Stress gets a bad reputation. Like it’s only ever the villain in the story.

In this episode, it’s reframed as something far more honest: stress is currency.

Every demand you meet, every risk you take, every meaningful thing you build or love costs something. Your nervous system is the bank. Whether your life is quiet or chaotic, whether your baseline is high or low, you are always spending. On work, learning, relationships, ambition, survival.

The problem is not stress itself.

It is living like you have infinite funds.

When you spend more than you earn back through rest, stillness, play, and nourishment, you do not just get tired. You go into debt. And eventually the body starts collecting. Motivation fades. Sleep fractures. Energy drains. Life turns gray. Not as punishment, but as a signal. A reminder that biology always keeps the books.

This is a quiet conversation about balance. About overstress and under-stress. Burnout and atrophy. The cost of just keep going. And the warning signs we learn to laugh off until they become impossible to ignore.

If you have been running on borrowed time, consider this an invitation to check the account and start paying yourself back.