I work with many clients who have difficulty drawing reasonable lines between work and non-work time. Might that be you? If so, you might experience what my clients do, e.g. disrupted family relationships, excessive feelings of anxiety and tension, poor sleep, physical complaints. In a world of work where the mantra often is "do more with less", it might seem impossible to reduce your felt level of stress. However, in our recently published book (I Can't Take it Anymore: How to Manage Stress so It Doesn't Manage You; Paul G. Longobardi, Ph.D., and Janice B. Longobardi, R.N., P.H.N.), available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1542458056 , we discuss workplace issues as well as some steps and strategies to help you manage your stressors. For additional information about the book and the authors, please see our book website at http://www.manageyourhealthandstress.com/.
We will excerpt the book over the next two posts. Here is an excerpt covering five steps:
Here are some additional steps to manage workplace stress:
1. Track your stressors and your thoughts. Keep a journal for a week or two to identify which work situations create the most stress and how you respond to them. Record your thoughts, feelings, and information about the environment, including the people and circumstances involved in the physical setting, and how you reacted. Taking notes can help you find patterns among your stressors and your reactions to them.
2. Develop healthy responses. Exercise is a great stress-reliever. The physical benefits of exercise—improving physical condition and fighting disease—have long been established, and physicians always encourage staying physically active. Exercise is also considered vital for maintaining mental fitness, and it can reduce stress. Studies show that it is very effective at reducing fatigue, improving alertness and concentration, and enhancing overall cognitive function. This can be especially helpful when stress has depleted your energy or ability to concentrate.
When stress affects the brain, with its many nerve connections, the rest of the body feels the impact as well. If your body feels better, so does your mind. As discussed earlier, exercise and other physical activity produce endorphins—chemicals in the brain that act as natural painkillers—and also improve the ability to sleep, which in turn reduces stress. A workout of low to moderate intensity makes you feel energized and healthy.
It has been found that regular participation in aerobic exercise has been shown to decrease overall levels of tension, elevate and stabilize mood, improve sleep, and improve self-esteem. Even five minutes of aerobic exercise can stimulate anti-anxiety effects. So get walking, and consult your physician if you have any medical conditions.
3. Learn to apply progressive muscle relaxation in the workplace. We discussed this technique in detail in Chapter 9. In review, there usually are three components. One involves a focus on controlled breathing—not the frequent shallow or held breath of the anxious and stressed individual. A second component is the use of guided imagery to achieve images of relaxing scenes. With the third component, muscle groups are flexed, and then systematically relaxed. The idea behind progressive muscle relaxation is that by breathing naturally, focusing on pleasant/relaxing images, and alternately tensing/relaxing muscle groups, your mind also becomes relaxed. Furthermore, this technique does not require any special training. In fact, anyone can learn to do it. Refer back to the earlier chapter for more details.
4. Make time for your hobbies and favorite activities. Set aside time for the things that bring you pleasure. Getting enough good-quality sleep is also important for effective stress management.
5. Establish boundaries. In today's world, you easily can feel obligated to be available 24 hours a day. Establish some work/life boundaries for yourself. That might mean making a rule not to check email from home in the evening, or not answering the phone during dinner. Creating some clear boundaries between work and non-work parts of your life can reduce the potential for work-life conflict and the stress that goes with it.
So, as you can see from this excerpt, you are not passive in the face of workplace demands and challenges. Try out some of the steps and take back your control of your reactions. Next week, I'll have some more steps. Best of luck on your journey.
Dr. Paul Longobardi
For more information on these and related topics, please see my website at www.successandmindset.com