Stress free? No thanks!

It’s kind of funny, how people talk about stress. They talk about how terrible it is and how wonderful it would be if their lives were stress free. If their lives were stress free, they say, they would live longer as well as live easier, they would be able to relax and not worry and they would be able to do the things they wanted to.

And they would be right to say all of those things, but I guarantee you one thing, they’d also be bored to tears.

Stress is an essential part of our lives and it is actually, in many ways, a good thing. It helps us focus, helps us concentrate and helps us perform. We feel slight levels of stress every time we are asked to perform at work, at home, or even during games and let’s be honest about it, we enjoy it!

Stress accompanies challenge and we all need to be challenged. If we didn’t we wouldn’t like game shows, competitions, or seek career advancement. If there was no longer any challenge in our lives, I think many of us would go insane from boredom. I know I would.

Of course, too much stress is a bad thing, but that isn’t anything new. We all know that moderation is the key (though it seems we all enjoy excess). Too much sex, chocolate, water or food will shorten our live spans drastically and it’s the same with too much stress.

We’ve turned stress into the modern boogey man, when in truth it has always been a useful tool. I, for one, won’t be part of that anymore and welcome stress, and the accompanying excitement, into my life. After all, without stress life might be long, but it won’t be worth living.