Best-selling author of Brain Rules, John Medina, explains that the less we feel in control of stress, the more we experience the type of stress that hurts learning. “If you feel out of control of your life,” says Medina, “you are more likely to experience depression and anxiety disorders” that impede learning. When stress is perceived to be within our control, however, it can be helpful to the learning process. We can reverse the effects of chronically extreme levels of stress that feel beyond our control in powerful ways that are simpler than we think.