The Easiest Way to Erase Stress

Pain fades with time

At first it hurts unbearably, but as time passes, the same pain isn't felt as intensely. To survive, body and mind eventually adapt.

When a painful stimulus is repeated, it feels very painful at first, but people's pain ratings drop with repetition. (Pain habituation experiments)

When people repeatedly put their hands in ice water, they tend to rate the pain as less severe each time. (The cold pressor test)

Joy fades with time too

Humans are built to adapt to repeated happiness.

Buy something expensive, get married, reach a goal you longed for, and the feeling gradually fades. This is called hedonic adaptation.

What if joy never faded?

Every new purchase, every time you fell in love, every success, the joy would keep piling up.

But joy, too, is a stress that uses up energy. In the end, the body couldn't take it.

How to get through pain more easily

According to the "general adaptation syndrome" proposed by Hans Selye, the stress response also goes through a process of adaptation over time.

Just as you can't hold on to joy forever, stress can't hold on to you forever either. In the end, people grow numb to it, and stronger.

The difference is whether you endure knowing the pain will eventually lessen, or collapse believing it will always hurt this much.