Reframe Stress as Fuel
Before a high-stakes moment, tell yourself the racing heart is helping.
The concept
Stress appraisal changes physiology and performance
Akinola's research at Columbia uses physiological measures to show that how people appraise stress — threat versus challenge — changes cardiovascular response and downstream performance. A brief verbal reframe ('this energy is helping me') shifts the body, not just the mood.
Try it now
0 / 3Get reminded to actually run this
Pivots only work when you use them. Send me a gentle nudge:
How people ran this
Used this before a portfolio review. Sat with the dread for 8 minutes, then opened Figma and just shipped the worst version. Got the best feedback of my year.
Maya, product designer
Ran it during a planning week when I kept rewriting the same doc. Three rough versions in 15 minutes — my staff eng picked the one I least liked.
Jordan, eng manager
I'm a chronic deleter. The 'name the feeling' step was the unlock. It was almost always shame, not perfectionism.
Anon
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