You are 25.2 miles into a 26.2 mile run, only after completing a 112 mile bike ride and a 2.4 mile swim. It is pitch black, you are exhausted and reach in your pocket to find that you ate your last GU over a mile ago, but you are only a mile away from finishing your first ever Ironman Triathlon. The stress that your body is going through is monumental: you begin thinking things such as "I could have sworn I felt my feet just an hour ago" or "Holy Crap is that Brad Pitt riding on a glow in the dark unicorn?!?!". Yes you are in very bad condition and the stress you are under is reaping havoc on your body, but just as you begin to ask Pitt to catch a ride back your mind begins to kick in a training tool that you may not even know you had developed - you begin talking to yourself in a good way. Maybe it appears to you that the unicorn is doing all of the talking, but nonetheless you are telling yourself "It is only one more mile, you got this, you are so strong and fit and brave and couragous, and you don't even like riding unicorns anyways: they are uncomfortable and smelly". This form of talk continues, and suddenly you have crossed the finish line felling much better than you might have thought!
It is very common in the endurance athlete world that self affirmations are a very effective tool however, you do not need to be enduring through a triathlon to experience the positive effects of self affirmations during chronic stress. Recent research shows that positive affirmations physiologically buffer the responses of chronic stress and every day stress. In one study participants at a college age level had their urine samples measured for epinephrine and norepinephrine throughout the course of studying for their most stressful final examination. There were two groups the affirmation and no affirmation group. Each participants urine was measured 14 days prior to the exam as a baseline. Throughout the course of the two weeks the affirmation group had to write two essays about their values and use encouraging thoughts. Finally a urine same was taken 15 hours before the exam (the peak of stress prior to exam). Results of this study found that students in the affirmation condition did not have significantly different levels of norepinephrine and epinephrine from their baseline, while the other students all had levels significantly higher. Students in the self affirmation group also indicated that they felt much better going into the test and had felt they would be able to mentally cope better even if they thought the exam didn't go as well as planned. Other studies such as this have found that self affirmations can improve academic performance during chronic stress, decrease negative effects of chronic stress as well as even assist in weight loss/ exercise programs.
So whether you are about to complete a triathlon, trying to lose weight, or simply just needing to get through this next examination...it wouldn't be such a bad idea to find the Thomas the Train within you and give yourself some positive thought!
references
Sherman DK, Bunyan DP, Creswell JD, Jaremka LM (2009) Psychological vulnerability and stress: The effects of self-affirmation on sympathetic nervous system responses to naturalistic stressors. Health Psychology 28: 554–562. [PubMed]
Sherman DK, Cohen GL (2006) The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory. In: Zanna MP, editor. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, Vol. 38: 183–242.
Creswell JD, Dutcher JM, Klein WM, Harris PR, Levine JM. Self Affirmation improves problem solving under stress. Journal of psychology. 2013. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0062593. Print 2013.
This was incredibly interesting. I was wondering though if they gave any biochemical reason as to why this works? Do positive affirmations some how release a calming neurotransmitter or give off some inhibitor of epinephrine?
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Kelsey! I’ve always heard sayings about the “power of positive thinking” and have been interested in what exactly this means for our physiological functioning. I was too curious about the point that Megan brought up about if there is a positive action occurring during this function, like the activation of a neurotransmitter response turning on. Or is it more of a negative feedback response inhibiting those hormones, and turning off that triggered stress response that would otherwise result in an increased heart rate due to the release of epinephrine.
ReplyDeleteThis also made me start to think about placebo effects in medicine and treatments, because that too seems to be related to the influence of psychological and emotional processes on a physical response. It seems that this idea of positive affirmations can be directly related to the expected positive results someone believes they will have when given a placebo drug. Similar to your thinking of “I think I can, I think I can...” affirmation of believing in our own abilities to accomplish a task and increasing our ability to do so, the placebo effect has an “I think it will, I think it will…” attitude about the prescribed treatment in having faith that it will help them and their illness. In an article I read titled “The Power of Positive Thinking”, it discussed how a sort of Pavlovian conditioned response can result in the pattern of consequences we see in a placebo situation. Once someone is conditioned to believe that a certain drug is providing the treatment they need they will begin to make conscious and subconscious connections to these drugs, such as the way they taste, the look of them, or perhaps the time of day that they take the drug. If the patient is then gradually switched to a placebo drug their body will still react to these conditioned triggers much to that of Pavlolv’s dogs salivating at a ringing bell, even with no actual presence of food that would physically result in salivation. Similar to how we see a positive physiological reaction occurring in these patients with no chemical basis of drugs, but only those that can be attributed to the psychological influences of the patient believing these “drugs” will work.
I think it’s amazing to see the immense power that our way of thinking can influence our physical self in not only a negative way, which is obvious in the physiological effects of chronic stress, but in a positive way as well!
Book E, Wandycs K. The power of positive thinking. Forbes [serial online]. May 22, 1995: 155(110:293. Available from: Business Sources Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed October 5, 2013.
Great post! I have to point out that it was The Little Engine That Could that said "I think I can, I think I can", not Thomas........ I was a train nerd when I was a kid...... But as a frequent competitor in endurance races I will remember the power of positive thoughts!
ReplyDeleteWho would have thought those little encouraging words could help you over mountains! We did a lot of positive self-talk and affirmation exercises for volleyball. Each week we made goals and had to word them in a way of a positive affirmation; we also did individual affirmations for our self-goals. Positive self-talk always helped me during stressful games and situations because I felt in complete control of myself – from my emotions to my performance on the court. By any chance, do you know why this method of self-talk is successful from a psychological standpoint?
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