While reading about occupational health and safety for a work project, I stumbled across a term I had never seen before—eustress. Its meaning made so much sense. We all experience stress to some degree at varying times in our life. People can be a little stressed, or they can be overstressed or distressed. But it is possible to experience another kind of stress called eustress. This is a good thing.
Meaning: a positive form of stress stemming from good challenges or exciting experiences, leading to benefits in health, motivation, performance, and emotional wellbeing.
Origin: it is a psychological term coined by endocrinologist Hans Selye, a joining of the prefix eu-, meaning “good”, and stress, coming from the Latin distringo, meaning “to stretch out”.
There are many things in life that challenge us in good ways: striving to improve a skill, exploring new and unknown locations, strengthening our bodies through exercise, or tackling a new project at work. A little stress is healthy. It’s all about challenging ourselves to be better day-to-day. The key is finding balance, because too many challenges can be counterproductive and lead to distress instead of eustress.