How To Cope With Your Stressful Workplace

 Are you feeling stressed after your work day? How about feeling stressed during your work day?

Or are you feeling stressed before your work day even begins?

If you answered yes to any, or all, of these questions, you are certainly not alone, and may be suffering from workplace related stress.  

Did you know that it is not only your health that is suffering, Governments are losing billions of dollars in lost productivity every year! Stress is affecting us globally.

You are not alone.

Workplace stress may slowly compound and we may be unaware of the damage it has caused until we have a health scare.

Could workplace stress be affecting you right now?

So, how can workplace stress negatively affect you:

1. Difficulty Sleeping
2. Aches and Pains
3. A Weakened immune system
4. Depression or anxiety
5. Brain fog

Are any of these symptoms familiar to you? You shouldn’t have to feel like the only way you can cope with workplace stress is to avoid work with sick days, which is what many people do.

So, what is the answer?

Do you quit your job and try to find a stress-free workplace?

Well, it is pretty difficult to find a completely stress-free workplace, although they may be out there, and the one constant when dealing with stress…is you!

Workplaces change, stressful situations change, however you always take yourself into every single situation. So, let’s look at how we can cope with workplace stress when it arises.

Mindfulness.

Research shows that Mindfulness for stress reduction is used with great success in the workplace! Studies show it increases our wellbeing, helps with sleep quality, reduces stress and anxiety. It can also increase resilience.

How can you use mindfulness in your workplace?

1. Do one thing at a time.

Contrary to popular belief, multi-tasking may not make us more productive. Do you feel stressed by the number of balls you are juggling all at once? Try mindfully focusing on one task at a time for a part of your work day.

2. Meditate…for one minute!

Simply by taking a quick break during our day and recentering can give us the space to think more clearly and make more balanced decisions.

Try this 1 minute mindfulness meditation at work: https://www.headspace.com/meditation/work-meditation

3. Stop! Make Stress Your Friend

Whenever you feel stressed, stop and try to reframe the way you see stress in that moment. You might even start to feel differently about stress. Imagine if you felt focused and energised every time you felt the stress response, rather than overwhelmed and out of control?

A Final Note

Thank you for taking steps to cope with your workplace stress. By committing to some, or all, of these mindfulness techniques, you will start to become more aware of your workplace stress when it arises.

You can then start to develop a tool box of mindfulness techniques that will help to navigate stressful workplace situations. You deserve to manage stress and keep your mind and body healthy.

References

Bartlett, L., Martin, A., Neil, A., Memish, K., Otahal, P., Kilpatrick, M., & Sanderson, K. (2019). A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Workplace Mindfulness Training Randomized Controlled Trials. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 24(1), 108-126. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000146

Brennan, E. J. (2017). Towards resilience and wellbeing in nurses. Br J Nurs, 26(1), 43-47. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2017.26.1.43

Florko, L. (2020, January 29). The first step in tackling workplace stress. Psychology Today. Retrieved May 20, 2022, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/people-planet-profits/202001/the-first-step-in-tackling-workplace-stress

Headspace. (n.d.). How to be mindful at work. Retrieved May 20, 2022, from https://www.headspace.com/work/mindfulness-at-work

Janssen, M., Heerkens, Y., Kuijer, W., van der Heijden, B., & Engels, J. (2018). Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on employees’ mental health: A systematic review. PLoS One, 13(1), e0191332-e0191332. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191332

Klatt, M., Steinberg, B., & Duchemin, A. M. (2015). mindfulness in motion (MIM): An onsite mindfulness based intervention (MBI) for chronically high stress work environments to increase resiliency and work engagement. Journal of Visualized Experiments, 101. https://doi.org/10.3791/52359

McGonigal, K. (2013, September 4). How to make stress your friend [Video]. TED Talks. https://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend?language=en

McWilliams, A. E. (2021, March 8). The toll of rising work stress. Psychology Today. Retrieved May 20, 2022, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-awesome-career/202103/the-toll-rising-work-stress

Positive Psychology Program. (n.d.). Mindfulness exercises library [E-book]. Retrieved May 20, 2022, from https://positivepsychology.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Mindfulness-Exercises-Library.pdf

Rob Cooke. (2020). The cost of work stress and how to reduce it [Video], TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/rob_cooke_the_cost_of_work_stress_and_how_to_reduce_it?language=en

Sharma, M., & Rush, S. E. (2014). Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction as a Stress Management Intervention for Healthy Individuals: A Systematic Review. J Evid Based Complementary Altern Med, 19(4), 271-286. https://doi.org/10.1177/2156587214543143

Willert, M. V., Thulstrup, A. M., Hertz, J., & Bonde, J. P. (2009). Changes in Stress and Coping from a Randomized Controlled Trial of a three-month Stress Management Intervention. Scand J Work Environ Health, 35(2), 145-152. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.1313