Today we will talk about how to manage workplace stress.
Nowadays stress is something that we all experience from time to time, and many of us experience stress daily and struggle with it. It’s not so easy to always manage your stress properly.
Your work, your job is one of the biggest sources of stress and it impacts your well-being in ways that let you wonder why did you even accept this kind of control over your life and forget about yourself. Then it’s no surprise that stress management is so useless in this case.
We all need to remember ourselves and our need for some free time. Time for ourselves, that help us understand what we really need and want. What do we really want to do in our lives? How can we avoid stress and reduce it when it’s not avoidable? This is the question that we all want answers for.
How to Manage Workplace Stress?
It’s very important to properly manage workplace stress, because stress can cause significant health consequences. Stress is the silent killer that can slowly destroy your life, your relationships, and your health.
According to the CDC’s National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, 29 to 40 % of Americans are extremely stressed at work. This research makes knowledge about ways to manage workplace stress very important.
There are many ways to deal with workplace stress, but here I will only talk about four great ways that help you to let go of stress-related worry, anxiety, and stress.
1. Track Your Stressors
It’s always important to understand and identify your stressors, because then you can have a better ability to deal with stress. Keep a journal at least for a while to identify which situations are the most stressful for you. Answer yourself how do you respond to these situations.
Basically, you need to take notes about your feelings, thoughts about the circumstances and people involved and your reactions. This way you will see patterns and you will know what kind of stress management methods can help you in any given situation. It will help you not only understand yourself better, but to find the right ways to deal with your stress when it rises.
In fact, journaling alone can be a great stress relief method that helps people cope with their stress and understand themselves.
2. Establish Boundaries
Nowadays almost anyone can be available 24 hours a day so it’s important when to stop and say no when to take time for yourself.
You should establish some work-life boundaries, because you don’t want your phone during dinner and check your email from home in the evening before bed. Do you?
It’s better to create clear boundaries between work and home life, because if not, your life can become more stressful than it should. Actually, this is a pretty important rule if you want to say sane.
Who else will think about your well-being than you? Who will know how much pressure you feel managing home and work life at the same time?
3. Take Time to Recharge
There are some of us that can disconnect from our work from time to time, but there are also some of us who have a problem with disconnecting from their work and it makes everything much worse.
If you want to avoid the negative effects of chronic stress, you need to find time for yourself to replenish, recharge and return to your level of functioning that was before stress attacked you.
Everybody requires a recovery process that involves not thinking about work or not engaging in work-related activities. For some people, it may be difficult but needed. How about you?
Take a vacation. Take time off to unwind and relax, because it can help you come back to work feeling relaxed and ready to perform even better than before.
Another thing to remember is to turn off your smartphone and focus your attention on something that you enjoy. It doesn’t matter what activity it is as long as it’s non-work related. Read a book. Watch a movie. Enjoy creative activities! Go for a walk. Be in nature.
4. Learn How to Relax
Relaxation is very important for your well-being and health, but many people don’t really know how to relax. Maybe they believe that other people may think that they are lazy. Who knows! I never really cared what other people think of me or at least I am trying to teach myself to not care about it. I am not sure which is true about me. 🙂
The other thing that is important in this case: many of us don’t know what relaxes our body and mind. How many of us meditate or use deep breathing exercises?
Meditation, deep breathing techniques and mindfulness can help you melt away stress and feel much better about your life and yourself.
It can be simple – you need to start taking a few minutes each day to focus on walking, breathing or enjoying your meal.
Of course, there can be a lot of distractions, but with time and practice, it can become easier. For me, meditation is one of the best ways to reduce stress and anxiety, and it can become special for you too.
If you don’t know why it’s important to relax, CLICK HERE for more information.
Conclusion
If you want to cope with workplace stress more effectively you need to track your stressors, establish boundaries, take time to recharge and learn how to relax. Are you ready to do that?
What do you think about these tips? How do you manage workplace stress? What kind of stress management techniques do you use? Let me know below!
If you want to know more about how to reduce stress from work, CLICK HERE for more information.
Thank you!
Until next time!
Linda Mo
Founder of How To Reduce Stress Naturally
Great post.
Stress is very common at work.
This will really be helpful for everyone.
I enjoyed reading your post.
cheers.
Thank you Pearl for your comment!
I believe that stress is very common everywhere, but workplace stress is the worst. Recently, I found myself starting a new offline business with a new team, and I can’t remember the time when I was so stressed and anxious like right now. Now I need all the tips that I wrote about here in the past. 🙂 It seems that my articles will help me know what to do, because I believe when we are stressed, we need advice. It is so easy to forget simple things.
I am glad to read that you enjoyed my post. Thanks for visiting my website!