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Can you make stress your friend?
C190 minsNew. New: checked automatically for level, grammar, facts and originality; a teacher's review is still to come. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.psychologywellbeinghealthmindset
Video: How to Make Stress Your Friend | Kelly McGonigal | TED
About this lesson
An advanced lesson built on Kelly McGonigal's TED talk. Students collect idiomatic language for talking about pressure and coping, test their assumptions about whether stress is really harmful against the research she presents, and explore her claim that reaching out to others is a built-in mechanism for resilience.
- Learn eight phrases for talking about pressure, coping and reaching out.
- Predict what a large stress study found, then correct your assumptions.
- Watch the second half and explain the surprising role of oxytocin.
- Debate whether we can really change our body's response to stress.
- Apply the language to high-pressure situations and sum up the lesson.
Target vocabulary
freak someone outchange your minddo more harm than goodfeel the pressurecope with somethingrise to the challengebottle something upreach out to someone
Lesson activities
Let's get started with a warm-up
1
Stress on trial
Discuss the questions.
- How would you describe your stress levels over the past year — low, moderate or high?
- When you feel your heart pounding before something important, do you read it as a warning sign or as your body getting ready?
- Do you think stress is mainly harmful, or can it sometimes work in your favour? Why?
- Who do you talk to when things get too much, and does talking actually help?
- Is a certain amount of pressure necessary to do your best work, or does it just get in the way?
- Would you knowingly choose a more demanding job if you believed you could handle it?
Let's learn some vocabulary!
2
Under pressure
Read the sentences and match the phrases in bold with the correct meanings below.
a)The statistics on burnout completely freaked me out the first time I read them.
b)I used to assume all stress was damaging, but this research has genuinely changed my mind.
c)Telling an anxious colleague to 'just calm down' usually does more harm than good.
d)With three deadlines in the same week, the whole team is really feeling the pressure.
e)Over the years she has learned to cope with sudden changes without losing her composure.
f)He was terrified before the interview, but he rose to the challenge and answered every question calmly.
g)Rather than telling anyone how he felt, he bottled it all up until it came out as anger.
h)When the workload became impossible, she finally reached out to her manager for support.
MEANINGS:
- deal successfully with a difficulty
- keep emotions hidden instead of expressing them
- frighten or deeply unsettle someone
- make contact with someone to give or get support
- form a different opinion about something
- respond well to a demanding situation
- have a worse effect than doing nothing at all
- be very aware of stress or of what is expected of you
3
Talking about pressure
Complete the gaps with the phrases from ex. 2. Then, choose four questions to ask your partner.
You may need to change the form of the verb.
a)What kind of headline or statistic is most likely to these days?
b)Has anything you have read or experienced recently about how you handle stress?
c)When is well-meant advice most likely to ?
d)In which part of your week do you most, and why?
e)When plans change at the last minute, how do you ?
f)When did you last have to at short notice, and how did it go?
g)Are you someone who talks problems through, or do you tend to ?
h)When you're overwhelmed, do you , or handle it alone?
Now, we'll put it into practice!
4
Read the moment
Look at the four photos. Then, discuss the questions, using the phrases in the box.
A
B
C
Dfreak someone outchange your minddo more harm than goodfeel the pressurecope with somethingrise to the challengebottle something upreach out to someone
- Which person looks most under pressure? How can you tell — what is their body doing?
- Which of them seems to be keeping calm? What might they be doing differently?
- Choose one photo and invent the story behind it: what has just happened, and what happens next?
- Which situation is closest to something you have lived through? What did you do, and what would you do now?
5
Compare your answers
Look at the questions in ex. 3 again and discuss the points below with a new partner.
- Whose way of coping sounded healthiest to you, and why?
- Which of the eight phrases describes you best on a demanding day?
- Did anyone's answer make you want to change your mind about how you deal with stress?
6
What did the research find?
Watch 01:14–03:00
Read the statements about the stress research and decide if they are true or false. Then, watch the first part of a video [https://youtu.be/RcGyVTAoXEU] (from 01:14 to 03:00) and check your answers. Correct the false ones.
a)The study followed a few hundred people for a single year.
b)A high level of stress raised the risk of dying only for those who also believed stress was harmful.
c)People with a lot of stress who did not see it as harmful had an average risk of dying.
d)McGonigal says the belief that stress is bad kills fewer people than skin cancer.
7
Stress makes you social
Watch 09:33–12:28
Watch the second part of the video (from 09:33 to 12:28) and answer the questions.
a)What does McGonigal say oxytocin does for the heart and blood vessels?
b)In the final study of about 1,000 adults, what happened to people who spent time caring for others?
c)According to McGonigal, what two choices transform our experience of stress?
Let's talk!
8
React to the talk
- How convinced are you that simply believing stress is harmful could shorten your life? What would you want to know before accepting it?
- McGonigal suggests telling yourself 'this is my body helping me rise to this challenge' when your heart is pounding. Could you actually do that in the moment?
- Why do you think the idea that we can 'make stress our friend' has been so popular?
- Is there a risk that this message lets stressful workplaces off the hook, telling people to think differently instead of fixing the conditions?
- She argues that caring for others protects us from the effects of stress. Does that match your own experience?
- Do you find it easier to reach out to others, or to bottle things up? Where do you think that comes from?
- If you fully believed this science, what is one thing you would do differently the next time you feel the pressure?
9
Under real pressure
Choose three situations that you would find hardest to handle. Then, discuss the points below, using the phrases in the box.
You have to give an unprepared presentation to senior colleagues at ten minutes' notice.
A close friend confides that they are struggling and you have no idea what to say.
You open your results and they are far worse than you expected.
You are handed an impossible deadline on a day you had planned to leave early.
You freeze in the middle of an important interview and your mind goes blank.
A family member keeps criticising a big decision you have just made.
freak someone outchange your minddo more harm than goodfeel the pressurecope with somethingrise to the challengebottle something upreach out to someone
- How would the situation make you feel in the first few seconds?
- Would you be more likely to reach out to someone or to bottle it up?
- How could reframing your reaction help you rise to the challenge?
- What has actually worked for you in a moment like this?
10
Sum it up
Summarise what you took from the lesson using some of the points below and the phrases in the box.
freak someone outchange your minddo more harm than goodfeel the pressurecope with somethingrise to the challengebottle something upreach out to someone
- what the research McGonigal describes actually showed
- the difference between seeing your stress response as a threat and as help
- one claim in the talk you are still sceptical about
- one thing you intend to try the next time you are under pressure
Spotted a mistake in this lesson?· tell us the exercise and item
Glossary
The 8 words and phrases this lesson teaches, in one set.
Talking about stress and coping
- freak someone out
- frighten or deeply unsettle someone
- change your mind
- form a different opinion about something
- do more harm than good
- have a worse effect than doing nothing at all
- feel the pressure
- be very aware of stress or of what is expected of you
- cope with something
- deal successfully with a difficulty
- rise to the challenge
- respond well to a demanding situation
- bottle something up
- keep emotions hidden instead of expressing them
- reach out to someone
- make contact with someone to give or get support