Combating work anxiety is key to being in balance and leading a healthy life. Stress or anxiety is two natural reactions with which the body warns that it is going through an extreme situation.
Day-to-day work is one of the most frequent reasons for increasing these reactions. What should be alert is that stress or anxiety becomes something chronic that affects daily life. A situation that can lead to physical and mental illnesses, significantly shortening life expectancy. To avoid this, here is this series of tips.
What is work stress?
According to the American Psychological Association, the most common sources of work stress are low salaries, few opportunities for promotion, work overload, jobs that do not involve a challenge, lack of social support, or not have control over work decisions among others. When work stress becomes chronic it can be harmful and damage physical and emotional health, and this situation is also more common than desirable.
Tips to reduce work stress
- Identify the main reason for stress
A good way is to keep a journal or take notes for several weeks of the situations that cause the most stress. It is interesting to note how you respond to them and assess whether they have contributed to a significant reduction in stress.
- Find what makes you feel good
Yoga has been shown to significantly reduce anxiety and stress. See what makes you feel good. Most people who live with anxiety are also perfectionists, who like to achieve very high things and generally have high expectations of them. When you are anxious, your perfectionism exacerbates it. Because if you do not perform well, you will become angry with yourself and treat yourself violently.
But it is worth remembering that no one is perfect, and we all need to take care of ourselves and love our weaknesses. Finding something that will make you feel good is great advice because it can replace the harsh voice inside you with a softer, calmer tone. Do not forget that the effect of different techniques on people is different and only you can find the best for yourself.
- Exercise
Helps increase the production of feel-good endorphins. Concentrating on a sports activity helps to disconnect the mind. It also contributes to increasing self-confidence. Relax and improve sleep. Sport and a healthy diet are a perfect balance to combat stress. Spending time on hobbies is another recommended activity to relax and disconnect from work.
- 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 the stress. When you are not working this recovery process requires ‘disconnecting’ from work activity. Whenever possible, take your time to rest so that you can return to work ready to do your best. When it is not possible for you to disconnect, at least disconnect your phone and focus your attention for a while on activity…
- Trust yourself and others
High levels of stress can shake your self-confidence. Doubts and insecurities will appear about the work that will affect its result and quality. It is essential to maintain a positive attitude towards your abilities and those of other colleagues.
- Practice relaxation techniques
Stopping to breathe at a difficult time. Knowing how to disconnect for a few minutes and rest your mind. Meditation or yoga are activities that help keep you focused and in balance. Also, they are very beneficial to face situations with perspective and obtain a better vision.
- Conversation with your boss
Healthy employees tend to be more productive, so your boss has a clear incentive in this regard to create a work environment that promotes employee well-being. With your boss start by having an open conversation. The purpose is not to present a list of complaints but to begin with an effective plan to manage those stressful situations that you have identified to do your job better.
Although some areas of this plan should be designed to improve your skills in areas such as time management, other elements could include identifying things that make you feel better about your job. Such as clarifying what is expected of you, getting more help from your colleagues, enrich your work with tasks that pose a challenge or that make sense to you.
Conclusion
Combating work stress and anxiety is essential for emotional and physical balance. Having good healthy lifestyle habits, separating professional and personal life, fostering good working relationships, and setting realistic goals are key to achieving this.
