Najmuddin Suki
It’s hard to think of a time when we say, “I’m stressed” and mean it in a good way. Stress is perceived as a threat by our body and in response, a few hormones will be released. The primary ones would be adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones let us focus better and give a sort of energy boost that the brain perceives we need to deal with the enemy which is stress.[i]
Aren’t focus and energy boost good things? Well, yes. However, to be able to achieve these, more glucose and fatty acids will have to be released into the bloodstream. It results in difficulty in going to sleep, higher blood pressure, and can even make us fat, among other things.
Can stress, in any form or timing, be good? To answer this question, you can ask yourself more questions:
- Have you ever been in a situation where you need to perform or achieve something?
- In the end, did you perform or achieve?
The first question pertains to stress: you are, by choice or circumstance, put in a position where there is an expectation upon you. And expectations are stressful. It requires work, discipline, preparation, and the like. The kind of demanding situation that hormones like cortisol may come in handy, but being successful, or even the mere thought of success, makes you happy. Achievement releases another hormone, dopamine which helps us strive, focus, and find things interesting.[ii] The cycle of stress and excitement of the new challenge or/and anticipation of success makes us feel alive and drives us forward.
In the realm of education, a study found that up to 90 percent of information/knowledge retention can be achieved through teaching others, whereas practicing what you learnt (aka learning by doing) constitutes the next best method of retention at 75 percent.[iii] These two activities come with a certain degree of expectations: that of the prospective learners that one is going to teach, or that of the outcome of what one practiced doing, whether it be a creation or test result. As such, we can imagine these two methods as arguably the most stressful as opposed to the remaining activities cited in the study and often attributed to learning i.e. listening to a lecture (5 percent retention rate), reading about a topic (10 percent), using audio-visual feeds (20 percent), observing a demonstration of the subject matter (30 percent), or engaging in a group discussion (50 percent). Interestingly enough, the highest retention rate out of the top two most meaningful activities comes from group discussion, where one may choose to be an active participant or passive listener. In short, at least when learning is involved, the omission or lack of expectations (stress) leads to the reduction of information or/and knowledge retention.
However, not all types of stress are created equal. Admittedly, there are stressful situations that we cannot actively participate to alleviate. In a study involving 761 Malaysian students[iv], researchers found that the top two things the respondents find as the most challenging with regards to online learning during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as poor internet connection and unclear and inconsistent learning structure.
Taking into consideration the age of the respondents (lower secondary to tertiary education), it is a reasonable assumption that about the only solutions to these challenges would be to ask someone else to do something. In addition to this, the indicator of success of such an approach is very vague, thereby limiting the extent of happiness should the problems be solved. It is then perhaps a good idea to think of tangibility when approaching our challenges and problems. We have been facing many months of uncertainty and some measurements, such as “congratulations, you have mastered 80% of objective one of this subject”, or an app that measures internet connectivity (hey it’s 70% of the promised speed at 2:00 in the morning. Yay!) may well give us that much-needed dopamine shots sometimes.
However, hormones are not just about measurements and control. One most interesting hormone, oxytocin, makes us happy and inspired whether we are involved or not, and during the pandemic, it is safe to assume that we did not get involved a whole lot. A sizeable number of Malaysians have been inspired by one Veveonah Mosibin, the then 18 years old who climbed and built her way to improve her situation. That is some significant dopamine shot for her and possibly the people closest to her. Meanwhile, those of us who learned of her plight are left happy and inspired. Much of this is credited to the happy hormone oxytocin, which also made us happy in the many months when we had little to be happy about. We were inspired by the white flag campaign, Lee Zii Jia’s success in the All-England, “Abang Viva” Azwan Omar, and the Gurdwara Sahib in Petaling Jaya, to name a few. As social animals, we humans are not only happy about achieving something, but also when other humans achieve something, or when we see other humans helping one another, or when other humans are being model human beings in general. The magic of oxytocin does not stop there. We can share these stories, and those who read or listen to us actually get their oxytocin activated, making them feel happy and inspired.
Another thing that a lot of people did a lot during the pandemic, is rather surprisingly, a workout. Perhaps the out in the word workout feels out of place with the overwhelmingly prominent word “lockdown” that most of us experienced during the pandemic, but exercise equipment companies like Hydrow and Peloton achieved significant gains during the pandemic. If you have been working out, kudos to you for boosting the levels of your serotonin, another happy hormone.
The fourth happy hormone would be endorphin, which can be boosted by laughing. We faced months of uncertainty in a pandemic where streaming tv shows reign supreme and comedy or elements of comedy play prominent roles with shows such as WandaVision, Ted Lasso, Reservation Dogs, What We Do in the Shadows, Hacks, and Only Murders in the Building, to name a few, capturing huge audiences. In facing a pandemic due to a virus that does not have medicine, laughter is perhaps the best medicine.
One can only guess what the future holds for us during these uncertain times. One thing for sure is that we will do our utmost to be happy.
[1] https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20046037#
[2] https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-dopamine
[3] Nunn, N. R., & Jones, C. R. (1972). The learning pyramid: potential through perception. Columbus, Ohio: Merrill.
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