Jennifer King pens piece on benefits of stress

headshot of Jennifer A. King

Jennifer King, assistant professor and co-director of the Center on Trauma and Adversity, wrote about navigating stress amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In her piece, titled “The Pandemic Stress Hack That Just Might Keep You Going” and published on Medium, King explained how not all stress is a bad thing.

“In small, predictable doses, it helps us learn and grow,” she said. “It’s the sweaty palms, butterfly stomach you get before a big new thing: taking a test, doing a job interview, going on a date, playing in a championship game, (ahem) singing out loud on a Zoom call. When we face a challenge, the stress response system is activated, peaks, and then deactivates. We return to our baseline, whatever that baseline may be.”

Read her piece

This story appeared in The Daily on Jan. 28, 2022.