War, pandemic, the smartphone beeps all the time - the stress of modernity is great.

If you don't want to counteract this with stress eating or smoking, you need other strategies.

Psychologists from the University of Oxford have used the MYRIAD program to explore ways to reduce stress for those who have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic - and for whom smoking as an anti-stress agent is not an option simply because of their age.

For around 8,500 young people between the ages of 11 and 16, mindfulness was on the timetable for eight weeks.

The smartphone generation was also given the abbreviation ".B" as a tool, which stands for "stop and be" and means something like: "Stop and just be yourself." Or, as one participant explains: " It's really cool.

When a friend texts, 'Oh, I forgot my homework',

However, the question of whether ".B" would also reduce stress in the adult world, for example in conflict-ridden communication with the tax office, does not even have to be asked.

Because in "Evidence Based Mental Health" the researchers now take self-critical stock: The mindfulness courses would not have brought anything.

They didn't help the teenagers against fears, not during the pandemic, and not even the teachers benefited.

One should consider other options to build psychological resilience in adolescents, it says.

That's what psychologists at the University of Texas at Austin did.

In Nature, they present a 30-minute, one-time workout that improved the stress levels of 2,100 students—their cortisol levels were lower, anxiety disorders were reduced, and they got better grades.

The mini-intervention is available on the university's website.

Stress is to be reinterpreted here as something positive.

Sweating, tachycardia and feelings of panic are the body's mechanisms for overcoming new challenges.

The brain is trained like a muscle - without stress there is no change, no success.

In other words: war,

Pandemic and all the other stresses offer opportunities for inner growth.

And if that doesn't help, you can always try ".B".