Intentional Stress Doesn’t Have To Be Stressful

The concept of intentional stress to build resilience can apply to anyone. This post explores the mindset and practice behind intentional stress in a way that can be appealing to all.

I have some friends and family members who subscribe to my account. I’m actually pretty sure my incredibly supportive mother was the only one who liked any of my posts for the first six months on Substack... Some of the people close to me have said they ignore my intentional stress challenges because they already have too much stress in their lives.

I get it! When I present on this topic in the military, I acknowledge that it initially seems insane to want to add stress to your plate. This is why it’s first important to understand basic management strategies so you can effectively function with and eventually recover from life’s inevitable stress.

Even when mildly stressed, however, the benefit from pursuing a self-created challenge is significant. 

Temporary distraction. 

Sense of accomplishment.

Confidence.

Recovery.

Resilience. 

Active > passive. 

It’s imperative to also understand stress is neither good nor bad. Stress is an evolved mechanism of our central nervous system that has encouraged survival and progress since Homo sapiens started climbing the food chain. It is the judgement of our stress, that can make it good or bad. Distress vs eustress is simply a choice, usually a habitual one. This presents a reframing opportunity. 

That being said, we don’t want to intentionally cause significant amounts of stress in any domain that we aren’t accustomed. Whatever your current stress level is on a scale of one to ten, create a challenge that only adds one to that number (unless it’s a nine or ten where I’d recommend leaning on your support systems). Have a prepared strategy such as conscious breathing or resilient perspective in mind prior to beginning the challenge. Know the amount of time you want to experience the mild stressor. Initially, keep it brief and relatively simple. Slight discomfort is still discomfort. The previously listed benefits will be the same.

Focus on the intention of training resilience to encourage discipline in this concept. You aren’t creating distress, you’re creating eustress.

Reframe stress and then delay gratification. 

Start small and allow adaptations to happen and comfort to build before you systematically increase the stressor and subsequent stress response. Progressively get more comfortable with what was previously uncomfortable. 

To date, I have created twenty intentional stress challenge posts if you don’t count the ten I have in my original post on the concept which has been featured in several publications: