FIVE TIPS FOR DE-STRESSING IN HIGH-PRESSURE JOBS

By adminEmployee benefitscope at work, cope with stress, handle stress, high powered job, high pressure job, relax at work, stress at work

We spend a great deal of our lives working, and often our place of work can feel like a high-pressure environment. While deadlines, fast-paced work and demanding hours can have their positive sides, they can also cause stress, anxiety and other mental health issues that not only affect your ability to work – they affect your whole life outside of work too. It’s in recognition of the damaging effects of high-pressure work that this article looks at de-stressing methods in the world of work. By following the tips below, you’ll be taking better care of the mental health of the people around you, and yourself.

SUPPORT NETWORKS

The first thing you should consider if you or someone close to you is suffering from the stress imposed by a high-pressure job is where a support network might lighten the burden. Support networks can be personal – involving friends and family – or professional, with bosses, colleagues and HR professionals at hand to help stressed individuals depressurize following a difficult period at work.

If you are suffering from stress that you feel is leading you to destabilized mental health, start looking to your support network for help. If you know someone close to you is experiencing high levels of stress, have a conversation with them in which you suggest they engage with their support network. Sharing problems and ranting about work can do a world of good, while other people will be able to offer their perspective and advice, which can serve to change your own outlook on your predicament.

TIME OFF

This strategy is for those who feel they’ve been burning the candle at both ends for too long – and would benefit from a short break from the job that’s getting them down. The first thing to do in this situation is to talk to a superior about your problems. Approach a boss that you trust and ask them for a private, one-on-one conversation. Tell them that you’re struggling with stress; they’re obliged to help you get better.

There are various ways in which stressed individuals can soothe themselves in the wake of a difficult period at work. You might consider one of the following:

* Taking a long weekend to go to a spa for some relaxing, luxurious treatments

* Asking to work from home for a period of time – and enjoying the benefits of working in your pajamas from your couch

* Taking a period of unpaid leave and concentrating in this period on relaxing activities that you know bring you calm and joy

* Taking an impromptu holiday with a chunk of your paid leave; there’s nothing like a cocktail on the beach to help you unwind

Even a few evenings in a row spent indulging in leisure pursuits, relaxing with friends, or watching your favorite movies or TV show can help you start to process and leave the stress of your job behind.

CHANGE YOUR ROLE

Sideways career moves are another helpful back-up for those who’re stressed in their current position. If your role is a particularly stressful one, and you feel that you’re going to burn out if you continue in it for much longer, you can always talk with your employer about relocating to a different department. Failing that, you’ve got the world of work at your fingertips thanks to internet job sites. Make some applications and see where they lead you.

Then there are those moves that require additional education. After many years working as a nurse, for instance, the long hours and high-paced atmosphere of attending to multiple patients might become too much to bear – especially for those entering old age. It’s at this juncture that a master’s degree in nurse education could provide a new lease of life. Walsh University’s MSN in nursing education online program is the perfect place to get this qualification. With plenty of exciting opportunities presented by online courses, it’s a great way to move into a role that involves less stress. You can spend your time teaching others, instead, and can be a most natural career move.

PROFESSIONAL HELP

Seeking professional help is thankfully becoming a more accepted and encouraged action for those suffering from stress, pressure, anxiety, and other mental health ailments. It’s an option you should always consider on the table – there for when you feel that your stress is getting the better of you and that you need some help in talking through and processing your problems. You can find counselors and therapists online, or you can go to your doctor who will be able to refer you to local services as and when you require them. You may also have a dedicated workplace therapist if you’re working within a large company. Don’t be afraid to book yourself in for a chat – you’ll find that talking about your problems will help reduce the pressure they create in your life.

ORGANIZE WORK SOCIAL EVENTS

The final tip for those looking to reduce the stresses they encounter in their place of work is to make sure that regular work social events allow for bonding and problem-sharing with your co-workers. If you consider yourself to be in a high-pressure role – whether as a nurse, a lawyer or a fireman – you will likely have little time on the job to chat and relax with colleagues who likely share in your levels of stress.

During these social events you can complain and laugh at your positions at work, and you’ll form the social bonds with those who work around you that’ll help make your working life a whole lot more bearable. Make social media groups and shared chats so that you’re able to organize things quickly come the weekend. Encourage your bosses to put some company money into social events. Take the initiative and become social secretary for your company or workplace, taking the time yourself to get people together in a range of fun pursuits – from nights in bars through to team-building events like paintballing and sporting fixtures.

STRESS IS TEMPORARY

These tips are provided to help workers who’re suffering from extreme and disruptive levels of stress in their working life. By enacting one of the above five strategies, you’ll be able to de-stress in a constructive and sustainable way. Stress is temporary, it’s important to remember. Don’t suffer in silence, and don’t allow an extended period of stress to damage other parts of your life, if you can help it. By being assertive and proactive, you’ll be able to bust your stresses, banishing them to your past to make way for a brighter future.

Mandy X

Dealing with stress at work

By adminUncategorizedanxiety, pressure at work, stress at work, workplace stress

Having spent some time in the corporate environment recently, it has become clear to me just how difficult it can be to maintain mental and emotional well being at work. There is so much pressure to get things done that self care gets put to the back of the to-do list. There just doesn’t seem to be time for any focus on oneself. When there are deadlines to meet and bosses expecting results, it becomes almost impossible to take time out for our own benefit.

The conundrim here is that if we don’t seriously prioritise some time for ourselves, we will inevitably end up worn out and underperforming. So, it pays to invest in some ‘me-time’ in order to cope better with workplace stress and pressure.

How to deal with stress at work

I have put together a few easy to use strategies that can be done at work and only need a few minutes now and then out of your busy schedule to help you ‘reset’ and get back to your baseline. You can check in with yourself regularly each day and ask yourself where you are on the anxiety/stress scale.

0 = no stress; 10 = major stress

If you rate yourself as a 6 or above, it’s time to intervene with a quick strategy.

Breathing strategy – square method

Picture a square. As you draw the top part of the square, breathe in and count to 5. Then draw the side down and hold your breath for 5, draw the bottom part of the square, breathe out for 5 and then the final line to complete the square and hold again for 5. This process of slow breathing confuses the old limbic system of the brain. When we feel anxious the limbic system (hypothalamus and amygdala) identifies this as danger and releases adrenalin, preparing us for flight, flight or freeze behaviour. When we breathe slowly, this sends opposing information to the limbic system, suggesting we are actually calm and this physiological mismatch can help us to feel calm instantly.

Mindfulness 5-4-3-2-1

Mindfulness helps us to step back from our busy, racing minds. Not only does it mean that we are more present in the moment (rather than drowning in memories of the past or worrying unnecessarily about the future) but mindfulness is also about the process of passive observation. When we are mindful, we are slightly detached from what is going on and instead, we notice the type of thoughts that are coming into our minds. Instead of purely reacting to our thougths that are stressing us out (eg. I will never manage this deadline), we can say to ourselves, “Oh I can see I am stressing again and worrying about how I might fail”. This level os detachment can help us to feel less overloaded by the onslaught of thoughts that try to mess with us.

So, try this: When your mind is getitng the better of you and you are stessing big time, sit quietly for a few minutes and look around you. Notice 5 things you can see, 4 things you can hear, 3 things you can touch, 2 things you can smell (if possible) and 1 thing you can taste (if possible). This simple exercise can pull you out of your mental torture session and give you some relief and perspective.

Distraction

Sometimes, we just need a little distraction. There are brilliant phone apps that help us focus on something else and help us focus elsewhere. I enjoy playing word games and find this clears my mind effectively. Distraction only works though once you have discovered and understood the reason for your stess and anxiety. If you have a certain bad habit, for example, of catastrophising or assuming you know what others are thinking, you would still need to have a look at that habit. Once you realise you are doing this, you can then mindfully notice that you are once again catastrophising, and then distract yourself. Distraction without understanding where the stress is coming from will only exacerbate the problem.

We were never meant to be perfect, allow yourself lee way to make mistakes. We live in an increasingly competitve world and the stakes are high when it comes to maintaining our mental and emotional well being. It all starts with us. These brief strategies are only a small part of the picture. We also need to look at the bigger picture of eating well, exercising, taking time out for fun and spending time with people we care about. Your company will always be there but there is only one of you. make sure you put yourself first and you will have more resources available to give to others and to your work.