According to new studies, breathing deeply does not work to reduce stress, it better tricks your brain with these two words and you will see the difference.

I confess, getting on a plane generates a mixture of stress, anxiety, and fear. I am well aware that this fear is not rational because flying is the safest means of transport that can exist. However, I can not help feeling it.

The funny thing is that only last year I have taken more than 20 flights, some with a duration of more than 10 hours. If you wonder how I did it without dying of stress, the answer is very easy:

I survived thanks to a very straightforward strategy that allows me to handle stress better before flying. I also realized that it is effective in other areas like: before exposing in public, an important conversation, a final exam and even to sing better in karaoke.

The strategy is simply to repeat these words when you perceive the stress or anxiety in your body: "I am excited."

Sounds pretty simple right? And it is normal for you to ask yourself if these words really can transform the stress in our favor to take advantage of it. It turns out that researchers at Harvard University asked the same question and conducted a scientific study to prove it.

Study participants had to engage in an activity that often causes a lot of stress and anxiety: public speaking, singing aloud, and a math test. After practicing the strategy, the participants perceived less stress and improved their performance, were 17% better when speaking and singing in public, and 22% better at the math test.

It seems to be a lie that such a simple strategy has an effect, but changing your stress intent to emotion makes your body and brain better control that feeling for better results.

These results showed that contrary to what is thought, moving from "stress" to a state of "emotion" is much easier than moving from "stress" to a state of "calm." This happens because stress and emotion trigger very similar reactions in your body: they activate the system that keeps you alert, causing sweating, contraction of muscles and your heart rate is accelerated.

Changing the intention makes your brain go from a state of "danger and threat," where you focus on everything bad that can happen, a state of "opportunity," where you focus everything good that may occur.

For example, in implementing the strategy before getting on a plane, I went from thinking that it is possible that I die today, to a much more positive thought like the thrill of landing in a new place.

So the next time you ask yourself how to remove stress, forget the strategy of breathing deeply, and better repeat these words "I'm excited," I guarantee you will see the difference immediately.