Chapter 1: What are the effects of stress on our thinking?
A lot of people are feeling stressed right now. And you think you know what stress feels like. Faster heartbeat, tight shoulders, feeling overwhelmed. But what if the biggest impact of stress isn't how it makes you feel, it's how it makes you think? That's today's SYSK trending topic, how stress distorts your thinking. Under pressure, your brain shifts into a different mode.
You become more reactive, more negative, and more convinced that the worst case scenario is right around the corner. You may think you're being logical, but stress quietly narrows your perspective and exaggerates the danger. In my conversation with clinical psychologist Arthur Sierra-McCauley, we explore what's happening in your brain when stress rises.
And more importantly, we'll share practical techniques you can use right away to regain clarity and keep stress from running the show.
Chapter 2: How does stress alter our brain's functioning?
And we'll get to it in just a moment.
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People throw around the word stress a lot. As in, I'm under stress. This stress is killing me. My life is so stressful. But what's interesting to me about stress is that stress is something we really impose on ourselves for the most part, which means it's really up to us to manage it and eliminate it when we can. Someone who understands stress really well is Dr. Arthur Sierra-McCauley.
He's a clinical psychologist and author of the book, The Stress Solution. And I think when you listen to him, you'll have a better understanding of what stress really is, what it does, and how to manage it and control it better. Hey, Arthur, welcome.
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
So everyone knows that feeling of stress, but how do you define it? What is it exactly?
Well, stress really is produced mostly by misperception. When we're perceiving inaccurately, we produce stress and we produce the stress hormone cortisol.
And when we do that, we narrow our ability to think in a more expansive way, and it also reduces our capacity for empathy, meaning that when our thinking becomes narrow, and that is a result of the stress hormone cortisol, we can't see things very clearly, and we tend to perceive in distorted ways.
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Chapter 3: What practical techniques can help manage stress?
And when we realize which kind of cognitive distortions we tend to use repeatedly, we can filter them out over time. And when we're in a stressful situation, we tend not to use them. The more we become disciplined about trying as much as we can to perceive accurately.
We kind of learn our old records, our old stories, and when we get a sense of repeating those old ways of perceiving, those ways of perceiving that we know are not based on the truth, we can tend to discard them much quicker than in the past.
And so how do you start this process? What do you do first to kind of get a sense of what you're talking about?
Well, using empathy. Empathy actually produces the... the connecting hormone, oxytocin. It's called the love hormone or connecting hormone. It relaxes our physiology. It allows our brain to think more expansively. And when we use empathy and interactions, we are more able to see the whole of a situation. We're more able to perceive comprehensively.
So it is a lot about empathy training, teaching ourselves to not jump to conclusions, to not impulsively react. to try to slow down enough to gain the facts. When we sense in our body that we're starting to feel our blood pressure elevate, we have to teach ourselves to slow down because once we produce those stress hormones, our thinking is becoming very narrow and empathy goes out the window.
So this is a lot about teaching ourselves to be more empathic and realizing that when we do that and we produce this oxytocin, the compassion and connecting hormones, it relaxes us and allows us to perceive much more accurately and comprehensively.
So can you give me an idea of how, maybe in an example, that would work?
For instance, if you're in an interaction with a spouse or a significant other, and you come home from work and you walk in, and maybe your wife has had a bad day with raising three young children, and she...
immediately looks up and is washing the dishes and doesn't say hi and come over and kiss you and you react immediately by saying, I can't believe I worked all day and you're treating me this way. And together you're off to the races.
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Chapter 4: How does empathy play a role in stress management?
to try to get a better sense of who you are because, you know, we all grow up with biases. We all grow up with inaccuracies about ourselves. In many ways, it's sort of like when we grow up, we were looking in a circus mirror and we can't see ourselves all that accurately unless we get very clear feedback from others.
And if you didn't get very clear feedback from others growing up, you need to get it as an adult. You need to engage with other rational people. That's, you know, when I do group therapy sessions, for instance, that's what we do.
We spend time on giving each other feedback on how people interact with each other so that you can rewrite the old story and create a new story, sort of turning a fiction book into a nonfiction book. And you have to be open to feedback from other people to change that negative self-talk, especially rational people, people you know will be truthful and tactful with you.
So, Arthur, what is the connection between stress and worry? They seem to go hand in hand.
Well, worry and stress and anxiety are all in the same circle because worry usually, not always, but usually is based on projected fears, fears from the past and, again, misperceiving. We worry about tomorrow when most of us cannot accept the fact that we can't predict tomorrow. You know, Americans right now, half of Americans say they are awake at night due to stress disorder.
anticipating stress for the next day. 75% of Americans say they experience stress on a daily basis, and it is based on worry about what's going to happen. When you are an anxious person and you have negative self-talk, the likelihood that you're anticipating negativity in the future is very, very high.
And this whole approach, this empathic cognitive behavioral therapy approach, I developed over many years to help people slow down and recognize that old negative bias thinking and get help in correcting it through positive interactions with other people.
Stress is our topic today, and I'm talking with one of the foremost authorities on the subject, Dr. Arthur Sierra McCauley, and he is a clinical psychologist and author of the book, The Stress Solution.
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Chapter 5: What is the connection between stress and self-talk?
The amount of Americans trusting each other has diminished. 20 years ago, Americans said they had five to seven close friends. Today, it's two to three close friends. So our empathy for each other has been reduced. Prejudice has been increased. I mean, prejudice, if you have many prejudices, you're experiencing stress all the time because you're kind of walking through a minefield in life.
If you feel uncomfortable with African Americans or Italian Americans or Irish Americans or Muslims, you have multiple ways of experiencing stress on an ongoing basis. So the stress hormone cortisol is living within you on a regular basis, which causes negative thinking, weight gain, inflammation, hair loss, breaks down muscle tissue, causes flabbiness, depression, anxiety, and memory loss.
Well, who could remember that if they're all stressed out? And what is it about, it does seem that people are so less empathetic and sympathetic to their fellow man today. Is that just a perception, or do you think that's true? I mean, road rage and all this, is this just, what's going on?
Well, I think it's part of our fast-paced society, Mike. I mean, we are at a point where we work too hard, we sleep too little, we love with half a heart, and then we wonder why we're stressed and unhappy. And the empathy rates, there's a number of studies that are done every year where they test college seniors going into the workplace and what characteristics do they rate most importantly.
Empathy used to be in the top five, top three 20 years ago, 25 years ago. Now it's below 10, 12, 13. The first thing that people are emphasizing is making money. So we have begun to put a tremendous emphasis on status and image and prestige and far less emphasis on character and integrity. And it certainly is pervasive in our society currently.
You know, it's amazing from what I've read and heard and talked to people about this who are experts on the topic that all this does, I mean, all this stress and getting all pissed off at everybody, all it does is hurt you. I mean, it doesn't do anything. You get mad and brood about somebody who cut you off on the highway. They're not home worrying about you.
Yes, yes. And you're hurting yourself when you misperceive. Even people who maintain that they believe in their prejudices, once they realize that they're actually hurting their health and their physiology, they start to take heed a bit. And yes, the way we think, the way we perceive is how we produce stress for the most part.
And we're damaging our entire physiology, our heart, our brain, our immune system. on and on. The stress hormone cortisol is incredibly damaging if it's experienced on a regular basis.
People will often say, though, that, you know, I'm a worrier. That's what I do. That's part of my personality. Yes? No?
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Chapter 6: How does worry relate to stress and anxiety?
And I say, practice the night before not thinking that, knowing that that's your old record. We're trying to change old conditioned ways of thinking by almost being prepared for them. So instead of waking up every morning at 3 o'clock saying the same thing, oh my God, I've got to go to work, it's not going to be good, my boss doesn't like me, on and on and on, you counter that immediately.
And you don't fall into it. And that again is what happens when you know your old records. It's like dropping a needle on an album. Instead of playing all 22 records, you pick the needle up. You don't let it go on and on and on. This is what I always do. And instead of just letting it roll on and roll on and letting your thoughts have a life of its own,
you begin to be more thoughtful and aware of what you're thinking so that you can intercede in those old conditioned ways of perceiving.
When I've had those times in life, and I imagine everybody does, where you're up at night worrying and catastrophizing and everything, one of the fascinating things I've found, maybe it's just me, but if I just get up and really wake up and not be in that kind of half-asleep fog, then things seem better. Things seem more real, as opposed to when I'm lying there ruminating, then things seem worse.
Well, when we're sleeping and when we first wake up, our temperature is the lowest it is all day. And we've been fasting, so we don't have the nutrients to make the brain chemicals we need to think accurately. That's why people, when I say, when you wake up in the morning, get up and start moving.
I'm a fan of teaching people to exercise first thing in the morning, for instance, because you find... that you start to produce more energy, you produce more calming neurochemicals, you get some food that produces the nutrients that your brain can turn into the right neurochemicals to think accurately.
So when we're just sitting there in a kind of dull state, yes, your thoughts can easily go into a negative place. That's why I depress people. The worst time for them is when they wake up in the morning. But again, when you're waking up in the middle of the night, yes,
If you're just going to lay there and reminisce about all the negative things that have happened in your life, it is better to get up. Maybe have a little something to eat and go back to bed. You just don't want to make it a habit, though, because then your brain gets conditioned to waking up at the same time over and over again, and you don't want to lose an hour of sleep every night.
Why do people who do this and then things usually eventually work out, why don't we learn from that?
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Chapter 7: What are the societal factors contributing to increased stress?
But their lives are in such a fast pace. They're living such a fast-paced life. Everything is so hectic. And as I said, they work long hours. They don't sleep enough. They don't exercise enough. Their health habits in terms of eating and exercise tend to be poor. You know, we live our lives according to our mood. And if we're stressed and producing cortisol with consistency...
we are not going to choose the best ways of taking care of ourselves. And so I do believe it has become epidemic in our society.
Well, even though we all experience stress, few of us really take the time to consider what it is, what it does to us, where it comes from. So it's interesting to get that insight. Dr. Arthur Sierra McCauley has been my guest. He is a clinical psychologist, a leading expert on the topic of stress, and the name of his book is The Stress Solution.
And you'll find a link to that book in the show notes.
Thanks, Arthur.
Enjoyed it.
Well, thank you very much. I appreciate you having me again.
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