Do you regularly feel overwhelmed, anxious or stressed at work? You’re not alone. Common causes of work-related stress include excessive workloads, little or no opportunities for career advancement, a lower salary and work that isn’t engaging. Also, not having much control over the decisions made at work and unclear performance expectations also can contribute to stress.

What is the Effect?

Work-related stress typically doesn’t clear up at the end of the workday. If the stress you’re experiencing at work becomes long term, it can take a toll on your health and emotional well-being.

In the short term, a stressful work environment can contribute to problems such as headache, stomachache, sleep disturbances, short temper and difficulty concentrating. Chronic stress can also result in anxiety, insomnia, high blood pressure and a weakened immune system.

In extreme cases of stress, depression, obesity and heart disease may occur. Workers who experience excessive stress often deal with it by eating unhealthy foods, smoking, drinking alcohol or abusing drugs.

How Can You Manage/Cope With Work Related Stress?

Keep track of your stressors

Do this by writing them down for a few weeks to help you identify what events caused you to feel stressed at work. Then, write down how you responded to the events, including how you felt in the moment, who was involved and how you reacted. Once you know this information, you can look for patterns among your stressors and anticipate your reactions to them.

Create healthy responses to your stressors

When you’re stressed, do you turn to food or alcohol for comfort? Instead, find a healthier alternative. Exercise can be a great stress reliever, as can reading a book. Also, get plenty of sleep.

Establish boundaries

Do you feel pressure to be “on call” for your work 24/7? If so, create some work-life boundaries, such as not answering your phone during dinner or not checking your email in the evening.

Take time for yourself. Don’t let your vacation days go unused. When possible, take time off to relax and unwind, so you come back to work feeling reinvigorated and ready to perform at your best.

Practice relaxing

Learn a new technique to relax, such as meditation, deep breathing exercises or mindfulness.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed or are coming out of a tense meeting and need to clear your head, a few minutes of deep breathing will restore balance. Simply inhale for five seconds, hold and exhale in equal counts through the nose.

Reach out to your supervisor or manager

Explain that you’ve been feeling stressed out. The purpose of this isn’t to lay out a list of complaints, but rather to come up with an effective plan for managing the stressors you’ve identified, so you can perform at your best on the job.

Get support

Does your workplace have an employee assistance program? If so, utilize it and get help. If you still feel overwhelmed after trying these options, you may need to speak to a psychologist.

Schedule Your Day For Energy And Focus

Most of us go through the day using a “push, push, push” approach, thinking if we work the full eight to 10 hours, we’ll get more done. Instead, productivity goes down, stress levels go up and you have very little energy left over for your family.

Finally, eating badly will stress your system. You should eat a low-sugar food and high-protein diet. And when you’re not sleeping well, you’re not getting the rejuvenating effects. If racing thoughts keep you from falling asleep or you wake up in the night and can’t get back to sleep, I suggest you cover your right nostril and breathe through your left for three to five minutes.

Thots

Onyii udoh

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