5 Secrets to Master Stress + Shine in the Spotlight

The way that we approach stress directly impacts the

outcome of our actions and activities.
Many people feel drained by stress. It saps their energy, willpower and self esteem. This
happens when they have the mindset that stress is debilitating, rather than seeing it as an
opportunity to channel their energy and assets to conquer any situation and demonstrate
their abilities.

Just as we can use mindset to improve our confidence, we can use our
mindset to conquer stress.
These mindset shifts are quick to implement, with lasting results! It's as easy as
recognizing that there is a different perspective we can take, and realizing how
empowering it is. When we shift our perception of stress to an opportunity to excel, rather
than seeing it as a threat or a challenge that leaves us drained or weak, we change the
physical and emotional impact of stress so that we have more energy and resilience.
Speaking in public is often cited as one of the top fears shared by many people, and fear
puts us in a state of extreme stress. We can prepare our material, understand our
audience, and get clear on our ideal outcome before we present, but if we haven't taken
time to consider how we respond to stress then nerves can still get the best of us!

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 5 Secrets to Master Stress + Shine in the Spotlight

Research shows that only 25% of job successes are predicted by IQ.

75% of job successes are predicted by optimism levels, social support, and
our ability to see stress as a challenge instead of as a threat.

Having a stronger energized state of being, and seeing stress as an opportunity to rise
and thrive, also keeps our confidence higher. Good stress, also known as eustress,
inspires us to reach the next level. Eustress can move us into a flow state in which we are
more productive and successful, according to research psychologist Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi. The state of flow that can be achieved at work, in sports or in creative
endeavors is often driven by pressure to succeed.
Here are five secrets will help you to feel more empowered in how you can address
stress. With these simple tools and perspectives, you will have more confidence when
you are performing or feeling pressure rise.

1. Happiness generates Success

When we are happy dopamine floods our system, which not only supports that happy
feeling but also lights up the learning centers in our brain so that we can adapt to the
world in a more positive way. Shawn Achor’s research highlights what he calls the
Happiness Advantage, demonstrating that the brain performs significantly better at
positive than it does at negative, neutral, or stressed.

So, while we tend to believe that being successful will make us happy, our brains are
more likely to reach success when we are already in a happy state of mind. We have
higher intelligence, higher creativity and energy. His research finds that doctors are 19%
faster and more accurate in making diagnoses than when they are operating from a
negative, neutral, or stressed state of mind. Business performance improves when in a
positive mental state, helping us to be 31% more productive, and 37% better at sales.

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 5 Secrets to Master Stress + Shine in the Spotlight

Let’s flip the belief that ‘in order to be happy we must first be successful’ and explore how
happiness helps us be more successful, so we can really begin to unleash our true
potential.
It’s helpful to understand that our brain has been wired to learn from stressful situations.
This is part of the reason why it’s usually easier to remember difficult times over those
when everything was great! Stress is a powerful teacher, preventing us from repeating
mistakes that may put ourselves or our tribe at risk of physical harm. Now, with our
growing understanding of neuroplasticity, we can impress upon our brain that happiness
is as valuable as the stressors it wants to cling to.
There are a number of exercises that help to rewire our brains for happiness. By listing
gratitudes each evening, or journaling about one good thing that happened during the
day, after 21 days of consistent practice participants were measurably happier according
to research in Achor’s lab.
Action Step: Create a Happiness Inventory. Generate a list of some of your happiest life
experiences. Then one by one, journal or meditate to relive that experience, filling all of
your senses and feeling into the emotions as completely as possible. Whenever you need
an emotional boost, you can revisit your inventory to help recall those happy emotions.

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 5 Secrets to Master Stress + Shine in the Spotlight

2. Celebrate your Wins

Validate your confidence and take pride in your efforts by making a point to reward
yourself along the path to success. We deserve to celebrate our own accomplishments!
Do you feel like praise needs to come from an external source? When we acknowledge
our progress and success rather than waiting for a reward upon reaching our ultimate
goal, it's easier to stay engaged in our work and be confident in our future success.

“Every time your brain has a success you've just changed the goalpost of
what success looks like. You got good grades now you need to get better
grades, you got a good job, now you need to get a better one... And if
happiness is on the opposite side of success your brain never gets there.
We've pushed happiness over the cognitive horizon as a society and
that's because we think we have to be successful, then we will be
happier.”

— Shawn Achor, “The Happy Secret to Better Work” TedX Talk

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 5 Secrets to Master Stress + Shine in the Spotlight

If you envision a successful outcome and really feel the emotions of pride,
accomplishment and the happiness that you will feel when you are victorious, this will get
you in the frame of mind to press on and to stand up under the pressure of performance
when your confidence might falter. It also helps you stay on track when you are working
towards a big goal. It’s easy to get discouraged or forget what the pay off will be, so if you
can stay connected to not only what awaits at the finish line but also the milestones that
prove you are closing in on it, you’ll find it easier to stay enthusiastic about your mission.
As you are planning your process toward reaching your achievement, map out some
smaller goals along the way that will demonstrate you are on track for success and decide
how you will reward yourself as you make progress. Perhaps knocking off work a bit early,
treating yourself to a spa day, or a special meal… Choose something that you will really
enjoy as a treat that doesn’t undermine your efforts, and then make sure to follow through
on those plans to celebrate your wins!

Action Step: Take a look at how you can create milestones along the path toward
reaching an important goal you are working toward right now. Decide where and how you
can reward yourself for your progress, and create reminders so you will remember to
celebrate your wins!

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 5 Secrets to Master Stress + Shine in the Spotlight

3. Reframe Stress
Shifting your perception of stress creates physical, mental, and emotional benefits. The
‘stress-is-enhancing’ mindset tends to generate better health, stronger life satisfaction,
and more successful work performance over employees who maintain a ‘stress-as-
debilitating’ mindset.
When we recognize that the physical sensations of stress are simply biological functions,
we can shift our reading of them and then we physically respond differently.
So if you're about to take the mic for your big presentation and you're feeling stress rise -
the change in breathing and circulation that is biologically designed to help us to react or
to run - we can reframe how we feel about those reactions to feel more powerful and
better equipped in the situation.

Those racing thoughts arise when you're feeling performance anxiety are a sign of our
heightened ability to scan our environment for threats, so we can appreciate that we are
aware, receptive and ready to respond effectively and powerfully as we need to.
Adrenaline increases our alertness and awareness, and can improve memory and
cognitive function so the mind is sharper during the period of stress. Now when you feel
the jitters of adrenaline, you can recognize that this is actually priming your brain for a
better and faster response!

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 5 Secrets to Master Stress + Shine in the Spotlight

Think of those shaky hands as symbols of the energy you have available to you. Take a
deep breath and think about how you can use that energy to your advantage.
That fluttery feeling in your belly is your body putting digestion on hold, so think of it as
more circulation and energy that you can use to focus your thoughts.
If you embrace the mental image of stepping confidently up to a challenge and feel the
opportunity as one to demonstrate how capable you are, you will enjoy the successful
outcome of the situation that comes from your own unique abilities and insights.
In a study conducted at Harvard, students were taught to perceive their stress response
as helpful for their performance before they went through a social stress test. Not only did
they feel less stressed, less anxious, and more confident but they also physically had less
constriction in the blood vessels, a response that contributes to the type of cardiovascular
disease that is linked to chronic stress. Instead, participants experienced a cardiovascular
state resembling what is seen in moments of joy and courage, and were able to maintain
resilience rather than suffer ill effects of physical stress.
Action Step: Think about the physical reactions you have experienced in stressful
situations. List some of those sensations and feelings, and then the ways that you can
reframe them to restore your feelings of power and control.

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 5 Secrets to Master Stress + Shine in the Spotlight

4. Get Comfortable feeling Uncomfortable

Some people are action seekers and adventure lovers who thrive in situations with high
adrenaline, while others will do anything to stay comfortable.
Growth requires us to work outside of our comfort zone, which often comes with
resistance. Many people fall back into what is comfortable rather than successfully
creating change. As much as we may recognize that we need to make a change, it’s
important to recognize that sometimes “pain pushes more than pleasure pulls”. This
means that if you're trying to expand your abilities but struggle to stay in growth mode, it
may be helpful to get really clear on all the ways in which your current situation is causing
you pain and what benefits you'll experience when you have grown to a new level of
ability or strength. If you get clear and connected to that pain point, it can be the fuel to
help you keep moving and expanding your abilities rather than staying stuck in your
current level.
Growth requires us to work outside of our comfort zone, which often comes with
resistance. Many people fall back into what is comfortable rather than successfully
creating change. As much as we may recognize that we need to make a change, it’s
important to recognize that sometimes “pain pushes more than pleasure pulls”.
This means that if you're trying to expand
your abilities but struggle to stay in growth
mode, it may be helpful to get really clear on
all the ways in which your current situation is
causing you pain and what benefits you'll
experience when you have grown to a new
level of ability or strength. If you get clear
and connected to that pain point, it can be
the fuel to help you keep moving and
expanding your abilities rather than staying
stuck in your current level.

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 5 Secrets to Master Stress + Shine in the Spotlight

When you're setting goals for yourself it may be easier to take them on as a way of being
rather than a set defined outcome. So while you may set a goal of being on ten stages the
next year, you might feel more passionately about connecting to the experience of being a
sought after speaker who easily converts raving fans into paying clients. When it comes to
the daily actions you can ask ‘what's the one thing that will get me booked on more
stages?’ or you may find that you resonate more strongly with ‘what's the one thing today
that is most important to me as a charismatic magnetic and powerful speaker?’
It’s important to recognize that willpower is a limited commodity. Perhaps you've heard
people say “eat the frog”, which means you should do the toughest thing first and use
your willpower while it is at its height, because as the day goes on and we make more
choices we start to lose that resolve.
You can regain your resolve to grow by connecting to your Why. This is the desire that
fuels your efforts, the reason you want to create the change that you are striving for.
Perhaps your Why is to restore your health so you can be active with your children, to
reach a financial goal so that you can finally take that dream vacation, or to create a
legacy with your work. It will be the motivation to bring you through the distractions and
frustrations that come up along the way.
Action Step: What is your Why? Describe in detail what you will be able to do or who you
will be by achieving your goal. Being clear on your Why will help you stay on course when
it feels easier to settle for staying in your comfort zone.

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 5 Secrets to Master Stress + Shine in the Spotlight

5. Recovery
Recovery is key to having resilient health, and the capacity to meet stress when it shows
up in our lives.
Our bodies are designed to recognize stress, to react and maintain our safety, and then
recover with the parasympathetic response bringing the body back to balance. When we
respond to the many demands of daily life as stressors without the opportunity to recover,
we lose resilience.
Over time that loss of resilience leads to insomnia, headaches, memory loss,
compromised immunity and autoimmune issues, irritability, and relationship issues. That
cycle becomes self-perpetuating, so these issues tend to escalate rather than resolve.
When we allow the opportunity to recover from stress through recognizing our limits and
looking for ways to restore ourselves, then we have the resilience and capacity to respond
to stress with less physical and emotional impact the next time that it comes along.

Long term chronic stress in the workplace has been linked to changes in personality.
Research by the London School of Economics and Political Science found that workers
who are stressed out over long periods of time not only became more worried, irritable
and less extroverted, they also showed more signs of shyness and spoke less often.

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 5 Secrets to Master Stress + Shine in the Spotlight

On the other hand, workers who felt they had greater control over their jobs reported
increases in warmth, cooperation, creativity and imagination. It’s easy to see how these
benefits of recovery can help you be more successful in reaching your goals!
Making time for play is a powerful way to restore yourself when you're feeling stressed.
Aim for 15 minutes a day of engaging in activities that create space for creativity and
curiosity. Giving the mind this opportunity to rest helps improve focus when you get back
to work, along with helping to facilitate creative problem solving. Sometimes the best
solutions just need the time and space to germinate!
Action Step: Create a list of activities that you enjoy, and that stimulate your curiosity,
creativity or sense of awe and wonder. That may be coloring, dancing, taking a walk in
nature or playing hopscotch. Whatever takes you out of ‘work mode’ for a bit! Take a look
at your schedule and try out different times to put playtime in your calendar. Does it help
you feel more refreshed after the lunch break, or help to transition from the work day to
your personal time in the evening? Maybe play is the missing ingredient in your powerful
morning routine! See when and how play feels the most rewarding and fulfilling when you
add it to your agenda.

These secrets will help you rise above the rest to stand out in the crowd and accomplish
your goals with grace and ease. Choose one of these secrets that resonates with you to
get started, and then continue to refine these new perspectives on stress until it’s easy to
maintain the ‘stress-as enhancing’ mindset that helps you stay in the flow and take
powerful action without stress holding you back.

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Susi Vine is a Holistic Health Practitioner and Stress Resolution
Coach that specializes in helping high achieving folx discover that
living healthier and happier doesn’t have to be complicated so they
can avoid burnout, enjoy optimal productivity + have resilient
health. Recognizing the connection between modern lifestyles and
chronic health issues, Susi’s focus is empowering clients to live
healthier lives.

Through coaching and group programs she shares tools to shift the
common perception of stress as a psychological challenge and
physical threat, so that clients can learn to thrive under pressure
and get comfortable working outside of their comfort zone. She
also supports clients in strengthening the foundations of health by
revealing & resolving emotional, physical and environmental
influences of stress.

Susi is the host of the Happified podcast,

where she features guest experts in the
fields of mindset, health and wellness so
listeners can develop even more tools to
live life in more flow + with less stress.
Follow Susi on Facebook and Instagram
@3xLessStress or connect on LinkedIn.