You Stressed or Eustress'd

The management of stress is one of the most important facet to preventative type health care.  Simply, stress on the body is bad and can be linked to all kinds of health issues.  Inflammation, obesity, headaches, musculo-skeletal pain, ulcers, (just to name a few)  can be directly linked to stress.

On the flip side of that coin called stress though is Eustress.

Eustress literal meaning is "good stress."  Without eustress we wouldn't grow as individuals.  We wouldn't get smarter, stronger or improve in any type of skill.  We wouldn't keep our health without Eustress.

To get a little more complicated, eustress.  Running 5 miles (if I made it) would be a major stressor to me, to you, it may be the highlight of your day and leave you feeling great.  It would leave me feeling crushed.  My weight lifting training may leave you crushed, but give me just the right amount of eustress to leave me feeling energized and improving.  But, it's also how we look at it.  Even if I could run the 5 miles physically, my view point on long slow running is one of punishment.  We know this would be a stressor.
 it has a lot to how you look at the situation that creates the stress or

"The mind is its own self, and in itself can make heaven a hell, a hell of heaven."
John Milton

Eustress is needed to continue to improve.  If I lifted the same weight day in and day out, it no longer is a stress and becomes more parasympathetic and almost meditative.  While this in itself isn't bad.  I know people where there walks have become this for them.  It started as a workout and now it has become so adapted to, it is now meditative.  This can be good at times.

To continue to get stronger Eustress must be in the equation.  Slightly out of your comfort level that demands an adaptation to occur.  This isn't just lifting.  You don't get improvements with the same in anything.

So the question is what eustress are you allowing in your life.