Mojo Monday - How to Reframe Stress With Carly Taylor

Carly Taylor will help you discover how shifting from threat mode to challenge mode can change the way you handle stress.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey, everyone, it's Carly Taylor here and welcome back to
you this week's Mojo Monday. So today I want to
talk about something that can really shift how we experience stress,
and that's whether we see it as a challenge or
whether we see it as a threat. And this comes
from the heartiness research that Paul has been doing for

(00:30):
many years now, and we actually did a podcast together
on the ninth of June on this very subject. So
if it does spark your interest, go back and have
a listen to it, because it's really interesting hearing it
from his perspective as well and from his research. But
here's the thing. Not all stress is bad, and it
may feel like it, but we actually need a certain

(00:53):
level of stress to create momentum in life. And stress
is simply your body gearing up to respond or whatever
situation that you're in. So you might feel your heart race,
or your breathing changes, or you have that rush of
adrenaline in your body. It's your system saying something important
is happening here, we need to do something. But how

(01:15):
you interpret that stress can make all the difference to
what you do next. And I've been really intentional about
applying this in my own life, and it really has
made such a difference with how I think about stressful
situations and also what I do so how I respond

(01:37):
to them. So if you see a situation as a threat,
so if it's something that feels overwhelming and it's out
of your control, or even if you feel that something
is danger to your dangerous to your self worth, you know,
your body tenses up, your thinking narrows, and you often

(01:58):
want to go into avoidance and it feels like the
situation is happening to you. It's like being stuck in quickstand.
But if you see it as a challenge, something tough
but worth engaging in because it helps you move forward,
it helps you learn and grow, your body still activates,

(02:20):
it still gets into that kind of mobilizing state, but
it's in a way that fuels you. So your focus sharpens,
you lean in rather than turn away, and you feel
more in control. So instead of the situation happening to you,
it becomes something you are choosing to meet head on.

(02:43):
And at the beginning of the year, I gave a
presentation to some year eight students about managing stress and
the lead up to exams, and I showed them a
video of a rollercoaster ride, So it was one of
those ones. Is the video was as if you were
actually sitting in the carriage of the roller coaster. And

(03:03):
then it was followed by a picture of two people.
So one of the girls in the picture looked absolutely
petrified and the other one looked completely exhilarated. So same situation,
totally different experience. So one person saw the roller coaster
as a threat and the other saw it as a challenge.
Or you think about giving a presentation at work or

(03:26):
at school. If you're in a critic pipes up with
what if I mess up? Or what if everybody thinks
I'm terrible, Everyone's going to judge me. That's going into
that threat mode. It can be automatic that critic will
just appear and we can't control that. But what we
can do is notice it and then reframe it. It's

(03:48):
an experience. I'm going to grow from this. Even if
I stuff up. That's challenge mode. So it's the same event,
but a different mindset. We may not be able to
control the automatic response, but we can control what we
do with it by choosing our attitude towards the stress.

(04:09):
And this really works when you apply it. So I
am living proof of this, and that's coming from someone
who has spent much of her life in threat mode.
And if that's you, please go back and listen to
that Mojo Monday on the ninth of June that I
did with Paul goes through about twenty six to six minutes.
And also, I just want to shamelessly plug Paul's book,

(04:33):
which is called The Heartiness Effect, and this is just
part of it, this challenge challenge versus threat, But it's
really brilliant and honestly, heartiness is something that we all
need right now and I'm becoming really passionate about it too.
That resilience is like the outcome. Heartiness is how we

(04:55):
get there. So here's your Mojo Monday mission for this week.
The next time you feel stressed, pause, ask yourself, am
I seeing this as a threat? Or am I approaching
this as a challenge? And if it feels like a threat,
just try flipping it. What can I learn here? How

(05:16):
much is this going to help me grow? What part
of this is within my control? And what strengths do
I need to tap into right now? Is it courage?
Is it determination? Is it fun? It's like even just
asking those questions can shift your mindset and your nervous
system from avoidance mode into full engagement. And you've got

(05:40):
to remember that choosing to see situations as a challenge
doesn't mean it's going to feel easy, and it often won't.
That discomfort is usually a sign that you really care
and that you're moving in the direction of growth. So
this week, just play with that lens. Notice where you

(06:01):
feel threat and see if you can gently reframe it
as a challenge. And over time, this practice builds hardiness,
and then that creates resilience and confidence, because confidence comes
from building skills and learning to trust yourself, and once
you have that, you know that you can handle life's challenges.

(06:24):
So I hope that has been valuable for you as
it has been for me. Have a beautiful Monday, enjoy
the rest of your week, and I will catch you
next week. See Yuah