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Writer's pictureTJ Martino

Good Stress vs. Bad Stress

When we think of stress, we often picture it as something negative—a weight we carry or a pressure to escape. However, not all stress is harmful. There’s eustress, a positive form of stress that drives growth, resilience, and improvement, contrasting with distress, the negative stress that wears us down. By understanding both and learning how to manage our “stress bucket,” we can leverage eustress to enhance our healthspan—the length of time we live in good health—and minimize the effects of distress to protect it.


What is Eustress?


Eustress is the type of stress that excites and motivates us, pushing us out of our comfort zones in ways that are beneficial. Unlike distress, which can overwhelm us, eustress challenges us at a manageable level. It can occur when we’re learning a new skill, taking on an exciting project, or even engaging in physical exercise. This type of stress pushes us to grow and adapt, contributing to better mental resilience, physical strength, and overall well-being. Think of eustress as adding beneficial “layers” to your stress bucket, expanding its capacity and helping you adapt to future stress with greater ease.


Exercise as Eustress


One of the most accessible and beneficial forms of eustress is exercise and physical fitness. When we engage in physical activity, particularly exercise that challenges us slightly beyond our comfort level, we experience controlled stress that encourages our body to adapt. This type of eustress has remarkable benefits:


Strengthens Muscles and Bones: Resistance training and weight-bearing exercises stimulate muscle growth and increase bone density, which are crucial for maintaining physical function and mobility as we age.


Boosts Cardiovascular Health: Regular cardiovascular exercise, like running, swimming, or cycling, enhances heart health, reduces blood pressure, and improves circulation.


Supports Mental Health: Exercise releases endorphins, which improve mood and can reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. It also helps regulate stress hormones, providing a mental boost that improves resilience against everyday challenges.


Enhances Cognitive Function: Physical activity has been shown to increase blood flow to the brain, promoting neurogenesis, or the growth of new brain cells. This supports cognitive functions such as memory, focus, and decision-making, which are vital to maintaining quality of life over time.


Incorporating exercise as a form of eustress can enhance healthspan by stimulating the body and mind to become more resilient, which can lead to improvements in physical and mental performance. Regular exercise fills your stress bucket in a way that not only expands capacity but also strengthens your ability to handle other stressors with greater ease. By challenging ourselves through physical fitness, we create a foundation for a healthier, more resilient body and mind.


Some sources of eustress include:


• Physical activities that push us just beyond our current abilities

• Taking on a meaningful project or learning a new skill

• Setting and working toward personal or professional goals

• Engaging in new hobbies or creative activities that bring a sense of excitement

• Positive life changes, like starting a new job or moving to a new place


Eustress and Healthspan: With eustress filling our stress bucket, we’re investing in growth. Regularly experiencing positive stress trains our bodies and minds, building resilience over time. This type of adaptation is known as “hormesis”—a process where low-level stress stimulates growth and repair, protecting against age-related decline and even extending healthspan by supporting cognitive and physical function well into older age.


What is Distress?


Distress, on the other hand, is the negative stress that typically arises from situations where we feel overwhelmed, out of control, or threatened. Chronic distress—when our stress bucket is continuously overfilled by negative stressors—keeps the body in a state of “fight or flight,” releasing hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, which can be harmful when present long-term. Unlike eustress, which boosts our capacity, distress drains it, leading to negative health outcomes that reduce our healthspan.


Long-term distress can lead to various health issues, such as:


• Increased risk of cardiovascular disease and hypertension

• Weakened immune function

• Chronic pain and inflammation

• Mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders


When distress dominates, it causes the stress bucket to overflow, taxing the body and mind to the point of burnout. Prolonged exposure to distress often leads to chronic conditions and accelerated aging, reducing our overall healthspan and quality of life.


Common sources of distress include:


• High-stress work environments without control or support

• Financial insecurity or persistent worries

• Relationship conflicts or family issues

• Major life events, such as illness or loss, without support

• Living with chronic health conditions or pain


The Stress Bucket: Balancing Eustress and Distress


Imagine a bucket that represents your body’s capacity to handle stress. Every experience of eustress or distress adds something to this bucket. However, while eustress helps expand the bucket’s capacity, distress fills it in a way that risks overflow. When the bucket overflows from chronic distress, it can lead to negative health impacts. Learning to balance these two types of stress can help us stay resilient, healthy, and strong.


Eustress Increases the Size of the Stress Bucket:


Because eustress strengthens the body and mind, it can actually serve as a buffer against distress. When we challenge our body with positive stress, our body learns to adapt and build resilience, expanding the size of the bucket and our ability to handle other stresses more effectively. This positive stress-feedback loop is vital for maintaining a healthier, longer life, as it enhances our capacity and equips us to manage challenges without becoming overwhelmed.


Distress Fills the Stress Bucket:


When distress overfills the bucket, it overtaxes our systems. Instead of building capacity, it drains it, wearing down our physical and mental reserves. Chronic distress can result in an unregulated stress response, leading to inflammation, immune suppression, and accelerated cell aging. In short, distress steals from our healthspan, leading to decreased resilience and, eventually, burnout.


Optimizing Your Stress Bucket for Healthspan:


1. Identify Sources of Eustress and Distress

2. Build Resilience with Eustress

3. Regularly Empty Your Bucket

4. Set Boundaries for Distress

5. Adopt a Growth Mindset


In Summary


When we manage our stress bucket by balancing eustress and distress, we set ourselves up for a healthier, longer life. Eustress fills our bucket with growth and resilience, enhancing healthspan, while chronic distress threatens to overflow it, draining our capacity. With the right balance, you can optimize your healthspan, building a life where stress fuels you rather than wears you down. Embracing eustress and learning to manage distress is the key to enhancing both the length and quality of your life.

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