Huffington Magazine Issue 55-56 | Page 30

CULTURA/HUGH WHITAKER/ GETTY IMAGES Voices ART MARKMAN Stress Can Make You Do Good Things, Too THE EFFECTS OF STRESS on willpower are a staple of romantic comedies. A character goes through a difficult romantic breakup, and in the next scene, she is sitting on the couch smeared in ice cream with empty wrappers strewn on the couch. All of us have experienced this kind of failure of self-control. There is some bad habit we are trying to avoid, and we succeed until life gets hectic. Suddenly, it is business-as-usual. Because these breakdowns of willpower are so clear when they happen, you might think that stressful situations HUFFINGTON 06.30-07.07.13