Great Facts: To cope with stress, change how you think about it

A man leans against a white wall with his hand over his face and his other arm crossed

We tend to think of stress as a bad thing that affects our health and well-being. But is that always the case?

The way we think about stress makes a huge difference in how stress affects us, says Bridgette Hard, associate professor of the practice of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University. Reframing our ideas about stress can reduce its harmful impacts.

“We’ve been told for decades that stress is really bad for us. It’s bad for our health, for our well-being, and even for our work performance. And there’s a good reason to believe this is true. There’s a lot of scientific evidence suggesting that stress can be bad,” Hard says.

“But some more recent research is suggesting that we haven’t had a full picture of actually how stress works and how we can manage it more effectively.”

In this video, Hard explains how we can use our stress, both to fuel us and let us know when its time to reach out for support: