We are in an age where stress and stress management are frequently discussed and often without context. Stress is a complex topic, and I’d like to cover some of it in this blog post. The key question for this post is how do we know when our stress levels are “just right”?
When I was young, stress was invariably considered a bad thing. It was thought that there was one stress category, which was all negative. Neuroscience and management thinking have moved forward in the intervening epochs, and there is a recognition that human beings need stress to be engaged and to grow.
Mihayli Csikszentmihalyi, the Hungarian psychologist, introduced the concept of Flow. We are in a flow state when deeply engaged with our work. Time passes without our noticing, and the work feels effortless and productive. Flow state is achieved when we can work without distraction and the work is sufficiently taxing to require our full attention.
Developers enter a flow state when coding without stopping for food, bathroom breaks or distractions. Writers constantly seek to enter a flow state to generate high-quality, volume output. We can enter a flow state when working on a new problem or while standing in a river fly fishing (literally being in the flow). To enter a flow state, we also have to be in a state of stress, in this case, called eustress.
Eustress is the state in which we grow and learn fastest. We may feel uncomfortable, like when starting a new job, but not to the point of damaging stress levels. I have learned the most when I’ve been in this state of “not-knowing” discomfort.
Too little stress can be damaging in its own way, particularly if we are used to operating at a certain level of everyday stress. If we have too little stress in our work lives, we may engage in damaging behaviours, spending time doom-scrolling social media or Internet sites. Our motivation suffers, and it can seem pointless to engage with anything. A continuation of this state can lead to a lack of a sense of purpose, which can be very bad for our mental health. Humans need focus and purpose, or we become anxious and perhaps even depressed.
One aspect I have noticed of moving from a high-stress to a low-stress condition over time is that I am more likely to get sick once cortisol levels drop. Several theories address why this may occur, but cortisol suppresses the immune system in persistent high-stress situations. When the stressors are removed, the body switches back to a higher immune response, which may cause pathogens that gained a foothold during the suppressed state to cause an immune reaction. This then leads us to feel sick. Research has shown that persistent, chronic stress can lead to hypertension, heart disease and diabetes, among other serious health issues.
Acute stress can also impact immune response. This tends to be temporary and does not always result in illness.
The key from the above is that maintaining a state of eustress is desirable, and we need to be aware of when we are either under-stressed or over-stressed. Persistent states of stress imbalance can have severe mental and physical health conditions associated with them. The only way to know what our eustress levels look like is to seek out the right challenges for us and know when to disengage from work (or leisure) and when to recharge or re-engage.
In short, go ahead, stress yourself!
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