--Original published at Grace's College Blog
In Kelly McGonigal’s TED talk, “How to make stress your friend,” she discusses changing our relationship with stress and how we can interpret the physical reactions our bodies have to stress. I believe Kelly to be very credible. She is a health psychologist and after reading a study that conflicted with her beliefs, instead of dismissing it she continued to do more research and adapted her methods of helping people cope with stress.
I thoroughly enjoyed this TED talk and will definitely apply her methods to my life and how I deal with stress. I feel her method of managing stress in new ways is very reasonable and easily applicable to everyone. She discussed how people who described their stress as helpful in situations were much more confident because their body was preparing them instead of making them unsure and nervous. She also talked about how people who were involved in the betterment of people close to them, had a better time handling stress. Also just being around people you care about, can help with stress. I think this can be applied to my life when I am preparing for a test or a presentation, I can prepare with other people. If I am alone in my room going over a presentation or studying, I will be significantly more stressed than if I were to do my presentation in from of someone that I know. Having that relief of knowing that person will make it less stressful and make it easier when you have to present for real. I do not think I currently have the best strategies for dealing with stress, but when I am struggling to work on homework, I ask someone else to work on homework with me, so I am more motivated and help responsible because I asked someone else to work with me.