Two Steps to Manage Workplace Stress | Fusion - WeRIndia

We cannot eliminate or escape stress at the workplace. It is a fact of modern life.

Yet we can neutralize stress in all areas of our lives by fueling our lives with meaningful actions, thoughts, and beliefs.

We all deserve to live a happy, contented life. It’s never too late to start making yours.

Some common reasons for workplace stress are:

• Low salaries.
• Excessive workloads.
• Few opportunities for growth or advancement.
• Work that isn’t engaging or challenging.
• Lack of social support.
• Not having enough control over job-related decisions.
• Conflicting demands or unclear performance expectations.
• Fear of Being Fired

Unfortunately, work-related stress doesn’t just disappear when you head home for the day.

A stressful work environment can contribute to problems such as headache, stomach-ache, sleep disturbances, short temper and difficulty concentrating.

Chronic stress can result in anxiety, insomnia, high blood pressure and a weakened immune system. It can also contribute to health conditions such as depression, obesity and heart disease.

Compounding the problem, people who experience excessive stress often deal with it in unhealthy ways such as overeating, eating unhealthy foods, smoking cigarettes or abusing drugs and alcohol.

To effectively manage stress, we need to address it in at least three areas of our lives: our physical health, our mental health.

Here you can find tips to make your life stress free:

De-Stress Your Body

In modern life, we spend far more time engaging our bodies stress responses than we do engaging our relaxation responses. This has serious consequences for our physical health, as too much stress can accelerate the aging process, suppress our immune systems and leave us feeling fatigued and depressed.

Physical activity releases feel-good, stress-relieving chemicals. Every time you find your stress level on the rise, get up and move. You can stretch, run in place, dance, or walk around the office or building. Doing so gets your blood and endorphin flowing, makes you happy, and turns off your flight or fight stress response. Boost the physical benefits of moving by taking several deep, cleansing breathes that trigger your relaxation stressors.

Work stressors are magnified when we’re sleep-deprived and foggy-brained. Aim for eight hours of sleep each night. Sleeping well can help you solve problems with a clearer mind and even boost your intelligence.

Instead of attempting to fight stress with fast food or alcohol, do your best to make healthy choices when you feel the tension rise. Nourishing your body will make you better prepared to take on whatever challenges you’ll face at work.

 

De-Stress Your Mind

Stress begins in our minds via a thought or belief. Thus, an important key to neutralizing stress is to fuel our minds with more positive, happy, gratitude-filled thoughts to trigger our stress responses less often.

A consistent meditation practice—even if it’s only five minutes a day—may help lower blood pressure, and can help us control the thoughts that can trigger stress.

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. Shake out your body, sit back down and meditate for five minutes.

Being overbooked, overworked, and over committed 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. Learn to say “NO”, Negotiate priorities.

it’s easy to feel pressure 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.

Although people have different preferences when it comes to how much they blend their work and home life, creating some clear boundaries between these realms can reduce the potential for work-life conflict and the stress that goes with it.

Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash (Free for commercial use)

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