ARC gotten through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, and honestly speaking? Definitely not the kind of self-help stress-tackling book I needed at the moment I was reading this, and that's fair enough. The author is a former paramedic and firefighter (?) so it makes sense in the life he lives why he has to look at stress and grief in the way he does, it's because I genuinely think it would have been harder for him to continue if he didnt have these thoughts in mind. That stress and grief and tragedy are good sometimes, because they hone your focus and gratitude on the things you have.

But I do understand why for people in other situations - me and the ten billion other flavors of trauma and loss and longing - not everything in this book can work for you. I don't think there's anything worse you can tell someone grieving than "there's a good reason for this, actually!"...no matter how good the intentions behind such advice can be. So if that's the situation you find yourself in right now, I guess you can still pick up something from this book, but tread carefully.

It was an interesting read and I enjoyed the positive outlook to the bleakness of stress. I especially enjoyed the debunking of myths and the routines that the author has included. It doesn't help with managing stress but I feel like I needed this another perspective on life for an overall healthy disposition.

I’m finding it really tough to review this book – or indeed, finish reading it, which took almost a year (!). It’s not bad at all, it’s just… hmm.

For a start, going through a heck of a lot of trauma in the recent past, I am so so wary of the concept that going through stress makes you stronger. It can, for many it does, but every time someone tells me how much my woes have made me ‘stronger’, I want to slap them. You deal with stuff because you have to, but please stop making it sound – like the opening quote – like a good thing.

Yes, I can see why you need that story when you have suffered, but make no mistake, it is suffering. Growth is perfectly possible in other ways, and this glorifying stress events is just crap, quite frankly. Comparing it to the physical kind? Just, no. You tell people to exercise more, to exert themselves a bit, but you would never suggest someone goes out and witnesses horrible things just to ‘strengthen’ themselves – what the heck?! Yeah, yeah, I get that you can mean a small step out of your comfort zone, but that’s not how the message comes across. And even that – speaking from current experience – is not necessarily a good thing to push if you are going through trauma or stress anyway.

So, the author is a (former) paramedic and firefighter, and has all sorts of stories to tell (including an incredibly grim one about a car crash, CW). But his overcoming those things doesn’t really make me feel like I can learn from him at all. He’s great at telling his story, but the advice is all so bland and superficial, imo. Definitely nothing I haven’t read elsewhere, and while I don’t disagree with it, it’s just rehashing those same ‘meh’ platitudes. Community is all important, you have to talk things through, have you considered religions, you must connect connect connect.

You take from books like this what resonates with you, and for me that was pretty much nothing. Nothing is harmful or wrong, the author seems like a really decent bloke, but it just did nothing for me.

This book explores the idea that moderate amounts of the right kind of stress are opportunities for growth. Offers a thorough understanding of stress, it’s different types, and how to reframe and use it more positively. A dense but informative read if you want to know more about stress and how to better process it.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

I found this book well written and very clear, as I had the pleasure of discovering in the other articles written by the author. We are experiencing a particularly stressful period, I think it is important to understand where this stress originates and how to turn it into something positive. I definitely recommend it to all those people who deal directly or indirectly with stressful situations and want to understand how to deal with this.

As someone who works in crisis intervention and high stress situations, I see how stress not only affects the people I am assisting, but myself and my coworkers. Secondary trauma often leads to burnout if the stress is not managed.

Stress Into Strength provides you with balanced information about show stress affects us mentally, physically, and emotionally but also how to use that stress to build resilience and become more flexible.

This is definitely a book that would be great tool to use with the survivors I assist on a daily basis.

I was given this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I had read a few articles by this author on stress on the HRB website and they were always well-written with a lot of information and concise.
With the last two years being extremely difficult for people across the globe and using the time to know myself i had come to realize that I am under constant stress. I stress because I am stress and then it's an endless cycle, there is no doubting the author on his knowledge of the subject.
give this a read at least you'd know a lot about stress and try to recognise the many triggers and forms that you would usually not be aware about.