Stress (压力) has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I stressed over some news reports. Why was there so many bad things happening in the world? And every age and stage comes with new problems: exams, friends, love, loss, job, family and death. One night, while I was facing a writing deadline, I could feel the worry setting in. Was it possible that stress was making me feel good?
As a psychologist (心理学家), Catherine Jackson, PhD, says, "In fact, stress is a must for people to live." Good stress is known as "eustress" and it comes with different advantages. Many studies have shown that "eustress" will help people to keep healthy and energetic.
Dr. Jackson finds stress can also increase your power and creativity to complete a task. "Another advantage is improved performance," she adds. Low levels of stress can make a good influence on brain power and improve memory and learning abilities in short time.
Dr. Jackson suggests reconsidering the word "stress" as "pressure." This could change how you go on to do with the situation. But it's important to tell the difference between them. "Stress nearly takes people's breath away, and the goal is to reduce it," Dr. Jackson explains, "but pressure is having something depend on your performance for a good result."
I changed the mind about stress that night. For the first time in my life, I was actually considering stress differently. In my case, my deadline finally had a good result. It's almost as if this pressure helped me get the job done. I might never be able to make bad stress disappear completely, but I can change my thoughts, and that's a step in the right direction.
