“Kitchen-table panic isn’t a character flaw.” Stress expert Elke Van Hoof on misframing and how we assess stress.
How often do you label feeling overwhelmed as a personal failure rather than a problem with the situation? Is there really too much for you to do, or is your brain telling you that you can’t handle it?
Elke Van Hoof explains what’s really going on at that moment. It’s not about your planning or structure. Elke calls it a “misframing”: the narrative your brain creates from a normal, busy evening quietly shifts from “this is a lot” to “I’m not enough.” And that shift is what causes the stress.
Elke Van Hoof explains how your brain assesses a stressful situation: as a challenge, an obstacle, or a threat. This explains why the same situation can feel manageable at one moment and like an attack on your self-worth the next. She also explains how a “stress-as-enemy” mindset automatically links every kitchen-table panic to personal failure, and what a more honest assessment actually does to change your stress level.
