We are generally unaware that the avoidance of certain stressors tends to diminish or atrophy specific body parts, functions, or skills we have developped to cope with stress.

When you understand that, the overall picture changes.

For example, exposing our feet to cold breaks the vicius cycle of living in a continuously sustained 20-24 degrees environment (I wrote about that here — I Fooled My Wife Into Walking Barefoot In The Snow). Our blood vessels lose the flexibility to contract in cold. Hence the burning sensation when walking barefoot in the snow. Exposing them to cold can slowly ‘revive’ one of our body’s cold-coping mechanism.