"We found that self-affirmation completely eliminates the effects of chronic stress, " Creswell observed.

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There is no hard and fast rule about how often and how long one must engage in self-affirmation for it to work.

CNN: Boost your capacity to cope

In fact, the chronically stressed participants who performed a self-affirmation performed as well as the participants who reported having low chronic stress levels.

CNN: Boost your capacity to cope

They then instructed half the subjects to undertake a self-affirmation activity.

CNN: Boost your capacity to cope

While research on the benefits of self-affirmation goes back several decades, we still don't have a good understanding of the underlying pathways or why it produces such wide-ranging effects, Creswell says.

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"This is one remarkable feature of self-affirmation, " Creswell said.

CNN: Boost your capacity to cope

The exception: those participants who had completed the self-affirmation.

CNN: Boost your capacity to cope

These participants ranked things -- friends, family, a hobby or a religious value -- that were important to them and wrote down a few sentences about why their top-ranked value was important (this is a standard self-affirmation exercise, Creswell says).

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So what exactly is self-affirmation?

CNN: Boost your capacity to cope

As Creswell puts it, self-affirmation provides "an easy and portable strategy that you can roll out before you enter a high-pressure situation where you are required to perform well, " whether it's engaging in public speaking, readying for an important exam or giving a critical presentation to your boss and her boss.

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This form of self-generated affirmation can also limit our ability to innovate.

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