A Stressed Out Nation is . . . a Happier Nation? | Big Think

One of the unexpected upsides of stress is its surprising link to meaning and life. A few years ago, a study was released by the World Gallup Poll that actually looked at what they called the stress index of 121 countries. They went around the world and they asked people, "Did you experience a great deal of stress yesterday?" They had expected, the researchers expected, that having a country of people who were stressed out would be related to really terrible things: you know, less happiness with life, less satisfaction with life, worse health, and shorter life expectancy.

What they found instead is that if you have a nation of people who say yesterday was really stressful, you have a nation of people who also are happier and more satisfied with their lives. They tend to live longer. One of the reasons seems to be that the things that create stress in our lives are also the things that create meaning. That same Gallup World Poll found that a high stress index was associated with a greater chance that you would say you learned something interesting yesterday; a great chance that you experienced joy, love, and laughter yesterday.

A more recent study done here in the United States found that if you want to know whether or not someone has a meaningful life, the best way to find out is to ask them about the stress in their lives. People who say their lives are more meaningful have tended to experience more stress in their past. They tend to be under more stress currently. They spend more time thinking about the difficulties they’ve overcome, and they also spend more time worrying about the future.

It again seems to be because the things in our lives—those relationships, the roles, the difficult goals that we’re pursuing—the things that create meaning also inevitably create stress. A simple example of a mindset reset that’s been shown to really change the way people experience the most distressing moments is to bring to mind the value that is sort of most relevant to the stressful situation.

So, to give you an example, last night I was on a flight coming back from Georgia. There were crazy thunderstorms here in New York, and we had a really difficult landing. I’m someone who hates flying. I’m afraid of flying. I hate turbulence. I get motion sickness. It was just a disaster. I’m literally holding onto my seat and holding onto the side of the window, trying to stay in my seat despite the fact that I’m strapped in.

What helps in those moments is to remember two of my values. One is courage. That every time I get on an airplane, I am demonstrating that this is something I care about—to actually express courage so that I can help other people be brave. And also to recognize that I value what travel gives me in life; that I value the fact that I was able to go and meet with people who work in healthcare and talk to them about behavior change so that they might support health and well-being in others.

You know, I value being able to go places, even if in the moment of the flight it’s incredibly distressing. Bringing those things into the distressing moments seems to really protect people from the typical sort of negative effects of those big moments of distress, where, you know, you’d rather be anywhere else or you are starting to lose hope in your situation.