Life comes with the gift of stress for everyone but sometimes the stress actually proves useful for us. It may look silly but it is scientifically proven that stress is not so stressful in some cases. Eustress is a form of stress that comes in the form of excitement or anticipation. Being in the state of eustress, the body of a human does not go into a fight or a flight mode but instead, this form of stress motivates the body to achieve whatever it wants. From this one can conclude that stress is a part of life and everyone needs it at a specific time in life. Below is the list of stages when eustress actually helps.
- When Nervous
There are many people when they speak in public, their palms get sweaty, butterflies started flying their stomach and they got sweaty. Reports show that people fear to speak in public more than death. But the symptoms of being anxious and excited are same. According to scientists, when one says “I’m excited” instead of “I’m nervous” before speaking in public, it shifts the mind in “approach mind.”
Saying so can increase dopamine activity in the brain and people started getting more confidence and the brain also works sharper. This positive attitude also improves performance and well-being.
- When In Search Of Consistency
There is another benefit of eustress and that’s it excels you in any given situation. Having right amount of stress enables one to enter a state called “flow state”, according to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a psychologist. Eustress helps to achieve the maximum in activities like sports or any other creative work.
In order to enter into a flow state, the activity shouldn’t be too easy, otherwise, it won’t allow focussing completely. At the same time, the activity shouldn’t be too difficult that you start losing focus. The ideal scenario to achieve “flow state” is that you are performing a task which perfectly matches your skills. And this what signifies the difference between eustress and stress.
- When Looking For Immunity
Everyone knows that stress is bad for health and it is also true in long-term cases. But a research of Stanford University stated that short-term stress is good for health as it stimulates one to increase the immunity. Although that research was based on rats it tells us that short-term stress is good for those who face short bursts in their lives. The research also found that mild stress is ideal to mobilize the immune cells of the body which are responsible for healing wounds.
- When Looking To Boost Brainpower
High-level stress damages the thinking cells of the brain but studies show that low-level stress is best suited for strengthening the neural connections in the brain. Neurotrophins – a brain chemical that promote the development of brain cells, are stimulated by the low-level stress as studies found in rats.
Short-term stress also helps the brain to achieve its optimal level, as stated by the research. Rat’s response in that study when they were given short-term stress seen a boost in their memory. You can relate it to a short burst of exercise which can lead to the mood change and boost in the brain functioning.
- When Building Resilience
As everyone is well aware of the fact that chronic stress damages the DNA and RNA. And then this damaging leads to more diseases and aging. However, according to a study, moderate stress helps protect the oxidative from damage with the help of a process known as “psychobiological resilience.” A UCLA study assessed that how much stress people had experienced in years. And the results of the research were shocking: as people who experienced mild stress tend to be more active and happy than those who experienced high-level of stress or no stress at all.
