CHAPTER 6
Control
your mental
response to
stress
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
The courage to change the things I can.
‘The Serenity Prayer’ by Reinhold Niebuhr
W
e saw this quote at the start of Chapter 3, where we
started to look at how to change the things you can.
Chapter 3 was about how to change your environ-
ment, Chapter 4 was about how to change the way you use your
time, and Chapter 5 was about how to change your attitudes. This
chapter will address the other part of the quote: how to accept the
things you cannot change. We will concentrate on how to control
the way you respond mentally and emotionally to stress.
Perhaps the most inuential researcher in this area is Barbara
Frederickson. She is widely credited with being one of the key
thinkers in the establishment of ‘Positive Psychology’. Whilst
this name may sound a little self-help/new-age, this became a
respected part of psychology in 1998, when President of the
American Psychological Association, Martin Seligman, ofcially
launched Positive Psychology as a distinct branch of psychology,
and lifted it from the level of pop psychology to a topic of serious
scientic research.
Frederickson showed how positive thoughts and experiences
can undo negative emotions, make us more resilient to stress,
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