If when experiencing a stressful situation you feel that an important aspect of your identity is on the line, you are probably going to feel a strong threat response [1]. 

A concert or an exam is going to be much more stressful if your core identity is being "a good musician" or "a good student". If this is the case, when you do poorly in these situations, you don't just suffer from playing a wrong note, having a memory loss or a bad grade. The experience takes a bite out of your sense of self-worth and self-identity [1]. This type of stress is known as ego-threat stress and it can have a negative impact on your telomeres. 

First, remind yourself that your identity runs wider and deeper. And now, take a look at the strategies that have been proven to help reduce ego-threat stress and to regulate your response to stress.

MENTAL STRATEGIES

Distancing

Distancing is when you create a space between your feeling self and your thinking self. By distancing your thoughts from emotions you can transform a threat response into a positive feeling of challenge [1]. It helps to "put you in the audience" and not to feel so caught up and immersed in the situation [1].

Linguistic self-distancing

Recent studies reveal that the language we use to refer to ourselves during introspection influence how we think, feel, and behave under social stress [2]. They show that using non-first-person pronouns (he/she) and one's own name (e.g., What is making Laura nervous?) enhances self-distancing.  

Using non-first-person language (compared to first-person language use) has proven to be beneficial [2]. People who distance themselves making use of these strategies usually perform better in stressful tasks, engage less in rumination and appraise future stressors as more challenging rather than threatening [2]. 

Time distancing

If you think about the immediate future, your emotional response will probably be stronger than if you take a longer-term view.

If you find yourself caught up in a stressful situation, going down the spiral of negative thoughts with feelings of shame and anxiety, ask yourself: 

"In ten years, will this event still have an impact on me?"

Studies reveal [3] that asking yourself these questions help you to have more challenge thoughts, as recognizing the impermanence of the event helps you get over it faster and to relativize [1].

Visual self-distancing

Ruminative thoughts about a stressful event can seem subjectively real, as if the imagined event were happening in the moment. Analyzing a stressful event from a self-immersed perspective can have negative consequences, making you feel worse. 

Yet, you can play a trick after the event has occurred [1]. Visual distancing, the process of disengaging the self from the event, reduces the subjective realism and the perceived stressfulness associated with immersion [4].

Step back and view the event from afar, as if it's happening in a movie that you are watching. That way you won't re-experience the event in your emotional brain, instead, you will view it with greater detachment and clarity. 

This technique is known as cognitive defusion or mindful attention [4]. Studies reveal [1] that it immediately reduces the brain neural stress response activating the brain's more reflective and analytical areas instead than the emotional ones.

Watch this really interesting video on how to change our approach to stress. It talks about social evaluative stress -a concept introduced in my last entry- and on how the impact of stress on our health depends on how we think about it: threat or challenge?

INSTRUCTIONS FOR DISTANCING* 

Combining visual, linguistic and time distancing

Close your eyes. Go back to the time and place of the emotional experience and see the scene in your mind's eye. Now take a few steps back. Move away from the situation to a point where you can now watch the event unfold from a distance and see yourself in the event, the distant you.

Now watch the experience unfold as if it were happening to the distant you all over again. Observe your distant self. 

As you continue to watch the situation unfold for your distant self, try to understand his or her feelings. Why did he or she have those feelings? What were the causes and reasons? Ask yourself, "Will this situation affect him or her in ten years?"

*This is a modified version of the script Ayduk and Kross [2] used to help their research volunteers create distancing. It is taken from the book The Telomere Effect by Elissa Epel and Elizabeth Blackburn, from which the article is based.

Recommendations

There is a really good book, Performance Strategies for Musicians by David Buswell, that talks about mental strategies for musicians, such as self-distancing and visualisation.

References