The Upside of Stress

Negative and Positive Stress

Most health experts preach that stress is dangerous. Learn to manage your stress, they say, or invite such consequences as heart disease, depression and addiction. These experts say that managing stress means reducing it, either through relaxation techniques or by reorganizing your life to lessen the pressures affecting you.

Recent research undermines that conventional wisdom. One study surveyed 30,000 American adults on the stress in their lives and tracked the group’s mortality rates for eight years. The results were surprising. Those who led low-stress lives and those who led high-stress lives – but who didn’t think the stress was bad for them – had almost identical mortality rates. A third subgroup – highly stressed people who believed their stress was harmful – had a 43% higher risk of dying. Attitudes about stress appear to be more significant than the stress itself.

Three decades of research suggest that stress also offers rarely recognized benefits. These findings show stress can make you smarter, more confident and more empathetic. Stress can even improve your health. The best way to manage stress is not to fight it, but ...