A bit of stress can help the heart

[mbheart]

"A bit of stress can help the heart" - listen to this entire TEDTalk - ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonig...

[CDreamer]

Interesting. I understand and agree with the hypothesis. I was always fascinated and although I was not a research Psychologist, made many case studies of people who coped well with stress and were high achievers those who didn’t and found that it was the difference between - stress which is energising and that which people found distressing.

Athletes use stress as a performance indicator and at the moment there is a lot of work going on as to the optimum amount of stress as to how and when an elite athelete hypes themselves up just before a start to achieve maximum performance - without going too far which raising cortisol which inhibits performance.

Excitement and Anxiety are polar ends and extremes of the adrenaline continuum - just depends upon the lens through which you view.

Finding that sweet spot of balance between the two and putting into practice, is a lot harder than it sounds but is exactly what Psychololgy and Mindfulness teaches. That’s also why competitors visualise over and over and visualise and believe they can win - you can have the most tuned body but at that level so has everyone else but without the belief you can win, useless.

The caveat are people who have experienced trauma and/or abuse, especially in childhood and are just unable to trust themselves or anyone or anything else.

Perception truly is everything - now apply to AF anxiety.

[BobD Volunteer]

The human with zero stress is almost dead and most body functions will be shutting down.

Stress is important for all functions BUT if stress becomes distress that is when the problems start. Understanding the difference between good stress and distress is the secret. What I do believe both from observation of others and in myself is that as we get older that balance becomes harder to create and distress starts to become the fall back position. I'm sure others far more clever than I will be able to explain this.

As an example last evening a neighbour called with a suspension arm off his car which needed a ball joint pressing out and a new one fitting. Half way through the job which should have taken ten minutes Sam call for dinner and having agreed a ten minute delay I attempted to finish the job. Sadly my fingers became thumbs and in the end I had to ask him to come back an hour later. After eating and under no pressure from the boss I popped outside and finished the job in two minutes.

[doodle68]

A bit of stress is a normal part of human life and produces the necessary hormones to allow the 'fight or flight response' . I believe those same hormones if activated too often can cause that enemy of the heart inflammation and I think some of us are seeing the results of a very stressful life manifesting itself in AF in later life.

youtu.be/p49-vxexVFE(Not working as expected?)

more on the stress hormones...

healthline.com/health-news/...

[CDreamer in reply to doodle68]

It’s more about how you perceive stress - change your belief about stress and you change the physical response - as was explained in the original video.

[doodle68 in reply to CDreamer]

Hi CD 😊 the very young can't 'perceive' and 'change their beliefs' stress can be an uncontrolled reaction .

My mother died when I was 16 months old and I am pretty sure subsequent events caused myself and my siblings considerable uncontrollable stress and that has continued throughout our lives.

[CDreamer in reply to doodle68]

As adults - we can! Have done & helped many people as to how to. It’s whether or not you want to. I probably have many of my health issues because of early stress but it also helped me become a lot more resilient.

My mother died when I was 3 - same affect & yet I have changed my perception & beliefs - from ‘how tragic’ to wow look how well I’ve done!

As children we absorb the reactions of the adults around us - I was surrounded by traumatised people who thought it was tragic. Once in my 20’s I realised I was the master of my own destiny - I fought, I rebelled & found another path.

I’ve never been happier.

[mbheart in reply to CDreamer]

Exactly! My father died of suicide when I was 4. Certainly we would all do better without stress in our lives but how we approach and perceive it can help us cope and take control, to some extent. That is the point here, in my mind.

[Hidden]

Not mine

[afafaf]

If you don't have afib, maybe. I'd rather avoid it at this point in my life.

[CDreamer in reply to afafaf]

I’d rather not too but there are far worse things which have curtailed my activities.

My experience is that there is a lot of learning in ill health and focussing on what you can do rather than what you can’t is essential.