Is living without stress truly possible?

If you suffer with stress, you’ll recognise the symptoms: a pounding heart, shortness of breath and clammy palms. It’s extremely unpleasant. People who suffer with stress are likely to increase their chances of suffering with anxiety and depression and other mental illnesses, but they also tend to suffer with more physical illnesses too because their immune systems tend to less resilient.

Bearing this in mind, it’s likely that you would like to kiss your stress goodbye, so what if we suggested that’s not something that you should necessarily do?

Can stress be good for you?

Recent research has suggested that stress can be good for you. Rather than seeing the symptoms of stress as evidence that you can’t cope with whatever is causing you to feel stressed, what if those very symptoms were signs that you are actually coping really well? These symptoms of stress actually indicate your body is coping well with what it is you are facing.

The thing is, your body naturally addresses stress by displaying the symptoms you experience. You don’t need to get rid of the symptoms say some experts, instead you need to change the way you think about stress. View the situation differently and transform the fear you feel into courage.

One US study tracked 30,000 adults for eight years and discovered that of those who had experienced a lot of stress and believed that stress was damaging, had a 43 per cent increased risk of dying, compared to those who did not worry about the great stress they were under. Experts believe that when you change your mind about stress, you can change your body’s response to stress, after all, as the old saying goes, ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’.

According to Dr Kelly McGonigal, author of The Upside of Stress, those who have been able to rethink their stress response are reaping the rewards. They understand that their pounding heart actually prepares them for action, and this helps them to reframe their feelings in a stressful situation, and see things as opportunities rather than threats.

Stress means that we are awake and alert and attuned to changes around us, and recognising this is obviously a good thing. It helps us to take action and move forwards, rather than simply try to hide or withdraw. We are proactive rather than paralysed by our stress.

As McGonigal says, stress is a fight or flight reaction, and she believes that if we seek help, and ask others for support, this is healthier than simply feeing or hiding ourselves away, practicing avoidance behaviour, or isolating ourselves socially.

Good stress versus bad stress

The thing to bear in mind regarding stress is that there are notable differences between good stress and bad. Good stress is acute, lasting minutes or hours; bad stress is chronic, and can last days or even years in some extreme cases. Good stress features high accountability and autonomy on your part; bad stress means a lack of control on your part.

Good stress can result in increased efficiency to maintain physical exertion; bad stress can result in hypertension, heart attack, stroke, or other debilitating illnesses.

Ideas to help you adapt your thinking on stress

• When you have a stress reaction see if you can take some ownership of how you feel. Rather than feel helpless, accept the challenge and fight back against the situation.
• Remind yourself this is not a personal failure. Other people will react the same way as you. You can use this situation to demonstrate your strength rather than your weakness.
• Use your support networks. A problem shared is a problem solved.
• Remember than when you experience a thrill, this is a form of stress too but you see something thrilling (a roller coaster ride, a water slide, a parachute jump) as exciting rather than scary.
• Stress ensures productivity. Without stress you would never hit a deadline.

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