You’re facing something difficult.
How do you feel about your chances of handling the challenge you are facing?
The answer to this can influence the outcome.
Serious adults don’t take nonsensical gibberish like The Secret seriously so don’t get nervous as that’s not where this is going.
If you think, “I’ve got this,” then blood goes to your brain and muscles for action. If you think, “I don’t got this,” (in addition to using suspect grammar), blood stays in your torso to prepare for defeat.
A little more detail on what is happening.
“I’ve Got This”
If you’re in an “I’ve got this” mindset, breathing increases to send more oxygen to the blood, the heart pumps faster and vasculature dilates to send the blood out to your muscles and brain. Oh, and motivation and performance increase.
“I Don’t Got This”
When a threat is viewed as too much for you, the body protects itself. The heart still pumps faster (from the stress response), but the vasculature constricts, keeping blood in the chest cavity. Why? Defeat for most of human history meant you were on the wrong end of a physical confrontation and suffering tissue damage and blood loss as a result.
Keeping the blood in your chest and waiting for defeat means that (1) less blood is lost from the injuries to your extremities, (2) that more blood is available to immediately begin tissue repair work once the battle is lost.
What’s Going On
In mindset research, how our minds appraise a stressor determines our reaction to it – as either a challenge or a threat.
In summary: Belief in success = blood gets sent to muscles and brain for action. Belief in failure = blood stays in torso.
Your psychology influences your physiology and the quality of your response to a stressor.