I've been fascinated for years by "mindset" since reading Josh Waitzkin's Art of Learning which referred to Carol Dwek's book by that title. We all know about the importance of a "growth" mindset versus a "fixed" mindset in every aspect of life from parenting to investing.

I saw this presentation from one of Dwek's students, Dr. @AliaCrum at Davos (I know!) in 2018 where she gave this talk. https://sparq.stanford.edu/sparq-health-director-crum-discusses-mindsets-world-economic-forum-video

The entire thing is worth watching, but 3:50 in she discusses the mindset around stress. Crum also goes deeper into the issue of stress in this paper https://mbl.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj9941/f/2020_optimizing_stress_crum_et_al_emotion.pdf

Crum concludes that with a shift in mindset about stress, we can use it and the cortisol surge as

a performance enhancement tool and sometime superpower instead of looking at it as a debilitating, inflammation causing killer. Think Michael Jordan or Tom Brady making those game winning shots in the final seconds.

I can speak from personal experience that this shift in mindset that allowed me use my stress to hyper-focus, think with clarity and make numerous decisions to chart a path to recovery from our lows in March. @AliaCrum should be famous for her work and given tenure!

P.S. As a matter of a mental model, I think it is useful to detach and try to observe your mind in action to point of imagining your Amygdala--the stress detecting, fight or flight part of your brain actually secreting the chemical Cortisol freeing you to take action.