How to minimize stress, astronaut style | Chris Hadfield | Big Think

[Music]

I mean, I know what stresses me out, and that is when something's gonna happen that I'm not ready for. When I don't know what's happening, I don't have the skills necessary. When I think I'm at risk of something, but I don't know what to do, that makes me feel awful.

You know, you feel nervous, and you feel a little bit sick, and your body's giving you all sorts of clues that you're not ready for this thing to happen. But that's not how everybody pictures an astronaut. You know, you don't picture an astronaut sitting there all nervous and jittery with their fingers crossed and crying just before a launch.

And we're not, because even though it's dangerous, we are ready. We have practiced, we have trained, we have worked for years to actually look at what are the risks, what are the dangers, what are they going to look like, how can we minimize them, and how are we going to respond to them. And then we've practiced them over and over and over again, so that instead of just being nervous or stressed, we are ready.

And the best antidote for stress is competence. Becoming competent—if you're good at this thing, then you no longer just have to be worried and afraid of it. Though, don't allow yourself, because I think stress is an awful way to go through life. It gives you an ulcer; you feel bad, you're dreading something happening in your own life.

Instead, if you possibly can, try and figure out why is my body giving me all these clues? Why is it saying I dread this thing? Why am I not ready for this thing that's about to happen? And then, instead of just sitting there feeling sick, say, "Okay, I've got six hours until this thing happens. Let's use these six hours to change my capability, to improve my readiness to deal with this."

You know, if I knew that the person next to me was gonna have a heart attack in 20 minutes, I could use 20 minutes to become way more prepared for that heart attack. If I knew my car was gonna blow its front right tire coming over the overpass today on the way into town, I could spend an hour before I got in the car this morning reading about what to do when a front right tire blows.

Do I accelerate? Do I break? Is it four-wheel drive, or front-wheel drive, or rear-wheel? Is there a margin over there? Do I have a jack in the trunk? Do I have a spare tire with air in it? If you did all that before, then the blowing of the tire doesn't change, but your reaction is completely different.

And so, I think stress is just your body telling you you're not ready, and so change your readiness. Use the time available to prepare yourself better for the things that you are going to have to do in your life. I think you'll enjoy life more if you just deliberately do that.

[Music]