“Eustress” was coined in the 1960s by psychologists exploring the nature of stress. The word was patterned on the word “distress” — by adding the Greek prefix “eu-” (meaning “good”) to the word “stress.” Stress is often experienced as discomfort, anxiety, or suffering and is sometimes associated with the threat of danger. As a counterpoint, psychologists offered the term “eustress” to describe a response to stress that is not distressing, but rather motivating and beneficial. For example, a baseball pitcher taking the field in the World Series may well feel stress, but it’s likely he feels confident of his place on the mound. As a result, he feels eustress — excitement for and focus on his task — rather than distress.