The real test of character is how long we get along with what's not in our control. To be irritated with and trying to get rid of what doesn't suit us makes us brittle and brash. Anxiety is 'feeling bad about feeling bad'. Instead of passively yielding to anxiety, we must be proactive to embrace anxiety and to continue our survival struggle instead of meekishly quitting. There are people and things being an inevitable part of our lives; there is no need to be irritated with them. And what is evitable must not be confronted.

Desiring to remain unperturbed in this life, rife with strife, makes us prone to mental stress. What we suffer is not stress, it's distress – the negative side of stress – defined as 'physical or emotional discomfort, suffering, or alarm, particularly of a more acute nature when we stress about the stress'. Eustress, by contrast, is 'a healthful, stimulating kind and level of stress', achieved only when we accept stress, not seek its absence. Importantly, we can change our stress mindset, experts say.

In Kafka's short story, The........

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