Both physical and emotional or psychological stimuli can result in a stressful response – and it should be noted that stress doesn’t only pertain to a negative event or feeling. It can also result from very positive events or feelings, such as a promotion, a new home or the birth of an eagerly awaited child. A certain amount of stress, called “eustress”, is said to be positive as it keeps us motivated and alert, such as when we are motivated to get up in the morning, a mild form of stress.
This stress mechanism is an elegant, beautiful, well-orchestrated response to any physical danger. However, today we live in a world that is very far removed from the type of environment for which this response was designed. This response rarely gets to be used how it was intended to be used.