Becoming Unstressable in an Overloaded World

Stress isn’t just about what happens—it’s about the space you create between event and response.

Stress is inevitable, but suffering from it doesn’t have to be. That’s one of the key lessons in Unstressable by Mo Gawdat and Alice Law—a book that doesn’t promise a stress-free life but instead offers a way to build the capacity to handle it.

That concept resonates deeply with me because I’ve lived it. It’s a private matter, my run-ins with stress and more, but what matters more is that I’ve learned how to manage it. That doesn’t mean I don’t have stress or problems—it just means I’m better equipped to handle them.

And that’s a skill we all need, now more than ever.

Too Much, Too Fast

Our species evolved to process life in real-time—one challenge at a time, in a world where change happened over generations, not in the span of an afternoon. But today, we are bombarded with more input than our ancestors could have imagined. News alerts, social media feeds, work emails, texts—it’s an unrelenting onslaught of information, much of it designed to trigger emotional reactions. We’re not built for this, and the cracks are showing.

Research supports this concern. The American Psychological Association warns that excessive media consumption strains mental health, leading to heightened stress and decision fatigue. Likewise, a study highlighted in Psychology Today found that information overload contributes to mental exhaustion, making it harder to process new information and leading to increased anxiety. We’re asking our brains to handle more than they were designed to, and it’s showing up in skyrocketing stress levels.

That’s why limiting is so critical. In Unstressable, Gawdat and Law emphasize that limiting unnecessary inputs—whether it’s news, social media, or toxic relationships—is the first step to reducing stress. But that doesn’t mean disengaging entirely. Tuning out the world completely isn’t the answer, especially when so much of what’s happening—particularly in Washington, D.C.—demands attention.

But we have to pick our battles emotionally. Not every fight is ours to carry, and if we don’t set limits, the constant outrage cycle can leave us exhausted and ineffective.

Understanding the Language of Stress

Unstressable argues that stress isn’t just about what happens to us—it’s about our capacity to handle it. Stress speaks through our emotions, bodies, and minds. There was a time when I didn’t listen to these signals—I ignored them or drowned them out with work, distractions, and sheer willpower. But stress, when ignored, doesn’t disappear. It compounds.

Once I started learning to recognize my body’s signals—fatigue, irritability, muscle tension—I realized stress wasn’t something to “push through.” It was something to acknowledge, address, and release. Science backs this up: studies show that mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programs can significantly reduce anxiety and depression by helping people become more aware of their stress responses.

That’s where learning comes in. Gawdat explains that knowledge alone isn’t enough—you have to commit to practicing the habits that build resilience. It’s not about reading self-help books or absorbing information. It’s about actively using techniques like mindfulness, breathwork, journaling, and boundary-setting in daily life. Otherwise, stress management remains just an intellectual concept rather than a lived reality.

Reacting vs. Responding

One of the most powerful takeaways from Unstressable is the distinction between reacting and responding. Before I had the tools to manage stress, I reacted—to bad news, to people, to my own thoughts. And reacting usually made things worse.

Now, I focus on responding. That pause between stimulus and action is everything. A deep breath before replying to an email. A walk before making a big decision. A moment of reflection before assuming the worst. Science supports this approach—cognitive reframing, the practice of changing how we interpret stressful events, has been shown to lower stress levels and increase resilience.

Stress isn’t just about what happens—it’s about the space you create between event and response.

Breaking the Cycle of Overload

Another truth I’ve come to accept: I can’t control the pace of the world, but I can control how much of it I let in. We weren’t designed to process this much information, and if we don’t filter it, it will consume us.

So I filter.

I don’t need to check the news ten times a day. I don’t need to be available to anyone (except my immediate family) 24/7. I don’t need to engage with every argument or absorb every piece of negativity.

Studies have shown that limiting screen time and reducing exposure to distressing news can improve mental well-being. Research in Biological Psychiatry even found that mindfulness practices, such as controlled breathing and meditation, can significantly reduce stress-related physical symptoms, reinforcing the importance of slowing down and choosing what we let into our minds.

(And if this phenomenon is overwhelming for adults, it’s even worse for children and teenagers. Handing a smartphone to a developing brain is like setting a firehose of distraction and social pressure on full blast. Social media, in particular, has been linked to rising anxiety, depression, and even self-harm in young people. Schools should be a place for learning, not a battleground for constant digital distraction. But that’s a topic for another essay—one I’ll get to soon.)

That’s where the third piece of the 3 L’s—listening—comes in. Gawdat describes Unstressable as nothing more than a language course. Once we limit unnecessary stressors and learn the right tools, all that remains is to listen—to our minds, hearts, bodies, and souls.

Stress doesn’t appear randomly; it signals something we need to change. If we pay attention, we can hear when our bodies are overworked, when our emotions are out of balance, or when our thoughts are leading us down destructive paths. The goal isn’t to eliminate stress—it’s to tune in before it burns us out.

Stress Is Inevitable—Suffering Isn’t

I still have stress. I still have problems. But I don’t let them run me. The tools I’ve learned—from focusing on solutions, from personal experience, from books like Unstressable—have helped me build resilience.

And resilience isn’t about avoiding stress. It’s about handling it without letting it consume you.

We live in a world that moves too fast, demands too much, and feeds on our constant engagement. If we don’t take control of our own stress response, the world will do it for us. But we have more power than we think.

We can limit the stressors we expose ourselves to. We can learn and apply the habits that build resilience. And most importantly, we can listen—to our own internal signals, to what our minds and bodies are trying to tell us before stress takes over.

We can’t slow down the world, but we can learn how to move through it with more clarity, confidence, and peace. And that makes all the difference.