We typically view stress as harmful, but good stress exists. The distinction between good and bad stress is significant — chronic stress persists long-term and causes health issues like sleep disorders and digestive problems, while good stress is short-term, acute, and beneficial, CNBC writes.

(Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to external sources.)

Good stress can be harnessed to improve well-being: “We can unlock resilience and health by actually leaning into good stress,” CEO of wellness course platform Commune Jeff Krasno said. Activities that might cause temporary discomfort or a short-lived spike in stress can ultimately help build emotional regulation skills, Krasno explained. “Chronic ease has led to a lot of chronic disease,” he said, lamenting about modern society’s pursuit of eliminating good stressors.

So how do we make use of good stress? Useful stressors include cold plunges, saunas, high-intensity work-outs, and intermittent fasting. The key is to expose oneself to just the right amount of these stressors. Doing so enables the body to adapt to the stressor in question as well as to prepare for other potentially stressful situations.

Other applications could target social stress, like rejection therapy — intentionally facing uncomfortable social situations to overcome the fear of rejection. This trend has spread across social media, with people filming themselves making unusual requests like asking strangers for money or requesting “burger refills” at restaurants to build resilience against social discomfort.

What you think is what you get: A study (pdf) published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2013 found that shifting employees’ mindset about stress can lead to improvements in work performance and self-reported health. Part of the study divided 388 employees of a large international financial institution into three groups — a group that watched videos emphasizing the “enhancing” effects of stress, another that watched videos showing its “debilitating” effects, and a control group. Those in the first group reported fewer psychological symptoms related to stress and improved self-reported work performance compared to the other groups.

Tags: