5 TED talks to help you manage the stress of finding a new job

It’s not uncommon to feel stressed or anxious when you’re looking for a new job. In fact, because so many people experience these feelings at some point in their life, there are a lot who are sharing tips on how to manage them, via videos. We’ve gathered the top 5 TED Talks to help you manage the stress of finding a new job.

1. Manage pre-interview jitters. Stress is only bad for you if you believe it is, says psychologist Kelly McGonigal in her talk ‘How to Make Stress Your Friend’. For years she’d been telling people “stress makes you sick”, but a Harvard study proved her wrong. It found that “when you change your mind about stress, you can change your body’s response to stress,” McGonigal says. So next time your heart starts pounding before a job interview, remind yourself that it’s your body rising to the challenge – by providing more oxygen to your brain.
    
2. Take ten. The best way to tackle the challenges of demanding situations like job hunting is to do nothing, says mindfulness expert Andy Puddicombe. Specifically, ten minutes of nothing, or “mindfulness”. In his talk, ‘All it Takes is 10 Mindful Minutes’, he explains this means finding a balance between focus and relaxation, “where we can allow thoughts to come and go without all the usual involvement”. Because when you step back to familiarise yourself with the present moment, you experience “a greater sense of focus, calm and clarity”. And it’s a lot cheaper than a ticket to Bali!
    
3. Improve your mood by smiling. Another remedy for the stress of job hunting is smiling. It might seem obvious, but sometimes the simplest solutions are the best. In his entertaining talk, ‘The Hidden Power of Smiling’, entrepreneur Ron Gutman goes through various studies to prove the enormous value a simple smile can have on your health. He says smiling is a “superpower” that can “help reduce the level of stress-enhancing hormones like cortisol, adrenaline and dopamine, increase the level of mood-enhancing hormones like endorphins, and reduce overall blood pressure”. The next time you walk into a job interview, smile, knowing that you’ll feel better, communicate better and come across better.
    
4. Avoid negative thinking. We take good care of our cars and even our bodies when we feel like it, going for runs or hitting the gym. But we don’t take enough care of our minds, says psychologist and author Guy Winch. His talk, ‘Why We All Need to Practice Emotional First Aid’, details his method of dealing with stress, which uses prevention, or what he calls “emotional hygiene”. He says, “By changing your response to failure, by protecting your self-esteem, by battling negative thinking, you won’t just heal your psychological wounds, you will build emotional resilience.” Take a leaf out of his book and remember not to be too down on yourself if you miss out on a job you apply for.
    
5. Prepare yourself for times of pressure. Sometimes you can’t avoid getting stressed when you’re trying to find a new job. After all, it’s in our DNA and can help us survive in times of danger, says Daniel Levitin, a neuroscientist. But what do you do if you can’t stop stressing in a situation that isn’t life or death? Learn how to see it coming, and prepare yourself, says Levitin in his talk ‘How to Stay Calm When You Know You’ll be Stressed’. Also, cut yourself some slack. “We all are going to fail now and then,” Levitin says. “The idea is to think ahead to what those failures might be.”