Four Ways to Manage Stress and Anxiety at Work

You have a big project coming up or you’ve taken on new responsibilities at work and you feel anxious. When we encounter something new or have an increased workload if is easy to feel overwhelmed.

But you don’t have to through it alone and there are ways to manage the stress without going crazy at work, quitting your job, or kicking the dog.

If stress and anxiety is getting you down at work, implement the following four practices. 

Identify any patterns related to your stress. If you can find specific patterns to your stress and anxiety it becomes easier to develop some strategies to deal with it. For example, if you notice more intense stress on Sunday evenings or Monday mornings as you begin to turn your attention back to your job, you can be better prepared to face the work week. Perhaps the anxiety increases in the lead up to making a presentation at work. This information can lead you to decide to take a public speaking class at the local college, or join the Toastmasters, or avoid procrastinating and have the presentation prepared a few days in advance to allow time to get comfortable. Once you’ve identified patterns related to the stress and anxiety you experience you also help to reduce its power over you.

Discuss the situation with your supervisor. Don’t be shy about asking for help. Oftentimes we don’t want to admit to feeling stress at work because we don’t want our manager to think we’re incompetent or unable to handle the job. However, it’s necessary and important to our growth as a person and as an employee to learn to seek out help when needed. Your boss can likely offer some suggestions or tips that can reduce your stress, and sometimes it just helps to have someone lend an ear.  

Take care of your health. Our physical health plays an important role in dealing with stress and anxiety in our lives. Be sure to get enough sleep, engage in some movement and exercise daily, and be intentional about the foods we eat and the drinks we consume. Alcohol and coffee can negatively impact our sleep, while also contributing to a sense of grogginess or jitters during the day. Also consider adding time in your schedule for a brief meditation practice.  

Seek out professional help if necessary. At times we can feel overwhelmed the stress and anxiety and are unable to see a way out of it. If this describes you, seek out a counselor or therapist. You can likely find a good one in your area who is specially trained to treat anxiety and stress.

5 Practices to Support Our Mental Health at Work

During stressful times on the job or if you’re an entrepreneur and feeling the heat it is critically important to take care of your mental health. Neglecting our mental state leads to fatigue, emotional outbursts, bad decision-making, and more.

But don’t wait until something is wrong before you think about your mental health. By then the damage to your job or career can be done, and in some situations, irreparable.

Implement the following practices to maintain your mental health and to enable you to effectively manage the stresses that will inevitably come.

Develop connections. It is vital to our mental health to engage with others. We are social beings and gain support and energy from our friendships and relationships with colleagues. Schedule regular time to meet with friends, develop new relationships with co-workers, attend networking events, and seek out meet-ups with others who have similar interests. 

Manage expectations. It’s easy to compare our work performance with others and get down on ourselves for failing to measure up but it is important for our mental health to be realistic and focus on our own strengths and weaknesses.

Take vacation time. In addition to ensuring that we get adequate sleep each night, we need to take advantage of our vacation time to allow ourselves to reset and focus anew on the big picture. Stepping away and getting a change of scenery can do wonders for the soul and help a frustrating or cloudy situation become clearer.

Work with a coach or therapist. Sometimes it is necessary to work with a coach to maintain our mental health. A coach or therapist can provide a different perspective and can help us be more effective in our work. Talk to friends or colleagues to get a referral or recommendation.

Find other sources of joy, fun, and satisfaction. Our lives should not just be about the office. We need hobbies and other interests to better enjoy life and to help us maintain our appreciation for the work we do. Often, by engaging with our curiosity for the world outside the office we can gain new insights that we can apply to our working lives and bring new enthusiasm and purpose to our career.

Paying attention to our mental health and applying practices that support us will reduce the stresses in our job, help us manage the inevitable surprises that accompany change, and help us bring consistent energy and intention to our working lives.

To Be Successful in Your Life & Career Get to Know This Important Person

Success in your career depends on many factors but one factor that is underappreciated is the need to get to know an important person in your life. Your knowledge of this person will help you gain some clarity, focus, and direction in your career.

So, you might be wondering, just who is this important person you should get to know? Perhaps it’s the CEO of your company? Or the Human Resources Director?  

It’s a good idea to know the decision makers in your company but the person you need to know before all others is yourself.

When you have a clear sense of who are, the strengths and skills you possess, and your interests and mission in life, you’ll have the ability to make focused and healthy career decisions for you and your family.

To get a better understanding of yourself consider the following.

Check out the Myers-Briggs test. The Myer-Briggs Type Inventory (or MBTI) is a popular test that provides you with some information about your personality. The results of the test will place you in one of sixteen personality types that can help you better understand yourself, how you interact with others and perceive the world, and provide some insight to help you communicate more effectively with other personality types. There are also versions of the test you can take online.

Take a skills assessment. You can find many tests to assess your skills and these can be beneficial to help you better understand what it is that you are already good at and how you might apply those skills to a career. Many tests will link up your skills with relevant jobs and this can be a great way to consider a job or career you hadn’t thought of before.

Meet with a therapist. Sometimes meeting with a therapist one on one can be the best way to come to a better understanding of ourselves and to figure out what is holding us back from success in our life and career. We might carry with us negative patterns of behavior or thought that we don’t even realize and a good therapist can help us work through these issues.

Ask for feedback. We often have people in our lives who know us well: a spouse or partner, good friends, family, a boss. Take the initiative and be courageous and ask for some feedback about your strengths and weaknesses. The more specific the feedback is the more helpful it will be for you.

Get a mentor. A good mentor can support you in many ways, including providing knowledge and wisdom gained from their experience, providing you access to their network, and encouraging you to persevere. Mentors can provide you with a better understanding of who you are and which direction to head in your career.

When you gain a better understanding of your strengths and weaknesses you can become more effective at surrounding yourself with the resources you need to be successful in your career and in life.