Coping with Stress

01/08/2018

If you don’t accept failure as a possibility, you don’t set high goals, you don’t branch out, you don’t try - you don’t take the risk.
Rosalynn Carter, 1927-2023, First Lady of the United States

"As we know far too well, life is filled with challenges," writes Ellen Galinsky in her popular book, Mind in the Making. "And challenges – even positive ones – can be stressful. The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, directed by Jack P. Shonkoff of Harvard University, has reviewed the research on children and stress and has concluded that, while there are different types of stress, the key factors in whether these experiences ultimately have a positive or tolerable or toxic impact on children’s development are how long the stress lasts and whether or not children have safe and dependable relationships with people to whom they can turn for support."

Galinsky goes on to urge: "I think we should do more than help children cope with or tolerate challenges. We need to help them learn to take on challenges. Carol Dweck of Stanford University has found that children who avoid challenges have a fixed mindset: they see their intelligence as a fixed trait and therefore are reluctant to undertake challenges that 'stretch' them. Children who are willing to take on challenges have a growth mindset, seeing their abilities as something they can develop."

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