Are periods of psychological stress necessary to progress in life? they say "no pain, no gain" ...

Stress is a normal: part of human growth and development. The word is taken from architecture in which buildings are built w/leeway for expansion and contraction. Don't look for stress, but when it comes your way consult, reflect, examine your motives, and do your best. Some success and some failure. It all helps us grow. Peace and good health.

Growth: I am usually not one to subscribe to maxims, but I do subscribe to the following: all meaningful growth involves friction.

I like to think we: can learn more from positive experiences; however, the problem is that in life, no one can avoid having negative ones. So, we can't run this experiment. Yes, we learn a ton from negative experiences and pain is a potent motivator to not do whatever it was that caused the pain. Try going through a whole day having only positive experiences and deliberately learning from them. What happens?