Is Stress Good For Us?

[monster]

The BBC reports on a new book in which the author argues that we need to keep busy to be happy and live longer lives.

Author Todd Buchholz, a former economic advisor at the White House, says he began researching a book about people "chasing success and losing their souls". But when he looked into the subject, he changed his mind. He concluded that rather than slow down, we need to throw ourselves into the rat race, compete harder and relish the stress.

It kind of makes sense to me -I just can't slow down, it's not in my nature. It bothers me not to have stuff to be busy with, even though having lots to do sometimes leads to horrible looming deadlines and stuff.

I think this woman says it well

Lucy Kellaway, the Financial Times work commentator welcomed Buchholz's message with open arms. "I don't need to invoke my frontal lobe to know that he is right about me," she wrote this week. "I find losing myself much more rewarding than trying to find myself - and it's much easier to get lost in work than in the washing up." And it's only through hard work that you feel "sufficiently virtuous" to enjoy self-indulgence, she argues.

How about you? Do you thrive on stress or relish the idea of escaping from it all?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13791271