We chant, we meditate, we ground ourselves, whatever it takes to avoid the killer stress.  But is stress really that bad.  When was the last time you felt stress?  

Does public speaking create stress for example? Your heart begins to race; you can feel the rush of adrenaline. As your palms perspire and your mouth goes dry, you feel the butterflies in your stomach. You are keenly aware that this is the moment you have prepared for. You gaze upon the crowd and see that all eyes are watching you with anticipation. After a deep inhale and a slow exhale you begin…

If you can come through when others fail, when stress makes you sharper, more mentally focussed and able to deliver powerful results you’re like the athlete who performs better in competition than in practice.  You already know that you can use stress to your advantage.  

On the field or at your business, stress can be your friend. Moderate levels of stress help us get out of bed in the morning, give us motivation, and supply us with the drive to complete a difficult task. Stress can provide us with inspiration for performing our jobs well. In fact, a lack of stress can cause you to feel depressed. Cavemen depended upon these physical reactions to stress in order to survive. When confronted with anything that posed a threat, the body’s reaction to stress allowed the cavemen to be more alert, focused, and ready to fight or flee. It is this survival response that we still feel today when faced with stressful situations.

Stress can be useful in numerous ways. Engineers test a material’s strength by applying stress. During testing, the engineer is able to find the material’s weak spots. These weak spots can then be reinforced to make the material stronger. Similarly, cardiac stress tests measure the heart’s blood flow during exercise (stress) as opposed to during periods of rest.

Doctors are able to detect some types of heart disease—weak spots in the heart muscle—after a patient undergoes stress testing. In nature, continual wind on a tree can cause it to become very strong. This ever-present stress forces the tree to stay grounded, dig deep, and remain firmly planted in the ground.

Whether it is just enough to keep us motivated, or strong enough to expose our weak spots, stress can help us improve.