Rethink Stress: What Is the Cost of Avoiding Stress?
Although avoiding stress can seem like a rational strategy, it almost always backfires. One of the benefits of embracing stress is that you find the strength to pursue goals and endure experiences that are difficult but meaningful. The mindset exercise below will help you recognize the costs of trying to avoid stress in your life.
Take a few minutes to write in response to any of the questions that seem relevant to your experiences.
Missed opportunities: What events, experiences, activities, roles, or other opportunities have you turned down or cut out of your life because you thought they were (or would be) too stressful? Has your life been enhanced or narrowed by these choices? What is the cost to you of missing these opportunities?
Avoidant coping: What activities, substances, or other “escapes” do you turn to when you want to avoid, get rid of, or numb thoughts and feelings related to the stress in your life? Are these coping strategies a good use of your time, energy, and life? Do they enhance meaning or help you grow? Are any of these coping strategies self-destructive?
Limiting your future: Is there anything you would like to do, experience, accept, or change, if only you were not afraid of the stress it might bring into your life? How would your life be enhanced by pursuing any of these possibilities? What is the cost to you of not allowing yourself to pursue them?
— The Upside of Stress (Kelly McGonigal), Loc. 1513–33