Microstresses are small moments of stress that seem manageable on their own — think a vague, worrying text from your teen flashing on your phone while you’re in a meeting, the appearance of a colleague who always wants to vent to you, or having to tell your team that the project you’ve all been grinding out extra hours on is no longer a priority. But these microstresses aren’t as harmless as they seem. Because they’re so small and brief, they don’t trigger the normal stress response in our brains to help us cope; instead, microstress embeds itself in our minds and accrues over time. The long-term impact of this buildup is debilitating: It saps our energy, damages our physical and emotional health, and contributes to a decline in our overall well-being. But once you understand the science behind microstress and where it comes from, you can fight back. Fresh research will teach you how to recognize and manage microstress’s most common forms.
