Happy Monday and welcome to your week. Here’s what you’ll find in today’s issue:

• 🤔 Stress: friend or foe? The answer may surprise you

• 💭 Cool find: A breath work practice you’ll actually want to do

• 🛏️ The weird reason TikTok wants you to stay in bed

• 👓️ Why you may want to schedule your next eye exam asap

Let’s dive in.

THE MAIN STORY

The surprising truth about stress: it won't kill you, instead it can boost your performance... with one small caveat.

What a book from 2016 can teach you about using stress to your advantage

Feeling stressed on this lovely Monday? If so, this may just be the best thing you read all day. That’s because we're diving into a wild idea:

Stress ain't all bad. In fact, it’s actually good for you.

It sounds contradictory, right? We're bombarded with messages saying stress will ruin our lives and make our hearts explode.

However, The Upside of Stress by Kelly McGonigal turns this idea on its head. McGonigal is a health psychologist and Stanford lecturer who argues that stress isn't the real bad guy when it comes to health issues. It’s something else entirely…

Despite being published a few years ago, the wisdom in this book remains highly relevant, especially since a staggering 34% of American adults report feeling utterly overwhelmed by stress these days.

So, let's explore some of the book's key findings to learn how to transform your relationship with stress and leverage it to your advantage.

First thing’s first: McGonigal wrote this book because she wants you to embrace stress – but this wasn’t always the case.

Once a stress crusader herself, she had a complete change of heart after a game-changing study in 2012 that revealed high levels of stress led to a 43% higher risk of death. But, here's the mind-blowing part: the increased risk only applied to those who believed stress was damaging their health.

Meaning: Your perception of stress shapes its impact on you.

While it sounds too simple to be true, time and time again, research shows that what you think matters. In fact, McGonigal cites multiple studies in the book including a study that showed the power of perception on weight loss results.

This is all to say, if you want stress to boost your performance while avoiding its detrimental health effects, you must see stress as friend instead of foe.

To change your perception of stress, start by understanding its definition.

According to McGonigal, stress arises when something you care about is at stake, and it is closely tied to meaning.

Central to transforming your stress response is the skill of altering your stress mindset, or “a belief that shapes your reality.” McGonigal suggests that welcoming stress can boost confidence and improve performance in nearly every area of life.

During your next stressful moment (or better yet, before it arises) keep these points in mind:

• Realize that pursuing a meaningful life will never be stress-free, which means avoiding stress is pointless.

• When it comes to dealing with stress, you have more than just a “fight-or-flight” stress response at your disposal — and different stress responses actually change your body’s hormone response.

• A challenge response increases the ratio of DHEA, a neurosteroid, to cortisol, improving the brain's ability to learn from stressful experiences.

• If you’re going through an especially tough time, you may trigger a tend-and-befriend response, which releases oxytocin and effectively encourages you to seek support from your loved ones.

Honestly, I could keep going — this book is a goldmine of fascinating facts. But since I can’t possibly cover all of them, I highly recommend giving it a read. Now with these tips in mind, there’s no reason to let stress get you down about whatever’s on your to-do list today.

📈 Health optimization tip of the week

Mindset changes can take some time. If you’re stressed, like, right now – follow along to this fun breath work session to feel calm and grounded in under 15 minutes. There’s strong science that shows breath work helps reduce stress and improve mental health.

📱 Trending on TikTok #wellnessTok

According to TikTok, wellness doesn’t always “look” like wellness. Enter bedrotting, which involves spending an extended amount of time snug under the sheets, typically with the blinds pulled down and a sleeve of Oreos within arms reach.

Albeit a bit gross, this guilt-free way to unwind gets a thumb’s up from one expert, while other experts say it could negatively impact mental health if done too frequently.

Should you try it?

❌ Don’t try this at home 🍊 Maybe  ✅ Won’t hurt in moderation

@celeste.portigiani

if u need me i will be in bed until the next bathroom break

📆 This week in wellness

Every week, we scan the web for the good, the bad and the downright intriguing in the world of health and wellness.

😻 The good:

• Turns out getting regular eye exams may decrease your chances of developing dementia. Whether it’s worth the torture of getting your eyes dilated is up to you.

👎️ The bad:

• While it’s made headlines in recent months as a popular weight loss drug, using Ozempic may come at a cost beyond it’s ~$900/month price tag: European regulators are now investigating whether it causes suicidal thoughts.

🧐 The interesting:

• As much as we want to combat aging with creams and loads of SPF, the rise of a popular TikTok filter sparks diverse reactions and proves we can’t resist a peek into the future. Dare to see yourself 40+ years from now? Personally, we’ll pass.

💭 Parting thought

Missed last week’s issue? Read it here 👇️ 

🏃 Before you go…

Something you want to see in a future issue?

Don’t keep it to yourself — reply and let us know.

Until next time ✌️

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