Here are two very differing sayings about stress. The difference between these is what each implies. The first suggests that stress is something to be eliminated, or at best avoided, which just doesn't work in real life.
Stress is simply a part of life.
The trick is to learn not how to survive it, but how to thrive on it. It's amazing how little education we receive about how to handle our emotions. Some people seem to be emotions on legs while others wouldn't know an emotion if it clobbered them on the head. To toughen up, you have to know the territory. Allow the strength of your emotions to increase your passion for life, which is after all one of the purposes of emotion.