Eustress: The “good” type of stress!
“Stress is like spice — in the right proportion it enhances the flavor of a dish.Too little produces a bland, dull meal; too much may choke you.” — Donald Tubesing
Stress is our body’s way of responding to a threat or danger or any kind of pressure. When we talk about stress, it gives us a feeling of uneasiness. But there is a positive kind of stress too… sounds very unfamiliar, uncommon, atypical? But its’ true, stress can be beneficial for us. Its’ called Eustress. This term has been coined by Hans Selye, who was an endocrinologist. The term contains a Greek prefix eu- meaning “good”, and stress, literally meaning “good stress”
Eustress was originally explored in a stress model by Richard Lazarus. He suggested two different kind of stress, Eustress — the positive kind of stress, and Distress — the negative kind of stress.
Examples of positive personal stressors include: Receiving a promotion or raise at work, Starting a new job, Marriage, Buying a home, Having a child, Moving, Taking a vacation, Holiday seasons, Retiring, Taking educational classes or learning a new hobby etc.
Where distress feels unpleasant, causes anxiety or concern, decreases performance and leads to mental and physical problems; eustress has certain benefits like :
- Motivates, enhances performance
With approaching deadlines we work more consciously and faster..our ‘jugaad’ approach.. Like last minute studying for exams for most of the students…that stress and pressure automatically enhances our performance and motivates us to work.
2. Keeps our brain active, improves brain function
Low-level stressors stimulate the production of brain chemicals called neurotrophins, and strengthen the connections between neurons in the brain. In fact, this may be the primary mechanism by which exercise (a physical stressor) helps boost productivity and concentration.
3. Increases immunity
Psychological stress is known to suppress immune function and increase susceptibility to infections and cancer. Paradoxically, stress is also known to exacerbate some allergic, autoimmune, and inflammatory diseases, which suggests that stress may enhance immune function under certain conditions. It has recently been appreciated that whereas chronic stress suppresses or dysregulates immune function, acute stress often has immunoenhancing effects (Firdaus S Dhabhar).
4. Challenging
There is some amount of stress needed in life, to challenge us, so we can work on it, learn from it and move ahead in our lives. To perceive a stressful situation as an opportunity and hope that it will lead to a good outcome. Believing in oneself to overcome the stressful situation.
We cannot deny the fact that life is a series of ups and downs and we need to understand what we can do to transform the distress into eustress. We need to find meaning in the situation of stress. Try and look from a different perspective and understand that stress is just a feeling and change our mindset about how we perceive stressful situations. Try and objectively focus on the task and not on our feelings and reach out to people around us, our support system, family and friends.
And understand the fact that nothing lasts forever… so…
“Turn your wounds into wisdom.” — Oprah Winfrey
