Perspective. It’s funny how our perspective changes.

Contributing Author: Lorrin Freeman, District Attorney & NDAA Well-being Committee Chair (Wake County, NC)

For years it drove me crazy to see my daughters’ shoes kicked off in the middle of the floor leaving a tripping hazard. Recently, it has made me smile.

The kids are home!…even if just for a while….

While this may seem trivial, it underscores this larger point — sometimes whether something is a problem or a positive is just a matter of how we look at it. And while circumstances may alter our view over time, we have the ability to make deliberate choices about how we view things. Better yet, research shows that how we choose to view things has a significant impact on our ability to cope.

Last month as part of the NDAA Wellbeing Retreat in Tucson, Speaker Jack Sabraw challenged attendees to embrace the idea of a “growth mindset”. A “growth mindset” provides for viewing challenges as chances to learn and grow. He pointed out how viewing the world through this lens actually helps to preserve the brain’s neuroplasticity leading to a more positive life experience.

The fact that perspective can alter how we cope with challenges applies also to how we handle stress.

When we realize we are stressed, how do we think about it and what happens? Do we tailspin into being overwhelmed? Or, Do we stop and consider that stress happens when we feel threatened which happens because we care about something? If we can’t avoid stress, can we think about it in a different way and even use its physiological side effects — heightened awareness, for example — to aid us in handling something that matters to us?

This month’s NDAA Wellbeing Webinar “Optimizing Stress to Maximize Engagement” (available on demand in your member learning center) breaks down the science behind what happens when our perspective about stress changes. Among other things, it shows that people with a “positive stress mindset” tend to perform better and suffer fewer health impacts.

Next time you start to feel stressed, pause, take a breath and deliberately focus on why you care about what it is that is stressing you out. Shifting your mindset to see the situation as an opportunity- changing your perspective about it- will equip you to handle the situation more positively with better outcomes.

Stress is part of the journey. How we react to it can impact the ride.

(Interested in learning more about the positive stress mindset? Check out Stanford University’s Sparq To Work Better, Rethink Stress | SPARQ)