Regardless of whether you accept it or not, stress will always play a considerable role in your life. All kinds of stress are never good for health. While there are some sort of stress which can boost your performance or help in building resilience, chronic stress can cause damage to your bodies and brains. Not only will your body suffer but it will also have an impact on your behavior. You might lose focus on making decisions and this can overall keep you from achieving your goals in life.
There are few studies which have proved that during times of stress, the way we usually tend to behave towards our goals changes and the human brain tends to focus only on the daily behaviors. This could either be a good or a bad news for you as per the habits that you have.
What is real world stress?
There were a group of researchers at the USC who provided the evidence in 2013 that behavior oriented towards achieving goals was replaced by usual habits during times of stress. The results were published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
During the time of exam, the students were tested as stress level usually remains high. As the results were anticipated, the high stake situation led to lot of studying and revising, deprivation of sleep and stress. The researchers found an increase in their daily behaviors. Moreover, the students who had something unhealthy for their breakfasts would tend to eat more junk food during the time of exam. On the other hand, the students who had oatmeal for their breakfasts tend to eat well even during high stress.
The impact of Stress
Whenever the pressure is on, what leads to the shift in the behavior of the human brain? Researchers asked in 2014 and they suspected about the stress hormones and the chemicals related to the brain. The findings which were published revealed that the stress hormones made the human brain to instantly switch from behavior directed towards goals to set routines.
Participants were given various types of stress hormones and the scientists found that this was a combination of 2 stress hormones – hydrocortisone and yohimbine. Instead of choosing some food to eat, they would press the buttons for food which their heart and mind actually didn’t desire.
Stress causes human brain to depend on the evolutionary foundation and this is when humans are forced to think less and act more. Stress stops people from obtaining their goals and hence it is always better to keep distance from stress.