--- title: How to Step Stress: Think of It as Excitement description: How to use the science of emotions to your benefit canonical: https://time.com/4632667/stress-emotions-norepinephrine-excitement/ author: Ian Robertson article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-12T11:08:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:41:20.581Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why when feeling stressed, you should say "I'm excited." og:description: How to use the science of emotions to your benefit og:url: https://time.com/4632667/stress-emotions-norepinephrine-excitement/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdff8fc68d10bd5f6/6988b555656a3f1166bce5ea/stress-test-emotions-science-stressed-anger-excitement.jpg?branch=production&width=420&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 420 og:image:height: 236 og:image:alt: stress-test-emotions-science-stressed-anger-excitement og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why when feeling stressed, you should say "I'm excited." twitter:description: How to use the science of emotions to your benefit twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdff8fc68d10bd5f6/6988b555656a3f1166bce5ea/stress-test-emotions-science-stressed-anger-excitement.jpg?branch=production&width=420&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Stressing Out Can Help You Succeed > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Ian Robertson](https://time.com/author/ian-robertson/) ## Ian Robertson Jan 12, 2017 11:08 AM UTC  Bloomsbury Publishing by [Ian Robertson](https://time.com/author/ian-robertson/) ## Ian Robertson Jan 12, 2017 11:08 AM UTC Jason paced the corridor outside the boardroom before his presentation. He could hear his pulse in his ears, and his mouth was dry. The last time he felt like this, he told himself to relax, but it didn’t work. So this time, he tried something different: “I feel excited.” Suddenly, his symptoms—the racing pulse, the twisting stomach, the sweaty palms—started to energize him. The boardroom door opened. He performed brilliantly. This story might be fiction, but at its core lies a very real truth. The science of emotion tells us that our bodies respond similarly to many different emotions, including anger, excitement and anxiety. And recent research has shown that if we verbally put those symptoms into a different context—by saying “I feel excited” [when feeling stressed](http://time.com/4411308/stress-resilience-brain-anxiety/), for example—we can trick ourselves into following suit. The key to all this is the neurotransmitter and hormone norepinephrine. When you’re too stressed or scared, your [norepinephrine](https://www.britannica.com/science/norepinephrine) levels surge well beyond their sweet spot; when you tell yourself you’re excited, they sometimes fall back. Of course, this trick won’t work for every emotion: it’s a lot harder to reframe [stress](http://time.com/tag/stress/) as relaxation, because those two conditions have entirely different physical symptoms. Nonetheless, in the right context, stress can become a source of positive energy—not just a by-product of anxiety. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4632667/stress-emotions-norepinephrine-excitement/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4632667/stress-emotions-norepinephrine-excitement/"},"headline":"How Stressing Out Can Help You Succeed","datePublished":"2017-01-12T11:08:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:41:20.581Z","description":"Why when feeling stressed, you should instead say \"I'm excited.\"","url":"https://time.com/4632667/stress-emotions-norepinephrine-excitement/","keywords":["Stress"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdff8fc68d10bd5f6/6988b555656a3f1166bce5ea/stress-test-emotions-science-stressed-anger-excitement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ian Robertson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ian-robertson/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdff8fc68d10bd5f6/6988b555656a3f1166bce5ea/stress-test-emotions-science-stressed-anger-excitement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"stress-test-emotions-science-stressed-anger-excitement","caption":"The Stress Test by Ian Robertson","creditText":"Bloomsbury Publishing","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/stress/","name":"Stress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4632667/stress-emotions-norepinephrine-excitement/","name":"How Stressing Out Can Help You Succeed"}}]}] ```