Stress At Work: Are You Selling Your Skills Or Your Health?

Stress at work is the most common form of stress that many individuals experience. In fact, this stress at work is inevitable. However, the gravity and the impact of stress at work to each individual is variable to factors like the working environment, colleagues, pressure at work, nature of work, the boss, and the salary. But no matter what the situation is, being able to manage your stress at work is essential. Otherwise, it will affect your health and performance later on. Although it may seem trivial to you, stress can be very dangerous as it can cause deadly diseases to develop.

New medical research points finger to stress being the culprit behind heart diseases, diabetes, cancer and other modern illnesses. But aside from its medical side effects, stress can also cause unhappiness and other negative emotions to surface, which often affect relationships and productivity. People who are under stress at work manifest low energy, lethargy, depression, irritability, inability to focus and low job performance. Stress at work isn’t only dangerous to your health, but also to your career.

Tips on Managing Stress at Work

Since experiencing stress at work is unavoidable, developing skills or mechanisms to manage it is very important. Business professionals have 30 – 100 projects on their plate on an average. At work, we get interrupted at least 7 times an hour and get distracted up to 2.1 hours per day. On the other hand, 4 out of 10 people who are working in large companies experience major corporate restructuring; thus putting their future in uncertainty. With all these, who doesn’t experience stress at work? Sharon Melnick, Ph.D., a business psychologist who wrote and published Success Under Stress, provides tips on how to manage stress at work.

• Know if your stress at work is self-imposed. Sometimes, we are not aware that we are imposing stress to ourselves and we unnecessary worry about things that shouldn’t concern us. For example, we get caught up with our colleagues’ expectations or we want to please them so much that we end up doing their work. If you find yourself in this situation and realize that you are causing your own stress at work, learn to say no and focus yourself on your own work.
• Prioritize your emergencies or concerns. If you are working on multiple tasks and you already find yourself overwhelmed with responsibilities and too many other concerns, learn to identify the emergencies among your important tasks. Although everything may be important, emergency ones must be prioritized so that you can manage your time efficiently instead of jumping from one task to another.
• Act on a situation rather than react. According to Melnick, people experience stress at work when they feel that a situation is out of their control. When this happens, the stress hormones are activated, wearing down concentration, confidence and well-being. In this case, it is helpful to identify the aspects that you can control and cannot control. Obviously, you don’t have any control over outside forces and how people react to you or in a particular situation. However, you can control your own reaction and responses, so be responsible and impeccable in your actions.
• In an overwhelming situation, learn to cool down and calm yourself. An intense meeting or a crisis situation in your workplace may put you in an edgy situation or anxious mood. When this happens, try restoring your balance with deep breathing. Inhale for 5 seconds through your nose, hold it and exhale through your mouth in equal counts. Try to consider all aspects of the situation and as difficult as it may seem at first, count the positive aspects of the perceived stressful situation. This will go a long way to diminish your stress at work.
• Learn to take a break. A lot of people are workaholic. If you are one of those, you should know that pushing yourself to work beyond 8 hours a day is not healthy and will only exacerbate stress at work. You may think that you will finish more work if you extend your working hours, but this will drain out your energy, which only affects future productivity and the quality of your output. Working overtime may not be avoided, but as soon as a project is done, give yourself some time to relax. A short break will help your mind and body recover and lessen the stress at work.
• Eat and sleep right. Eating right is essential in keeping our body and immune system healthy. Melnick advises eating high-protein and low-sugar diet. At the same time, sleep allows our body to rejuvenate, which is critical for the recovery of our body. When we don’t eat and sleep right, we lose our balance and we get tired and irritated very easily.
• Educate your colleagues about your needs. If someone annoys and causing you stress at work, it is helpful to let that person knows how you feel and how his behaviour affects your performance. It will also be helpful to let your colleagues know what helps you perform better at work i.e. respect for space, a quiet environment, etc.

Stress at Work: Natural Treatments Available

There’s a wide array of natural stress treatments available to your liking like herbal supplements, acupuncture, meditation and kinesiology.

Herbs and Supplements for Stress at Work

According to an award-winning clinician, Dr. Leo Galland, magnesium is an essential mineral that is needed in over 300 cellular metabolic events. It also keeps the heart healthy. With chronic stress, and stress at work, the magnesium levels in our body get depleted, which we need to replenish. Magnesium can be naturally consumed from cacao and organic green vegetables. However, to treat stress, we need to take more magnesium supplement on top of the greens we eat.

Aside from magnesium, omega-3 fatty acids are also known to stabilize stress-induced anxiety, so if you always experience stress at work, eating foods that are rich in omega-3 will be helpful in managing your stress. Also, herbal teas like lemon balm and chamomile have natural properties that calm anxiety and depression.

Acupuncture and Meditation for stress at work

New research reports that acupuncture helps reduce the levels of a stress-causing protein, neuropeptide, that is secreted by our sympathetic nervous system – the one involved in our body’s fight or flight response to stress. Meditation on the other hand helps calm nerves and mind and restores the balance of our system. People who meditate a lot are found to be calmer and composed in the midst of stressful events.

Kinesiology and stress at work

Kinesiology is a popular modern alternative treatment procedure that addresses the mechanical, physiological and psychological mechanisms of the human system. The application of kinesiology is holistic and far-reaching, which effectively identifies the causes of imbalances in the body.

When treating or avoiding stress, it is essential that you avoid smoking and drinking too much alcohol. These vices affect the brain and causes mood swings. Cigarettes and alcoholic drink also deplete the levels of healthy cells in the body and destroy the organs, leading to deadly diseases. When you experience stress at work, try de-stressing naturally with any of the above-mentioned treatments instead of smoking and drinking. Furthermore, avoid having too much caffeine as this causes palpitations and nervousness. It also prevents you from sleeping at night.

 Stress at Work: What Food to Eat

Aside from foods rich in magnesium and omega-3, you also need to organic eat fruits and vegetables that are high in zinc, copper, manganese vitamins C, A, and E. All these help in neutralizing harmful molecules that are produced when you are under stressed. High-fibre foods promote alertness and reduce perceived stress. As for the snack, choose ones that are high in fibre and protein like almond nuts, fat granola, yogurt with fruits or carrots with hummus.

Simple Exercises to Cope with Stress at Work

According to a Kinesiologist from Yale Stress Center, Matthew Stults-Kolehmainen, Ph.D., stress hits in two ways. In an interview, he said that, “Stress atrophies the brain — especially the hippocampus, which is responsible for a lot, but memory in particular. When you’re stressed, you forget things. Exercise, by contrast, promotes production of neurohormones like norepinephrine that are associated with improved cognitive function, elevated mood and learning.”

There are quite a few exercises you can do in the office that help relieve stress at work. OnlineHealthMag has devised a series of exercises which will help with Stress at Work while prevent and even release back pain caused by wrong posture at work. You can benefit from this Back Pain relief Program for free by opt-in now.