To the engineer, such as myself, stress is simply a pressure acting upon an object to displace or deform it. The object resists with internal forces called tensions and thus maintains its integrity. In these terms, change itself is a stress. Hunger, a good joke, a car honking, are all stresses. The tensions they cause in us put us into action, and we eat, laugh, jump out of the way, in other words, survive.
Stress is part of life and as necessary to it as water is to a ship.
Problems occur when we are no longer able to respond appropriately to a situation. The tension stays because it does not develop into effective action. The Feldenkrais Method literally gets you moving. You develop the instinct to seek new responses in any situation.