How Does Pressure Affect Your Mind and Body?

When we’re under pressure, we can think about the situation in one of two ways—either as a threat or as an opportunity.

Whether you view the situation as a threat or opportunity depends on how you answer this question for yourself: “Do I have what it takes to handle this situation?”

When you answer “no,” you view the situation as a threat. The perception of pressure situations as a threat hurts our performance. Why? With threat thinking, your mind is typically filled with thoughts and feelings that

You have little to no control over the situation.

You’re filled with anxiety, fear, worry, and doubt.

You’re focused on trying to avoid failure and its devastating consequences.

These thoughts and emotions, in turn, trigger responses we’re all familiar with: butterflies in your stomach, sweaty palms, dry mouth and throat, and tense muscles, to name a few. In addition, threat thinking leads to an increased heart rate and the production of performance-crippling chemicals such as cortisol—a.k.a. the stress hormone. In heavy doses triggered by threat, cortisol causes your blood vessels to constrict, limiting the amount of oxygen and glucose that reach your muscles and brain. This, in turn, compromises your ability to make good decisions and perform at the level you’re capable of under less stressful conditions.

Before Rick’s visit to the mound in the bottom of the 9th inning, Izzy felt—in a word—threatened.

In contrast, when you answer “yes” to the question “Do I have what it takes to handle this?” you view the situation as an opportunity. With opportunity thinking, your mind is typically filled with thoughts and feelings that

You’re in control.

You’re confident.

You’re focused on the success you view as being within your grasp.

These thoughts and emotions, in turn, trigger a performance-enhancing response from your body’s internal pharmacy. Like threat thinking, opportunity thinking also causes your body to respond with an increased heart rate. However, unlike threat thinking that releases cortisol in large amounts that hinder us, opportunity thinking releases dopamine, the feel-good neurotransmitter.

Dopamine causes your blood vessels to dilate, increasing the amount of oxygen and glucose getting to your muscles and brain. This, in turn, helps you make good decisions and perform at the level you’re capable of under normal conditions.

Learning the skill to get yourself into opportunity thinking for pressure situations is critical for performing your best. After Rick’s visit to the mound in the bottom of the 9th inning, Izzy saw the opportunity.

In essence, your mind is filled with beliefs that can either hurt you or help you. These beliefs, in turn, spark an internal pharmacy within your body that releases chemicals that can also hurt you or help you.