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?
Nekaj vam bom priznala, toda najprej si želim da nekaj malega vi priznate meni. Lepo prosim, če v odgovor kar dvignete roko tisti, ki ste v preteklem letu doživeli pretežno malo stresa. Je kdo?
How about a moderate amount of stress?
Kaj pa zmerno količino stresa?
Who has experienced a lot of stress? Yeah. Me too.
Kdo pa je doživel veliko stresa? Ja, tudi jaz sem ga.
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.
Toda to ni moje priznanje. Moje priznanje je naslednje: sem zdravstvena psihoginja in moja naloga je, da ljudem pomagam do sreče in zdravja. Vendar se bojim, da to, kar sem poučevala zadnjih deset let, povzroča več škode kot koristi, in ima veliko opraviti s stresom. Že leta ljudem govorim, da je stres tisti, ki te naredi bolnega. Da povečuje tveganje za vse, od običajnega prehlada do bolezni srca in ožilja. S tem s tem stres naredila za sovražnika. Toda moje prepričanje o stresu se je vendarle spremenilo, zato danes želim spremeniti tudi vaše prepričanje.
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.
Začeli bi z raziskavo, zaradi katere sem premislila o svojem celotnem pristopu k stresu. Študija je spremljala 30.000 odraslih v ZDA osem let tako, da jih je najprej vprašala, "Koliko stresa ste doživeli v preteklem letu?" Vprašanje je bilo še, "Ali verjamete, da je stres škodljiv za vaše zdravje?" Raziskava je nato uporabila javne podatke o umrljivosti
(Laughter)
da bi ugotovila, kdo je umrl.
(smeh)
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.
Dobro, za začetek nekaj slabih novic. Osebe, ki so v preteklem letu doživele veliko stresa so imele 43% večje tveganje za umrljivost. Toda to je veljalo le za tiste, ki so bili prepričani, da je stres zdravju škodljiv.
(Laughter)
(smeh)
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.
Osebe, ki so doživele veliko stresa, pa ga niso jemale kot zdravju škodljivega, niso imele povečane umrljivosti. Dejansko so imeli najnižje tveganje umrljivosti od vseh v študiji, vključujoč tudi tiste, ki so doživeli pretežno malo 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.
Raziskovalci so tako ocenili, da je v osmih letih spremljanja umrljivosti 182.000 Američanov umrlo prezgodnje smrti ne zaradi stresa, temveč zaradi prepričanja, da je stres nekaj slabega. (smeh)
(Laughter)
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 prek 20.000 umrlih na leto. Če je ta ocena točna, to pomeni, da je bilo slabo mnenje o stresu petnajsti največji povzročitelj smrtnih primerov v ZDA na leto, in ki pobije več ljudi od kožnega raka, virusa HIV/AIDS in umora.
(Laughter)
(smeh)
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.
Zdaj vidite, zakaj sem se ob tej študiji zgrozila. Pa toliko časa sem vložila v to, da sem ljudem govorila kako je stres zdravju škodljiv.
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.
Tako sem se pričela spraševati: Ali te lahko sprememba v mišljenju o stresu naredi bolj zdravega? Znanost pravi DA. Ko ti uspe spremeniti stališče o stresu, lahko spremeniš tudi telesne odzive 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.
Če želim razložiti kako to deluje, je potrebno, da se za trenutek prelevite v udeležence te raziskave, ki vas hoče vznemiriti. Imenuje se test socialnega stresa. Pridete v laboratorij, kjer se od vas pričakuje, da v petih minutah zaigrate nastop o vaših osebnih slabostih ocenjevalni žiriji, ki sedi pred vami, in da bi bili res pod pritiskom, so proti vašemu obrazu usmerili luč in kamero, nekako tako kot zdaj.
(Laughter)
And the evaluators have been trained to give you discouraging, non-verbal feedback, like this.
Ocenjevalci so zdaj poučeni da vam podajo zavračujoč neverbalni odziv, takole.
(Exhales)
(smeh)
(Laughter)
In zdaj ko ste že povsem čustveno na tleh
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.
pride drugi del: matematični test. Vi pa ne veste, da vas raziskovalec namerno pri tem še nadleguje. Zdaj pa bomo to poskusili narediti vsi skupaj. Saj bo zabavno. Zame.
Okay.
Ok. Torej želim, da vsi pričnete šteti nazaj
(Laughter)
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!
od 996 po minus sedem. To počnite naglas in hitro kot zmorete, začenši pri 996. Zdaj! (štetje)
(Audience counting)
Hitreje, hitreje prosim.
Go faster. Faster please. You're going too slow.
To je prepočasi.
(Audience counting)
Dovolj. Dovolj, dovolj, dovolj.
Stop. Stop, stop, stop. That guy made a mistake. We are going to have to start all over again.
Tisti moški je naredil napako. In zdaj bo treba spet od začetka.
(Laughter)
Niste ravno dobri v tem, kaj?
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.
OK. Torej veste o čem govorim. Če bi res sodelovali v tej raziskavi, bi najbrž bili malce pod stresom. Vaše srce bi najbrž močno bilo, dihali bi hitreje, se potili. Običajno te telesne spremembe razumemo kot tesnobo oz. znak, da se težko soočamo s stresom.
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.
Toda kaj pa, če bi te znake razumeli kot znake, da je vaše telo vznemirjeno zato, da vas pripravi na ta izziv? To je točno tisto, kar je bilo rečeno udeležencem raziskave na Harvardski univerzi. Preden so pričeli s testom socialnega stresa, so bili poučeni, da je stres nekaj, kar nam v resnici pomaga. Da nas hitro bitje srca pripravlja na delovanje. Če dihate hitreje, to še ni problem. Vaši možgani bodo prejeli več kisika. Tako so udeleženci, ki so svoje odzive na stres jemali kot pomoč za lastno udejstvovanje, bili dejansko manj vznemirjeni, manj tesnobni, bolj samozavestni. Toda najbolj navdušujoče spoznanje zame je bilo, kako se je njihov odziv na stres spremenil.
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.
V tipični stresni situaciji se bo pospešil vaš srčni utrip, vaše žile se bodo takole krčile. To je eden od razlogov, da je kronični stres včasih povezan s težavami srca in ožilja. Ni zdravo biti pod stresom ves čas. Vendar, ko so udeleženci raziskave opazovali svoj odziv na stres kot nekaj koristnega, so njihove žile ostale lepo sproščene. Takole. Srce je resda še vedno razbijalo, toda to je bila vendarle veliko bolj zdrava srčno-žilna slika. V resnici je izgledalo tako kot v trenutkih radosti in poguma. Če opazujemo stres skozi celotno življenje, lahko ena takšna biološka sprememba pomeni razliko med s stresom povzročenim zastojem srca v petdesetih in vašim zdravim življenjem v devetdesetih. In nova znanost o stresu razkriva natanko to: da je pravzaprav naše stališče do stresa pomembno.
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.
Tako se je moral spremeniti tudi moj strokovni cilj. Nič več si ne želim, da bi se rešili vašega stresa. Odslej vas hočem na stres le bolje pripraviti. Pravkar smo tudi sami naredili mali ukrep. Če ste dvignili roko in rekli da ste v preteklem letu doživeli veliko stresa, potem smo vam lahko rešili življenje, kajti ko vam bo naslednjič srce močno razbijalo se boste morda spomnili mojega govora, in boste pomislili, v bistvu mi telo le pomaga pri soočanju z izzivom. Ko na stres gledate na tak način, vam telo verjame,
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.
tako bo tudi vaš odziv na stres postal bolj zdrav. Rekla sem, da se vam moram za več kot desetletje dolgega zastraševanja s stresom z nečim odkupiti, zato bomo izvedli še zadnji ukrep. Rada bi vam povedala o enem najbolj podcenjevanem vidiku odziva na stres, ki se glasi:
To understand this side of stress,
Stres te naredi družabnega.
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 bi razumeli ta vidik stresa, je potrebno spregovoriti o hormonu oksitocinu, in vem, da je oksitocin že na splošno priljubljen med hormoni. Ima že celo ljubkovalno ime, tj. hormon objemanja, saj se sprošča ravno, ko smo v objemu. Toda to je majhen delček tega, v kar je oksitocin vpleten.
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 živčni hormon. Možganom pomaga uglasiti naše zmožnosti za odnose. Izpopolni vas tako, da počnete stvari, ki utrdijo vaše intimne odnose. Oksitocin ustvarja potrebo po telesni bližini s prijatelji, družino. Poveča vaše sočutje. Še več, naredi vas bolj pripravljene, da pomagate in podpirate ljudi, ki vam pomenijo. Nekateri celo menijo, da bi morali oksitocin njuhati, da bi postali še bolj sočutni in skrbni. Toda obstaja nekaj, česar ljudje ne razumejo o oksitocinu. Da gre za stresni hormon. In vaša nadledvična žleza ga brizga ven kot del stresnega odziva. Je prav tako del stresnega odziva kot adrenalin, ki vam omogoča bitje srca. In ko je oksitocin sproščen v stresnem odzivu, vas spodbuja, da si poiščete podporo. Vaš biološki odziv na stres vas pozove, da nekomu zaupate vaše počutje in ne da ga zadržujete v sebi. Stresni odziv je tam tudi zato, da opazite ko je nekdo drug v vaši bližini v stiski da lahko drug drugemu pomagate. Ko je v življenju težko, stresni odziv od vas zahteva da ste obkroženi z ljudmi, ki vas imajo radi.
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.
Torej kako vam lahko ta vidik stresa pomaga do boljšega zdravja? Namreč, oksitocin nima učinka le v možganih. Tudi na telo ima učinek, saj je ena od njegovih glavnih vlog v telesu da ščiti sistem srca in ožilja pred učinki stresa. To je naravni protivnetni mehanizem. In kljub stresu našemu ožilju pomaga, da ostane sproščeno. Moj najljubši učinek na telo je seveda učinek na srce. Vaše srce prek receptorjev sprejema ta hormon, in oksitocin pomaga, da se srčne celice regenerirajo ter pozdravijo od škodljivih posledic stresa. Ta stresni hormon opolnomoči 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.
in kar je še najboljše, vse telesne prednosti oksitocina se povečujejo s pomočjo odnosov z drugimi in socialne podpore, tako da ko se pod stresom obračate k drugim, bodisi iščoč pomoč ali pa isto nudite drugemu, sproščate več tega hormona, vaš odziv na stres postane zdrav, in dejansko od stresa tudi hitreje okrevate. Mar ni izjemno, da ima odziv na stres že vgrajen mehanizem za njegovo odpornost, ki se mu reče človeška 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.
Zaključila bi s tem, da vam povem še o eni raziskavi. Poslušajte pozorno,kajti lahko, da bo komu rešila tudi življenje. Raziskava je spremljala okoli 1000 odraslih Američanov, starih med 34 in 93 let, pričela pa se je z vprašanjem, "Koliko stresa ste doživeli v preteklem letu?" Spraševala je tudi, "Koliko časa ste preživeli tako, da ste pomagali prijateljem, sosedom in drugim ljudem v vaši skupnosti?" Nato so uporabili javne podatke za naslednjih pet let, da bi ugotovili, kdo je umrl.
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.
Ok, torej najprej slabe novice: vsaka večja stresna izkušnja, kot npr. finančne težave ali družinska kriza, je tveganje za umrljivost povečala za 30 odstotkov. Toda - upam, da ste sedaj ta ´toda´ že pričakovali - to ni držalo za vse. Za osebe, ki so živele tako, da so pomagale drugim, se je izkazalo, da se umrljivost ni nič povečala. Nič. Skrb za druge je ustvarila odpornost.
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.
Torej lahko vidimo da se škodljivim posledicam stresa lahko izognemo. Način mišljenja in odzivanja lahko spremeni stresno izkušnjo. Ko izberete, da stresni odziv obravnavate kot nekaj koristnega, s tem ustvarjate zmožnosti za pogum. Ko se pod stresom odločite še povezovati z drugimi, lahko ustvarite odpornost. Seveda si sama ne bi ravno želela več stresnih izkušenj v življenju, toda znanost mi je omogočila da sem pričela stres še bolj ceniti. Stres nam omogoča dostop do naših src. Sočutno srce, ki najde veselje in pomen v povezovanju z drugimi, in seveda, vaše bitje srca gara zato, da vam daje moč in energijo. Ko se odločite gledati na stres na tak način, niste le boljši v stresu, temveč s tem kažete tudi globoko stališče. S tem sporočate, da si lahko bolj zaupate pri soočanju z življenjskimi izzivi, in da dobro veste, da pri tem niste sami.
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(aplavz)
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: Res je neverjetno, kar nam govorite. Najbolj pa seveda to, da lahko prepričanje o stresu naredi takšen učinek na posameznikovo življenjsko dobo. Kaj bi svetovali nekomu, ki je pred izbiro življenjskega stila med npr. stresnim poklicem in ne-stresnim poklicem, ali je torej sploh pomembno katero smer izberejo? Je enako modro sprejeti tudi stresni poklic dokler verjameš, da ga lahko obvladaš?
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.
Kelly McGonigal: Da, namreč vedeti moramo da je slediti pomenu v življenju bolj zdravo kot se izogibati neugodju. Rekla bi tudi, da je najboljši način za odločanje, da slediš temu, kar ti pomeni v življenju, nato si zaupaj, da boš zmogel premagati stres, ki tej izbiri sledi.
CA: Thank you so much, Kelly. It's pretty cool.
CA: Najlepša hvala, Kelly, to je super. KM: Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(aplavz)