Any biography of a person we admire is a story of tragedy channeled into purpose. Struggles create psychic energy, we can either direct it to something important or we can let it destroy us. You have a choice: channel it to overcome obstacles or don't. How can you get anywhere without overcoming? We want significant progress without having to move, that is the paradox that keeps us trapped in the stress-suffering cycle.

The story of America is the story of immigrant families absorbing substantial risk to make a home. When asked how they pushed through, their answer: Because they had to. Ordinary people can lift cars, survive disasters, go from rags to riches, and overcome the odds—when they have to. That's the power of stress. We often hate it; that's our perception of course, but we love the results. Meaningful things are born out of tough situations. What meaning is there in a utopia?

Paralysis Rather than Progress

When we remove all obstacles, stressors, and risks, we die. I don't mean this figuratively, I mean literally, we will die. Putting aside our emotional and intellectual health for a moment, but from the immune system, the heart, to our cells, they cannot survive without stress. Likewise, the muscles of astronauts in space atrophy due to the lack of duress from gravity. Astronauts are weightless, but they are never under zero gravity. Otherwise, their ship would lose its orbit. Without gravity, we would lose the moon. Without gravity, we would leave our orbit around the sun. (Not to mention what would happen to the seas and life on earth.) There always needs to be a pull, some pressure, some stress, or we perish. That is the truth we must accept. If you deny this fact, you deny control. How do we mend a relationship unless we accept there is a relationship that needs mending? Our relationship with stress is plagued with these riddles because our relationship with stress is irrational and inconsistent.

Without an ability to cope, everything becomes stressful. A hyperfocus on not screwing up makes us anxious about everything we do. Constantly second guessing and over-thinking. Life is a myriad of experiences; hiding under a rock to avoid all the bad, also means avoiding all the good. Without natural experiences, there is no need for resilience, no reason to grow (physically, emotionally, and intellectually), and without experiences to draw from, there is no foundation for empathy.

Without stress, there is no psychic debt to channel and no rewards for our risks. Without a need, there is no reason, and without reason it will not happen. Removing ourselves from the ways of nature is equal to holding our breaths, and without breath, there is no life. Nature adapts. (Even air itself is not pure oxygen, in fact, pure oxygen can be just as toxic as toxic air. This is the absurdity of binary thinking.)