I have a confession to make. But first, I want you to make a little confession to me. In the past year, I want you to just raise your hand if you've experienced relatively little stress. Anyone?
Imam vam nešto za priznati. Ali prije toga, htjela bih da vi meni nešto priznate. Podignite ruku ako ste u posljednjih godinu dana proživjeli relativno malu količinu stresa. Itko?
How about a moderate amount of stress?
A umjerenu količinu stresa?
Who has experienced a lot of stress? Yeah. Me too.
Tko je doživio mnogo stresa? Da. I ja.
But that is not my confession. My confession is this: I am a health psychologist, and my mission is to help people be happier and healthier. But I fear that something I've been teaching for the last 10 years is doing more harm than good, and it has to do with stress. For years I've been telling people, stress makes you sick. It increases the risk of everything from the common cold to cardiovascular disease. Basically, I've turned stress into the enemy. But I have changed my mind about stress, and today, I want to change yours.
Ali moje priznanje nije to. Moje priznanje je: Stručnjakinja sam u psihologiji zdravlja i cilj mi je pomoći ljudima da budu sretniji i zdraviji. Ipak, bojim se da nešto čemu poučavam posljednjih 10 godina uzrokuje više štete nego koristi, a ima veze sa stresom. Godinama govorim ljudima da zbog stresa mogu oboljeti, da povećava rizik od bolesti, od obične prehlade do kardiovaskularnih bolesti. Dakle, pretvarala sam stres u neprijatelja. Međutim, promijenila sam mišljenje i danas želim promijeniti vaše.
Let me start with the study that made me rethink my whole approach to stress. This study tracked 30,000 adults in the United States for eight years, and they started by asking people, "How much stress have you experienced in the last year?" They also asked, "Do you believe that stress is harmful for your health?" And then they used public death records to find out who died.
Započet ću osvrćući se na istraživanje koje je potpuno promijenilo moje viđenje stresa. Istraživanje je osam godina pratilo 30 000 odraslih osoba u SAD-u. Započeli su pitanjem: "Koliko ste stresa iskusili u posljednjih godinu dana?" Pitali su i "Vjerujete li da stres šteti vašem zdravlju?" Zatim su iskoristili javno dostupne baze podataka da otkriju tko je umro.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Okay. Some bad news first. People who experienced a lot of stress in the previous year had a 43 percent increased risk of dying. But that was only true for the people who also believed that stress is harmful for your health.
U redu. Prvo loše vijesti. Kod ljudi koji su prethodne godine iskusili mnogo stresa, rizik od smrti bio je 43% veći. Ali to je istina samo za ljude koji su istovremeno vjerovali da je stres štetan za zdravlje.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
People who experienced a lot of stress but did not view stress as harmful were no more likely to die. In fact, they had the lowest risk of dying of anyone in the study, including people who had relatively little stress.
Kod ljudi koji su proživjeli mnogo stresa, ali nisu vjerovali da je štetan, rizik se nije povećavao. Štoviše, imali su najmanji postotak rizika od svih sudionika, uključujući ljude s relativno malom razinom stresa.
Now the researchers estimated that over the eight years they were tracking deaths, 182,000 Americans died prematurely, not from stress, but from the belief that stress is bad for you.
Istraživači su procijenili da je u osam godina koliko su pratili smrtnost, 182 000 Amerikanaca preuranjeno umrlo, ne od stresa, već od uvjerenja da je stres štetan za zdravlje.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
That is over 20,000 deaths a year. Now, if that estimate is correct, that would make believing stress is bad for you the 15th largest cause of death in the United States last year, killing more people than skin cancer, HIV/AIDS and homicide.
To je više od 20 000 smrti svake godine. Ako su ove procjene točne, to znači da je vjerovanje u štetnost stresa 15. najrašireniji uzrok smrtnosti u SAD-u u posljednjih godinu dana. Ubilo je više ljudi nego melanom, HIV i ubojice.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
You can see why this study freaked me out. Here I've been spending so much energy telling people stress is bad for your health.
Jasno vam je zašto me ovo istraživanje prestravilo. Ja sam se iz petnih žila trudila uvjeriti ljude da je stres štetan za njihovo zdravlje.
So this study got me wondering: Can changing how you think about stress make you healthier? And here the science says yes. When you change your mind about stress, you can change your body's response to stress.
To me istraživanje zaintrigiralo: Može li promjena pogleda na stres pozitivno utjecati na zdravlje? Znanost kaže da. Kad promijenite svoj pogled na stres, promijenit ćete reakciju vašeg tijela na stres.
Now to explain how this works, I want you all to pretend that you are participants in a study designed to stress you out. It's called the social stress test. You come into the laboratory, and you're told you have to give a five-minute impromptu speech on your personal weaknesses to a panel of expert evaluators sitting right in front of you, and to make sure you feel the pressure, there are bright lights and a camera in your face, kind of like this.
Objasnit ću vam kako to funkcionira. Voljela bih da se svi pretvarate da sudjelujete u istraživanju predviđenom da inducira stres. Zove se test društvenog pritiska. Došli ste u laboratorij i rečeno vam je da morate bez pripreme održati petominutni govor o svojim slabim točkama pred stručnom komisijom. A da budu sigurni da ste pod pritiskom, u lice vam se unose kamere i blješte reflektori. Nešto kao ovo ovdje.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
And the evaluators have been trained to give you discouraging, non-verbal feedback, like this.
A članovi komisije uvježbani su da vas svojim držanjem obeshrabruju. Ovako.
(Exhales)
(Uzdah)
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Now that you're sufficiently demoralized, time for part two: a math test. And unbeknownst to you, the experimenter has been trained to harass you during it. Now we're going to all do this together. It's going to be fun. For me.
Kada vas dovoljno demoraliziraju, vrijeme je za drugi dio: matematički test. A bez vašeg znanja, ispitivač je uvježban da vas cijelo vrijeme uznemiruje. Sada ćemo pokušati svi zajedno. Bit će zabavno. Meni.
Okay.
Krećemo.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
I want you all to count backwards from 996 in increments of seven. You're going to do this out loud, as fast as you can, starting with 996. Go!
Brojat ćete unatrag od 996, sedam po sedam. Brojat ćete naglas, što brže možete, počevši od 996. Krenite!
(Audience counting)
(Publika broji)
Go faster. Faster please. You're going too slow.
Brže. Brže, molim. Prespori ste.
(Audience counting)
(Publika broji)
Stop. Stop, stop, stop. That guy made a mistake. We are going to have to start all over again.
Stanite. Dosta, stanite. Ovaj je pogriješio. Moramo početi ispočetka.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
You're not very good at this, are you? Okay, so you get the idea. If you were actually in this study, you'd probably be a little stressed out. Your heart might be pounding, you might be breathing faster, maybe breaking out into a sweat. And normally, we interpret these physical changes as anxiety or signs that we aren't coping very well with the pressure.
Ne ide vam ovo baš, ha? Shvatili ste poantu, da ste uistinu dio ovog istraživanja, bili biste pod stresom. Srce bi vam lupalo, disanje ubrzalo, možda biste se preznojili. Obično ovakve fizičke promjene interpretiramo kao tjeskobu ili znakove da se ne nosimo najbolje s pritiskom.
But what if you viewed them instead as signs that your body was energized, was preparing you to meet this challenge? Now that is exactly what participants were told in a study conducted at Harvard University. Before they went through the social stress test, they were taught to rethink their stress response as helpful. That pounding heart is preparing you for action. If you're breathing faster, it's no problem. It's getting more oxygen to your brain. And participants who learned to view the stress response as helpful for their performance, well, they were less stressed out, less anxious, more confident, but the most fascinating finding to me was how their physical stress response changed.
Ali što ako bismo ih tumačili kao naznake da se tijelo puni energijom, priprema vas za suočavanje s izazovom? Upravo je to rečeno sudionicima istraživanja na Harvardu. Prije pristupanja testu društvenog pritiska, poučeni su da gledaju na svoju reakciju na stres kao korisnu. Lupanje srca priprema te na akciju. Ubrzano disanje nije problem, dovodi više kisika tvom mozgu. Sudionici koji su naučili gledati svoju reakciju na stres kao korisnu, proživjeli su manje stresa, tjeskobe, bili su samouvjereniji. Za mene je najzanimljivije bilo u kolikoj se mjeri promijenio njihov fizički odgovor na stres.
Now, in a typical stress response, your heart rate goes up, and your blood vessels constrict like this. And this is one of the reasons that chronic stress is sometimes associated with cardiovascular disease. It's not really healthy to be in this state all the time. But in the study, when participants viewed their stress response as helpful, their blood vessels stayed relaxed like this. Their heart was still pounding, but this is a much healthier cardiovascular profile. It actually looks a lot like what happens in moments of joy and courage. Over a lifetime of stressful experiences, this one biological change could be the difference between a stress-induced heart attack at age 50 and living well into your 90s. And this is really what the new science of stress reveals, that how you think about stress matters.
Kod tipične reakcije na stres, poveća se broj otkucaja i krvne se žile stisnu, ovako. Upravo je to jedan od razloga zašto se kronični stres ponekad vezuje uz kardiovaskularne bolesti. Nije zdravo nalaziti se konstantno u ovom stanju. U ovom istraživanju, kada su sudionici gledali na svoje reakcije kao pomoć, njihove su krvne žile ostale opuštene, ovako. Srce im je lupalo, ali sveukupna kardiovaskularna slika bila je zdravija. Slična se reakcija dogodi u trenucima sreće i hrabrosti. Kada je u pitanju život pod stresom, ovakva jedna biološka promjena može značiti razliku između stresom uzrokovanog srčanog udara u 50-oj i života daleko iza 90-e. Upravo to potvrdila su nova istraživanja stresa, da je važno kako gledamo na stres.
So my goal as a health psychologist has changed. I no longer want to get rid of your stress. I want to make you better at stress. And we just did a little intervention. If you raised your hand and said you'd had a lot of stress in the last year, we could have saved your life, because hopefully the next time your heart is pounding from stress, you're going to remember this talk and you're going to think to yourself, this is my body helping me rise to this challenge. And when you view stress in that way, your body believes you, and your stress response becomes healthier.
Zato, moj se cilj promijenio. Više ne pokušavam eliminirati stres. Želim vas naučiti da budete bolji u njemu. I upravo smo proveli jednu malu intervenciju. Ako ste podigli ruku jer ste u protekloj godini proživjeli mnogo stresa, možda smo vam spasili život jer ćete se, sljedeći put kad vam se srce uzlupa od stresa, sjetiti ovog govora i pomisliti: moje mi tijelo upravo pomaže suočiti se s izazovom. Kad na ovaj način gledate na stres, tijelo vam povjeruje i vaša je reakcija na stres zdravija.
Now I said I have over a decade of demonizing stress to redeem myself from, so we are going to do one more intervention. I want to tell you about one of the most under-appreciated aspects of the stress response, and the idea is this: Stress makes you social.
Rekla sam vam da se imam iskupiti za deset godina ocrnjivanja stresa, zato ćemo prirediti još jednu intervenciju. Predstavit ću vam jedan od najpodcijenjenijih aspekata reakcije na stres, a to je: Stres vas čini društvenima.
To understand this side of stress, we need to talk about a hormone, oxytocin, and I know oxytocin has already gotten as much hype as a hormone can get. It even has its own cute nickname, the cuddle hormone, because it's released when you hug someone. But this is a very small part of what oxytocin is involved in.
Da bismo razumjeli ovu stranu stresa, potrebno se osvrnuti na jedan hormon, na oksitocin. Svjesna sam da je oksitocin već popularan koliko to hormon može biti, ima i vlastiti nadimak, hormon ljubavi, jer se ispušta prilikom zagrljaja, ali to je tek manji dio funkcija oksitocina.
Oxytocin is a neuro-hormone. It fine-tunes your brain's social instincts. It primes you to do things that strengthen close relationships. Oxytocin makes you crave physical contact with your friends and family. It enhances your empathy. It even makes you more willing to help and support the people you care about. Some people have even suggested we should snort oxytocin... to become more compassionate and caring. But here's what most people don't understand about oxytocin. It's a stress hormone. Your pituitary gland pumps this stuff out as part of the stress response. It's as much a part of your stress response as the adrenaline that makes your heart pound. And when oxytocin is released in the stress response, it is motivating you to seek support. Your biological stress response is nudging you to tell someone how you feel, instead of bottling it up. Your stress response wants to make sure you notice when someone else in your life is struggling so that you can support each other. When life is difficult, your stress response wants you to be surrounded by people who care about you.
Oksitocin je neurohormon. Oblikuje društvene instinkte našeg mozga. Potiče nas da radimo stvari kojima gradimo bliske društvene veze. Zbog njega žudimo za fizičkim kontaktom s obitelji i prijateljima. Pospješuje empatiju. Čak nas čini voljnijima pružiti pomoć i podršku ljudima do kojih nam je stalo. Neki su ljudi čak predlagali da bismo trebali snifati oksitocin da postanemo brižniji i suosjećajniji. Međutim, ljudi ne shvaćaju jednu stvar. Oksitocin je hormon stresa. Hipofiza ga izlučuje kao odgovor na stres. Dio je vaše reakcije na stres koliko i adrenalin od kojeg vam srce počinje lupati. Oksitocin ispušten u stresnoj situaciji motivira nas da tražimo podršku. Vaš biološki odgovor na stres potiče vas da nekome kažete kako se osjećate umjesto da potiskujete osjećaje. Tijelo vas potiče da primijetite kad je nekom drugom u vašoj okolini teško, da možete podržati jedan drugoga. U teškim trenucima, takav odgovor na stres potiče vas da se okružite ljudima kojima je stalo do vas.
Okay, so how is knowing this side of stress going to make you healthier? Well, oxytocin doesn't only act on your brain. It also acts on your body, and one of its main roles in your body is to protect your cardiovascular system from the effects of stress. It's a natural anti-inflammatory. It also helps your blood vessels stay relaxed during stress. But my favorite effect on the body is actually on the heart. Your heart has receptors for this hormone, and oxytocin helps heart cells regenerate and heal from any stress-induced damage. This stress hormone strengthens your heart.
U redu. Ali kako će vas poznavanje ove strane stresa učiniti zdravijima? Pa, oksitocin ne utječe samo na mozak. Utječe na cijelo tijelo, a jedna od njegovih primarnih uloga je zaštita kardiovaskularnog sustava od posljedica stresa. Prirodno je protuupalno sredstvo. Pomaže i da se krvne žile ne stegnu pod utjecajem stresa. Ipak, meni najdraži je utjecaj koji ima na srce. Na srcu se nalaze receptori za ovaj hormon, a on pomaže regeneraciji srčanih stanica i zacjeljivanju štete uzrokovane stresom. Ovaj hormon stresa osnažuje vaše srce.
And the cool thing is that all of these physical benefits of oxytocin are enhanced by social contact and social support. So when you reach out to others under stress, either to seek support or to help someone else, you release more of this hormone, your stress response becomes healthier, and you actually recover faster from stress. I find this amazing, that your stress response has a built-in mechanism for stress resilience, and that mechanism is human connection.
Odlično je što se sve ove pozitivne fizičke posljedice pospješuju kroz društveni kontakt i potporu. Dakle, kada pod stresom zatražite pomoć od okoline tražeći podršku ili pružite pomoć drugoj osobi, lučite više ovog hormona, vaš odgovor na stres postaje zdraviji i brže se oporavljate od stresa. Fascinira me da naše tijelo ima urođeni mehanizam za nošenje sa stresom, a taj je mehanizam ljudska povezanost.
I want to finish by telling you about one more study. And listen up, because this study could also save a life. This study tracked about 1,000 adults in the United States, and they ranged in age from 34 to 93, and they started the study by asking, "How much stress have you experienced in the last year?" They also asked, "How much time have you spent helping out friends, neighbors, people in your community?" And then they used public records for the next five years to find out who died.
Završila bih spomenuvši još jedno istraživanje. Slušajte dobro, jer i ovo bi vam moglo spasiti život. Praćeno je oko 1 000 odraslih osoba u SAD-u, u rasponu od 34 do 93 godine, a započeli su pitanjem: "Koliko ste stresa doživjeli u posljednjih godinu dana?" Pitali su i "Koliko ste vremena proveli pomažući prijateljima, susjedima, ljudima u vašoj zajednici?" I sljedećih su pet godina u javno dostupnim bazama pratili tko je umro.
Okay, so the bad news first: For every major stressful life experience, like financial difficulties or family crisis, that increased the risk of dying by 30 percent. But -- and I hope you are expecting a "but" by now -- but that wasn't true for everyone. People who spent time caring for others showed absolutely no stress-related increase in dying. Zero. Caring created resilience.
Prvo loše vijesti: Svako je stresno životno iskustvo, poput financijskih poteškoća ili problema u obitelji, povećalo rizik od smrti za 30%. Međutim -- a nadam se da nakon ovoga očekujete "međutim" -- međutim, to se nije pokazalo točnim za svakog. Ljudi koji su uložili vrijeme u pomaganje drugima nisu pokazali povećanje smrtnosti vezano uz stres. Niti malo. Brigom su izgradili otpornost.
And so we see once again that the harmful effects of stress on your health are not inevitable. How you think and how you act can transform your experience of stress. When you choose to view your stress response as helpful, you create the biology of courage. And when you choose to connect with others under stress, you can create resilience. Now I wouldn't necessarily ask for more stressful experiences in my life, but this science has given me a whole new appreciation for stress. Stress gives us access to our hearts. The compassionate heart that finds joy and meaning in connecting with others, and yes, your pounding physical heart, working so hard to give you strength and energy. And when you choose to view stress in this way, you're not just getting better at stress, you're actually making a pretty profound statement. You're saying that you can trust yourself to handle life's challenges. And you're remembering that you don't have to face them alone.
Ovo još jednom dokazuje da štetan utjecaj stresa na zdravlje nije neizbježan. Naš način razmišljanja i djelovanja može potpuno promijeniti naš doživljaj stresa. Kada odlučite reakcije na stres vidjeti kao korisne, gradite biološku hrabrost. A kad se pod stresom odlučite pružiti ruku drugima, gradite otpornost. Ne priželjkujem si nužno više stresnih iskustava u životu, ali zbog ovih istraživanja počela sam cijeniti stres. Stres otvara vrata naših srca. Milosrdnih srca koja pronalaze sreću i značenje povezujući se s drugima. Ali i fizičkom srcu koje kuca iz sve snage, daje sve od sebe da nam podari snagu i energiju. A kada odlučite na taj način gledati na stres, ne samo da se bolje nosite s njim, već činite važan korak, izjavljujete samima sebi da vjerujete u svoju sposobnost da se nosite sa životnim izazovima i podsjećate se da se s njima ne morate suočiti sami.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
Chris Anderson: This is kind of amazing, what you're telling us. It seems amazing to me that a belief about stress can make so much difference to someone's life expectancy. How would that extend to advice, like, if someone is making a lifestyle choice between, say, a stressful job and a non-stressful job, does it matter which way they go? It's equally wise to go for the stressful job so long as you believe that you can handle it, in some sense?
Chris Anderson: Ovo što nam govorite je nevjerojatno. Nevjerojatno je da nečiji pogled na stres može u toj mjeri utjecati na njihov očekivani životni vijek. Kako biste to pretočili u savjet? Kad netko, na primjer, mora odlučiti između stresnog posla ili onog bez stresa, je li važno za što se odluče? Je li jednako mudro odlučiti se za stresan posao ako vjerujete da se možete nositi s njim?
KM: Yeah, and one thing we know for certain is that chasing meaning is better for your health than trying to avoid discomfort. And so I would say that's really the best way to make decisions, is go after what it is that creates meaning in your life and then trust yourself to handle the stress that follows.
KM: Da, ono u što smo sigurni je potraga za značenjem, smislom, bolja je za zdravlje nego izbjegavanje nelagode. Zato, rekla bih da je najbolji način donošenja odluka utrka za nečim što će vašem životu dati smisao, a nakon toga vjera da se možete nositi sa stresom.
CA: Thank you so much, Kelly. It's pretty cool.
CA: Puno vam hvala, Kelly. To je izvrsno.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)