Many of us dream of retiring to the beaches of Hawaii and living out our days in stress-free bliss. But have you ever talked to people who have actually retired? Many of them report that stress continues to plague them either in the form of poor health, concerns about finance, boredom or annoying neighbors at the assisted living home. Perhaps the key to a stress-free existence is not to remove the cause of the stress, but rather to improve one’s response to stress, as stress will always be inexorable in life.

Most researches agree that there are two kinds of stress: good stress – eustress – and bad stress – distress ; distress is most commonly acknowledged as the typical “stress” one hears in their daily life. Eustress is also important to your daily life, as many agree that Eustress helps with discipline and being the best person you can be. An example of Eustress would be facing against a rival team in sports: there is pressure to perform, but it allows us as humans to reach our maximum potential and rise to the occasion.