You are stressed. How, might you ask, do I know this? Don’t worry I do not read minds, I’m a voice on a screen. Not even a voice. I am a stream of letters. I know you are stressed because, well, you decided to read an article with stress in the headline twice. But don’t be ashamed. Stress is natural. Stress is everywhere. So why would you want to know how to de-stress about stress? Because no one likes to be stressed!

But what if you could learn to like stress?

Stress, despite what you’ve been told, isn’t all bad. Stress is your bodies way to prepare you for what you need to get done. When you’re stressed your heart starts to beat faster, your breathing starts to get more rapid, and you perspire. But what you perceive physically as stress is your body giving more oxygen to your brain so you can think clearly and quickly.

Lots of studies show how bad stress is for your body, the increased pressure to your heart can cause muscle fatigue and over time the walls of your veins get thicker and allow less efficient blood flow so more pressure gets put on your heart. But that is mostly due to the cycle of stress that we create for ourselves.

What is the cycle of stress?

1. Get frazzled
2. Feel the physical effects of stress (i.e. heart beating, breath quickening, and sweating)
3. Feel uncomfortable about sweating
4. Worry about your heart
5. Panic PANIC PANIC

Without the perpetuation of this cycle stress causes little to no damage on your body. Stress can be just another efficient tool to get your body and your mind in motion to tackle whatever was stressing you out in the first place.

Stress also drives us to success

With deadlines, due date, checkpoints, tests, assignments, and essays it’s no wonder students in college feel overwhelmed by stress. I’m overwhelmed just reading that list. But what makes a student reach their due date with a polished product? Stress. That panic you feel when your heart starts to race thinking about how much you still have to do before the clock strikes twelve. That’s what drives you to finish your problem set or conclude your paper.

On that note

So you see stress is not all bad, in fact it’s quite the helper. There are some physical problems associated with over-stressing,which I like to call perpetuating stress. But stress isn’t something you need to deal with or forget about, it’s something you can use. You can use it to tackle hurdles, herd turtles, or finish your homework. You can use it for whatever your heart desires, or whatever your life requires. Just remember when you use your stress, it goes away, stops bugging your heart and nagging at your mind. If you use it, you are already using it wisely.

To learn more about this topic below is a link to a Ted Talk by Kelly McGonigal on stress and health.