Key takeaways

  • Eustress, or positive stress, can motivate individuals, aid in achieving goals, and contribute to overall well-being and a sense of fulfillment.
  • Unlike distress, which arises from negative experiences and can lead to anxiety or decreased performance, eustress challenges you without depleting your resources, fostering personal growth.
  • Incorporating positive stress into daily life can involve engaging in challenging but realistic projects at work, pursuing new hobbies, traveling, or engaging in physical activities, such as workouts.

We all experience stress at some point. Whether it’s daily chronic stress or occasional bumps in the road, stress can sneak up on us at any time.

What you may not know about stress is that it’s not all bad. In fact, some experts believe we can experience eustress, or positive stress, as well as negative stress.

If the idea of positive stress is new to you, you’re not alone. Most of us equate all stress with negative experiences.

Clinical psychiatrist Dr. Michael Genovese says we rarely think of stress as a positive thing, but eustress is just that — positive stress. “Exciting or stressful events cause a chemical response in the body,” he explained.

Eustress is usually a product of nerves, which can be brought on when faced with a fun challenge. Genovese says this is important because, without eustress, our well-being can suffer.

“Eustress helps us stay motivated, work toward goals, and feel good about life,” he added.

What is distress?

Eustress and distress are related but distinct concepts. While eustress arises from positive experiences, distress arises from negative experiences or perceptions.

Specifically, distress occurs when you feel your resources are inadequate to meet the demands you are facing.

Licensed professional counselor Casey Lee, MA, says this type of negative stress can lead to anxiety, depression, and a decrease in performance.

Working and living outside of our comfort zone can be a good thing. That’s what makes eustress such an important part of our overall health.

Psychologist Dr. Kara Fasone says eustress is about challenging yourself without expending all of your resources. This type of stress empowers you to grow in three areas:

  • Emotionally: Eustress can lead to positive feelings of contentment, inspiration, motivation, and flow.
  • Psychologically: Eustress helps us build our self-efficacy, autonomy, and resilience.
  • Physically: Eustress helps us build our bodies, such as through completing a challenging workout.

“Eustress produces positive feelings of excitement, fulfillment, meaning, satisfaction, and well-being,” Lee said. He explains that eustress is good because it can make you feel confident, adequate, and stimulated by the challenge it presents.

You can find examples of eustress in all areas of your life. From work and interpersonal relationships to home and family relationships, opportunities to experience positive stress are abundant.

Fasone shares some ways you may see eustress show up in your life:

Eustress at work

An example of eustress at work is taking on a new project that encourages you to learn new things and pushes you out of your comfort zone.

However, work-related projects will only drive eustress if they’re challenging but realistic. If deadlines are unrealistically tight, you’re juggling numerous projects, or you’re working in a toxic team culture, you’re more likely to experience distress and its negative consequences.

Eustress in personal interests

Setting challenging goals around your interests or passions is another example of eustress. As humans, we have an innate ability to learn. Learning new things can be challenging, and growing expertise in an area doesn’t always go smoothly.

There’s typically a learning stage where you feel uncomfortable or unskilled. But you’re learning from those mistakes. As you start seeing small wins and continue building self-efficacy, you’re motivated to keep learning and improving.

Eustress and travel

Traveling is often stressful, especially when you’re exploring a faraway place with a different language and customs.

At the same time, you’re immersing yourself in a new and interesting place, with various foods to enjoy, new places to see, and a whole culture to experience.

Although stressful, traveling is a positive and eye-opening experience for many people.

Eustress and physical conditioning

Physically, eustress is exemplified by challenging your body to increase muscle growth, stamina, or flexibility.

In the gym or out on a hike, you might be jamming out to your tunes and totally zoned into your workout. You may not even realize how exhausting the work has become because you’re caught up in the moment.

There’s a good chance you already have positive stress in your life. But if you’re looking for ways to make eustress a part of your everyday, Fasone shares a few ideas to get you started:

  • Learn something new every day, whether big or small.
  • Learn how to set goals (personal and professional) that are challenging and realistic.
  • Push yourself outside of your comfort zone at work. This may mean taking on a new responsibility or developing a new skill.
  • Exercise, exercise, exercise!

Stress, whether positive or negative, is a part of life. We may not be able to control some of the negative stress we experience, but we can look for ways to include more positive stress, or eustress, in our lives.

This could take the form of exciting challenges, projects, or adventures, whether at home or while traveling. Any activity that is rewarding but requires effort can be a source of eustress.

However, it’s important to balance any kind of stress with rest and relaxation, especially if you experience a lot of distress.