stressed woman sitting with eyes closed on lake shore
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We frequently refer to stress as to a source of negative emotions and unhealthy conditions. It wouldn’t be a discovery of America if we told you that most of the nights you anxiously spent rolling over from one side of your bed to another or weight gain/loss are the consequences of being constantly stressed-out.

We’re not the descendants of Columb to tell you that, but there is one thing we can open your eyes to: experiencing small amounts of stress can be remarkably beneficial for your health.

Sometimes we’re immersed into the fallout of stress to such an extent that it subconsciously transforms into anxiety, resulting in daily insomnia, headache, change in sex drive and many other effects. But what if the way of looking at stress was shifted from pain to advantage?

What if you started digging for the benefits of stress? What if stress was your daily ally but not your enemy?

Resistance and Placidity

It may be surprising but moderate stress can bring about placidity in the future. When you encounter stressful factors for the first time — be it skydiving or a boxing match — you develop resistance to similar events, which seem to be far less frightening and overwhelming in the future. In fact, this is how the soldiers are trained before being sent to a battlefield.

It is believed that small amounts of stress while gambling can help you cope with your real-life problems, such an upcoming test, tough days at work or family issues.

When you’re placing real money at stake, you’re experiencing stress and excitement at the same time, making your brain produce adrenaline in high doses.

After some game rounds, your body exhausts and you may feel relieved. If you intend to reduce elevated stress in that way, read poker stories first, in order to not turn a fascinating game into a distressing pastime.

You’ve already gone through a lot of stressful situations like a broken heart, first day surrounded by unknown people or a move to a larger town which looked so frightening and oppressing in the first place. Haven’t you noticed how you began to treat such situations? Isn’t it much easier to handle them?      

Cognitive Power Boost

The influence stress has on us is simultaneously frightening and impressive. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Berkeley suggests that small amounts of stress can boost your brainpower, making you remember things better and improving your concentration. From the scientific viewpoint, moderate stress level enhance the connection of neurons in your brain.

We rarely notice stress, as it’s pretty well accustomed to quietly creeping up on us when we are not waiting for it. This makes it difficult to compare under-stress brain activity with normal.

If you want to prove to yourself that your brain performance is better when you’re dealing with physical or mental pressure, just take notes of the amount of work you do when you’re exposed to a moderate amount of stress and correlate them with the results of your ordinary day.

Way to Success

There are situations in our life, when we take stress as part of our temperament, neglecting the direct influence of this “emotion stimulant” on us. The most vivid example is a project deadline: you work like a beaver in order to accomplish the task assigned to you; and when you successfully complete it, you feel a strong relief of pressure, which entails an increase in your mood. Good mood is also one of the benefits of stress.

Another telling evidence of stress being an influencer on your career is a new job or promotion. The first several weeks all you think about is the ways to do your job well; and fatigue doesn’t even remind itself. This type of stress is more prolonged compared to the one caused by the project deadline, thus it’s fairly dangerous.