn't this about being "strained"/"anxious", rather than long term accumulated stress? It looks quite a different state to me..
@erdwaenor
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
That sounds interesting; I'll remember to try next time I notice I'm stressed.
@BecomingAlpha1
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
Hmm acceptance is an interesting thing 😉
@456inthemix
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
Well – some people are high on pick, when they are "stressed", however, other stress like a loved one's death or you are always mobbed they are destructive. Stress is just a modern word being overly demanded.
@TheFishCostume
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
Why aren't we always like that, though?
@XenogeneGray
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
"Believe it or not" … not 🙂
@brod2man
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
Sounds super vague and probably a placebo effect.
I don't really appreciate these kinds of videos. They introduce ideas into my head that I can't prove or disprove. Then they confuse all of my other thoughts.
Really just seem like one person's opinion on anecdotal evidence/proper research.
Mindfulness already covers this all and doesn't include terms like "challenge stress" and "threat stress". Too buzz-wordy.
If it works for some people to think in this way, then great. But it just throws me off.
@KnightsAndDarths
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
Interesting. I have a challenge response whenever I feel I have at least a slight chance of succeeding. Depression took that away from me for a long time, I used to have a threat response to everything, but I'm slowly getting back the challenge spirit.
@surpemelololol
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
People need to actually watch the video before commenting god dam….Long term stress does not equal a situational flight or fight response.
@GioEarthling
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
http://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend 😀
@TodorAdventures
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
yee STRESS is SOo good , I WILL KILL SOMEONE ALALALALALLAL
@vasilicaqqq
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
i prefer to be relax,cant understand your point of view because in case of stress i get no focus(no focus = fail and negative results).So good luck with your stress,i would like to give it all to you,because in case of necesity i have adrenaline and doesen't come from stress
@MyMinorE
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
Need to be more clear on what type of stress is good for you. Because the stress I have will want to make you pull your fucking teeth out!
@reyh9894
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
This remenbered me the film "Wanted"
@computo2000
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
The challenge response isn't 100% good for you… If your body is not in the physical shape to devote energy into something, then I think it's better for you to avoid tasks than to have your brain get overworked… Of course I'm not addressing to situations where you get stressed out in a bad way but do the task anyway. I have no scientific facts to support what i'm saying, I am just using my common sense.
@rtjtjcdihgysupdrzvorief
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
Still depends on the stress level, but it can work. I got right from stress to flow today and I don't really know why it worked today when it didn't all the other times.
@thisnewfeatureisdum
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
Say that to my hairline ugh!
@tiliana
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
There is a big difference between Stress and Precaution
@adamgenova2916
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
Damn, I suffered from massive anxiety from the age of 12 and by the age of 18 I had heart palipitation and I was close to heart attack…Following your theory I should be a super hero by now…
@ENJOYtheVID17
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
i would say the the "challenge" state sounds like the Fight response – to fight you want to be running full capacity to perform the best and "beat the opponant-(bear/exam/other human etc…) the dread and anxiety is more of the flight response ,it duznt make sense to have a reflex that makes you anxious when you need to fight for you're life but it would make sense as a sign to get out of that situation
@hescamping5982
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
This reminded me that scene from rickie bobby where the red head chick talks about harnessing the fear
@asdasdasdasd7483
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
I've always considered this "challenge" response as a fight or flight response as well, in the sense you decide to "fight" the stressful situation under the influence of the adrenaline and all that other good stuff your body releases. I see it in the same way my body sees speaking in public as a paralyzing, destructive, near death experience: speaking in public is not life threatening, but my body reacts as it were; my fight is not literally a fight, but me challenging the situation, you know, "fighting it"
@noormansour6311
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
I have been training my mind to perceive stress as challenges and it actually have been a very interesting experience .. it is not something easy to do but it works very well when you get used to it .
@tomfool43
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
Seems wrong to call this stress. Challenge response, ok, but the stress that's killing so many of us a is a long-term thing imbedded deep in the unconscious. It sits there, continuously seeking out an explanation for its own existence in everyday stimuli and in that way keeps us constantly on edge, undermining health and happiness.
@thomascampidell
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
speaking as a psychology student, who just wrote a thesis about learning under stress i can say that what she refers to as a "challenging stress response" is basically just a stress response that is attenuated. There is an optimal activation level for learning / brain functioning, lower or higher than that sweet spot and we are less functional. Google Scholar: Inverted U-Shape stress
@Pirate_Clippy
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
PEOPLE! Reality can be counter intuitive, immediately refuting this just because you know how stress feels is kinda naive, and I know chemicals released during stress have been correlated with negative effects but like I said, it can be counter intuitive. Patronizing this theory is not so different from the guys that laughed at the idea of a spherical Earth just because the land looks flat and be like "Round Earth? What nonsense huehuehuehuehue".
The placebo effect has a role in this if it is true that your stress response is based on your perception of stress and anxiety.
@Nuurix
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 am
I can totally agree. I have this state sometimes in exams or high stake games when im in high compentition. What helps to get into this state is to close your eyes, breath very slow and count to 10 slowly. After that , before you open the eyes, you say to yourself "insert any sentence that makes you focus, such as "I will do this" or "I will make it" etc", you open eyes and fully focus. Ofc you have to realise you are in stress in the first place, only that way you can apply this technique. Learned this from a sports psychologist, and it worked wonders so far for me.
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