You might think that VR is not necessarily stress relieving. But nothing could be further from the truth. In this article, we explain the basics about stress, mindset and what role VR plays in it.
What is stress?
Stress is a natural (and automatic) process in your body. By nature, stress is useful and good. The most important function of stress is that it recognizes danger and allows you to respond to it as quickly and efficiently as possible.
This natural process is ancient. We all know the example of a tiger jumping out of the bushes: stress causes you to act quickly to survive the dangerous situation. Your unconscious brain immediately springs into action without you having to think about it.
Your stress mindset
So stress is a natural process, which in principle you cannot change that much. At least ... let's look at your mindset.
Your mindset consists of the beliefs you have about a particular subject. You also have certain beliefs about stress. These will probably stem from all the stories you hear about stress. After all, stress can cause all sorts of woes such as burnout, heart failure and diabetes, right?
Chances are, because of all such stories, your mindset toward stress is quite negative.
But what if there was also another side to the story?
Connections in your brain & hormones
In your brain there are all kinds of connections. Those connections get stronger when you do something often and weaker when you do something less often. So your brain can grow, shrink and change. This is called neuroplasticity.
One of the hormones responsible for creating new connections in your brain is Dehydro-epiandrosterone, or DHEA. DHEA helps your brain grow and allows your brain to grow stronger from stressful situations.
Also called the anti-stress hormone, this recovery hormone allows tension and fatigue to decrease after a moment of stress.
Another hormone produced in a stressful situation is cortisol. Cortisol makes your body capable of extraordinary performance. So in itself, cortisol is not bad for you.
But a lot of stress means your body makes a lot of cortisol for a long time. And the negative aspect of cortisol is that it pauses various body functions (such as digestion and recovery).
In a stressful situation, cortisol and DHEA are produced simultaneously, with DHEA offsetting the negative effects of cortisol. The ratio of cortisol to DHEA is also known as the ''growth index.''
When a stressful situation releases a lot of cortisol and little DHEA, you have a low growth index. Conversely, you have a high growth index when more DHEA is released than cortisol (resulting in you experiencing fewer symptoms during stress).
Growth through a positive stress mindset
What exactly does this mean? When the ratio of cortisol to DHEA is good, and thus there is a positive growth index, stress leads to growth. However, when cortisol prevails, and there is a negative growth index, your body constantly remains in a state that was never naturally intended to be that way.
The good news is that you can influence how much DHEA your body produces during stress! This is where your mindset comes in. Research has shown that a positive stress mindset causes more DHEA to be produced, resulting in a positive growth index.
This was evident in several scientific studies, in which participants were asked to watch a video prior to a stressful situation.
One half were shown a video highlighting the danger of stress. The other half were shown a video showing that stress is good for growth and development.
Check out the various videos:
The result of these studies? Watching a positive movie about stress brings about a major positive shift in mindset. This results in higher production of DHEA, which in turn has a positive effect on the effects of stress on (among other things) health, performance and well-being.
So by developing a positive mindset towards stress, you can start using stress to your advantage!
''Change your mind, change the moment!''
But ... how?
A positive mindset through VR
One of the proven methods to train your stress mindset is with VR. This is where we at The Recharge Company are big fans!
The VR game we use is called Stressjam. This game is designed to activate exactly the parts of your brain that you need when stressed.
How that works. Very briefly, during a situation of stress, one particular part of your brain (your hippocampus) can quiet the rest of your brain. And this part of your brain is activated by movement, spatial orientation and reflection.
During a session Stressjam you are constantly moving, having to find your way in a strange (virtual) world, hearing sounds everywhere and learning to reflect on your own stress and your own actions.
The result of these studies? Watching a positive movie about stress brings about a major positive shift in mindset. This results in higher production of DHEA, which in turn has a positive effect on the effects of stress on (among other things) health, performance and well-being.
So by developing a positive mindset towards stress, you can start using stress to your advantage!
''Change your mind, change the moment!''
But ... how?
A positive mindset through VR
One of the proven methods to train your stress mindset is with VR. This is where we at The Recharge Company are big fans!
The VR game we use is called Stressjam. This game is designed to activate exactly the parts of your brain that you need when stressed.
How that works. Very briefly, during a situation of stress, one particular part of your brain (your hippocampus) can quiet the rest of your brain. And this part of your brain is activated by movement, spatial orientation and reflection.
During a session Stressjam you are constantly moving, having to find your way in a strange (virtual) world, hearing sounds everywhere and learning to reflect on your own stress and your own actions.
