Problems cause stress, and stress makes it even harder for you to come up with solutions. Although this cycle may seem inescapable, a study featured on ScienceDaily.com notes that there is a simple solution to get out of it–self-affirmation.

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University worked with a group of college students who were asked to rank their priorities (family, friends, hobbies, school work, etc,) and to report their levels of chronic stress. Several participants were assigned to perform a self-affirmation activity and were asked to write why their top priority was important, before solving a time-sensitive problem using creative methods.

The results showed that those who had high levels of chronic stress performed weakly, but those who were able to practice self-affirmation were able to manage their stress just as well as the participants who had low levels of chronic stress.

Assistant psychology professor J. David Creswell says, “People under high stress can foster better problem-solving simply by taking a moment beforehand to think about something that is important to them. It's an easy-to-use and portable strategy you can roll out before you enter that high pressure performance situation."

(Photo by Victor 1558 via Flickr Creative Commons)