Workplace stress is a serious issue. More importantly, high levels of worry in the workplace can have serious consequences on your quality of life - not only at the office, but everywhere else as well. Stress is responsible for over 75% of all doctor’s office visits and contributes to heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and autoimmune diseases. If you’re stressed out at work, and you take this home with you at the end of the day, it’s time to implement some measures that will help you STRESS LESS.
To effectively manage stress, you need to address it across three main areas of your life: your physical health, your mental health, and in relation to your sense of purpose. Here are some activities for you to consider if you need to stress less in your life.
Take Time Out To De-Stress Your Body
The hyper-active habits of modern living activate high stress level responses in our bodies. We often don’t take the time to participate in creating the necessary amount of relaxation response to counterbalance such stress. This has serious consequences for our physical health - too much stress can accelerate the aging process, suppress our immune systems, and leave us feeling fatigued and depressed.
Since stress is actually a physical and hormonal chain reaction, the first place to start is using your body to positively interrupt the stress response. In fact, the foundation for living a stress-free, vibrant life lies in what we eat, how much (and how often) we move, as well as how much we sleep we get on a nightly basis. The following basic activities will provide a significant improvement in your stress levels, both at the office, and at home.
- Eat whole foods. Processed food can cause you to feel anxious and can even contribute to ADD. You can prevent these symptoms by eating whole foods, eating more fruits and vegetables (especially green ones), and getting a healthy dose of omega-3 fatty acids from salmon or seeds such as hemp, chia, and flax. Nourishing your body in this way, will make you better prepared to take on whatever challenges you face at work.
- Eliminate bad habits. Drinking excess amounts of stimulants like coffee to keep you ‘up’ during the day, and then drinking alcohol to bring you back ‘down’ in the evening, messes with the natural cycles and biorhythms of your body.
- Exercise regularly. Physical activity releases feel-good, stress-relieving chemicals. The easiest and simplest way to change your stress level, is to get up and move. You can stretch, run in place, dance, or walk around the office or building. Do what ever it takes to get your blood and endorphins flowing, whatever makes you feel good and turns off your 'flight or fight' stress response. Boost the physical benefits of moving by taking several deep, cleansing breaths that will help to trigger your relaxation response.
- Get enough sleep. Work stressors are magnified when we’re sleep-deprived and foggy. Aim for a minimum of eight hours of sleep each night. Sleeping well can help you solve problems with a clearer mind and even boost your intelligence.
Mind Over Matter
The stress response is a function of your autonomic nervous system’s flight-or-fight response. Specifically, stress is triggered by a thought or belief that you are in danger. Your body then goes into hyperdrive, producing cortisol and adrenaline to help you get out of danger as fast as possible.
Let’s repeat that for emphasis: Stress begins in your mind via a thought or belief. Thus, an important key to neutralising stress is to train your mind with more positive, happy, gratitude-filled thoughts in order to stop your stress response being triggered. A few simple ways to retrain your brain and tune it to a more positive, relaxed state of mind could include some of the following activites.
- Meditate regularly. A consistent meditation practice - even if it’s only five minutes a day - has the potential to help lower your blood pressure, and can help you control the negative thoughts that can trigger a stress response. The next time you get stressed because your boss just added another task to your already overflowing to-do list, stop and take a breath. Stand up, move your body, sit back down and meditate for five minutes. Simply focusing on your breath can have a significant effect on calming you down in this type of situation.
- Learn to say NO. Being overbooked, overworked, and overcommitted will lead to stress. We often feel obligated to say yes' to everything for fear we won’t be liked. But the greatest act of stress relief is exercising your right to say no. You can be polite but firm: explain to others that you are overcommitted and that you must say no. And yes, you can even tell your boss no. Just ensure that you take the time to explain that one more project will mean the quality of your work will drop. Negotiate priorities.
Stay In Tune With Your Values
Connecting with your values in the workplace is the foundation for less stress and more happiness, both in the office and outside of it.
What do your values have to do with stress? When you are able to align your values with your work and live those values in all aspects of your life, then you are more at peace and less likely to feel stressed.
When your life is full of nothing but work and obligations, the potential for feeling bitter, resentful, depressed, and even angry creeps in. Some stress relieving tips to integrate your values into your worklife in a way that creates a more relaxing experience of life might include the following.
- Schedule quality social time. When you're working crazy hours, it's easy to find yourself detached from your relationships. Each week, schedule some time with people that make you feel good, so that you can just hang out and have a laugh. No work talk allowed, and no checking the smartphone. Disengage from work and reengage with those that matter.
- Centre yourself. Regardless of what 'spirituality' might mean to you, one thing is certain: When you are overworked and chronically stressed, it's easy to forget about your place in the bigger picture. Connecting with your spiritual roots through prayer, meditation, chanting or other rituals, is an excellent way to get perspective on what’s stressing you and relieve that pressure.
The Takeaway
It's impossible to eliminate or escape stress at the workplace. It is a fact of modern life. However, you can take steps to neutralise stress in all areas of your life by filling your waking hours with meaningful actions, thoughts, and beliefs. Everyone deserves to live a happy, contented life. It’s never too late to start making yours exactly that.
