"Be less nervous, don't take everything to heart! We don't want you to have health problems because of this ongoing stress!" Most people are familiar with these words and believe that stress is bad, negative, and causes illness. Is it so?

Examining the concept of stress, we find that it is a reaction to the risk of important events or things happening to us. A fight with your best friend or a poorly made brownie can bring stress to your life.

In 2006, American researchers found that high-stress levels increase the risk of death by around 43%. One important point to note is that this number refers to those who consider stress harmful to the body. Those, who experienced it and did not perceive it critically, had the lowest percentage of death risk among the participants. Thus, if you consider stress harmful, it certainly is.

A study by Yale University showed that people with a positive attitude towards old age lived 6-7 years longer. It is even more than the four extra years we get for doing sports and not smoking.

A positive outlook directly affects your health. Believing in the best is a perspective that goes beyond proven facts. Recognizing how your mindset influences your thoughts, emotions, and actions is essential.

How do you treat stress? Perhaps you need to brush up on your attitude. When we perceive stress as a harmful phenomenon, we choose to avoid it. Let's look at this from the opposite angle. The benefit of stressful situations is the tendency to make plans and tactics to eliminate them. This is how stress helps us overcome life's challenges. Thus, it strengthens us and gives us a greater sense of confidence. Therefore, the belief that stress is not only negative is justified. Yet how can we change the way we look at stress and not run away from it? Find out in the following sections.