In the middle of the disaster, workers tend to feel overwhelmed by job and concern; know five ways to help reduce pressure that cost nothing.
Steps to reduce stress
- Identify what stresses you at work: Keep a diary for a week or two to identify which situations create you the most stress and how you respond to them. Record your thoughts, feelings and information about the environment, including the people and circumstances involved the physical situation and how you reacted. Aspects if you raised your voice, if you decided to go for a snack or a walk can help find patterns between what stresses you and how you react to them.
- Develop healthy answers: Instead of trying to fight stress with fast food or alcohol, choose healthy options when you feel the tension rising. Exercise is a great stress reliever. Yoga can be a good option but any form of physical activity is beneficial. Also, find time for your hobbies and what you like to do the most. Whether reading a novel, going to music concerts or enjoying your family, make sure you leave time to do the things that give you pleasure.
- Set limits: In the current world of digital relationships, it is easy to feel anguished at the possibility of being available 24 hours a day. It establishes some limits between work and personal life. This could mean not checking the mail from home in the afternoon or not answering the phone hours after finishing the workday. Setting clear boundaries between work and personal life reduces the stress associated with possible conciliation conflicts.
- Take your time to rest: To avoid the negative effects of chronic stress and work fatigue we need time to recover and return to the level of performance before stress. This recovery process requires ‘disconnecting’ from work activity when you are not working. Whenever possible take your time to rest so you can get back to work ready to offer the best of you. When you cannot disconnect at least disconnects your phone and focuses your attention for a while on activities not linked to work.
- Learn to relax Techniques such as meditation, deep breathing exercises and full consciousness (a state in which you actively observe present experiences and your thoughts without judging them) can help release stress. Start with a few minutes each day to focus on a simple activity such as breathing, walking or enjoying a meal. The ability to be able to consciously focus on a single activity without being distracted will discover that you can apply it to many different aspects of your life.
- Talk to your boss Healthy employees tend to be more productive so your boss has in this sense a clear incentive to create a work environment that promotes the welfare of workers. Start by having an open conversation with your boss. The purpose is not to present a list of complaints but to start with an effective plan to control those situations of stress that you have identified in order to better perform your work.