Remember I posted before about how stress is actually good for us, as long as we really, truly believe it?


And that doing a strong pose  like "Wonder Woman" or Superman" (possibly somewhere private!)  can help us beat anxiety?


And now, this research says if we tell ourselves we're excited  when stressed, rather than try to calm ourselves down, we get good stress instead of the damaging kind!

I had the opportunity to test this out earlier this week ....

I was driving the digger and we were using it to lift the (nearly 2 ton) concrete septic tank into a 2 metre deep hole we'd dug in the ground.  We had one shot at this.  If the lifting chains broke, the tank would smash to the ground and break.  If the digger couldn't take the load, the digger would break as well. 

All costly problems. 

I was stressed. 

So I had a chat with myself and decided to see it as an exciting challenge instead - I'd never done this before and probably would never have the chance to do it again.   It was a once-in-a-lifetime event for me.

So I went for it. 

And it went in like a dream.  Yay!   Touchdown!   Never touched the sides. 

AND I was able to ENJOY doing it, instead of feeling that old, crappy stomach-churning, tears-pricking-the-eyes vibe.....  

Yep!  Cool trick!   This one's a keeper .....

Back in July I posted about new research that found most stress we feel is not bad for us. 

Yeah!  Not at all!   

The problem?  This only  works as long as we truly believe it. 

It's the worrying about being stressed that actually narrows our arteries and causes our illnesses.

This is so amazing, I thought I'd mention it again and pass on this TED talk about it.

Before my training in self mastery, I found it impossible to change my stress response.   And it was doubly hard to convince myself my stress wasn't bad for me.  Because it FELT so bad back then.

It doesn't help either when someone tries to remind us the stress we're feeling is nothing to worry about.   Calm down?  Really? 

Nope.  Doesn't help at all.

But I know it IS possible to change.  And now I choose to love the way my body prepares me to act when I think anxious thoughts.  

It can be quite a revelation to watch myself when those wild stress hormones turn up. 

We really shouldn't be so hard on them.  They're only doing their job......