Stressed At Work?

In today’s fast paced environment, all of us end up facing multiple challenging situations and end up experiencing stress in one form or the other. It is quite often that my clients share with me that they feel stress at work. There are quite a few shocking statistics available that highlight the rising instances of work stress.

The “Why?” of Stress.

There could be a billion reasons for work related stress. The list could be long and never ending, but the list mostly converges to two root causes. Let us just talk about these two causes, that make us experience high stress -

* Lack of control! Yes, you feel high stress when you lack control over the situation, and feel vulnerable, out of control, manipulated or exploited.

* No options! You are pushed to a corner and have no place to run or hide. You feel like a victim of circumstances: natural or created by your arch enemies. Your boss, or colleagues or team members or customers, some-one is out to get you!

How do you know if you have stress?

First thing about dealing with stress is being aware that you are experiencing stress. Small stress here and there is good but deeper stress levels and long periods of stress are a no-no.

There are many symptoms of stress, but the most important thing is your feelings. Close your eyes in the middle of the day and observe how relaxed or tense you are? What images come to your mind? What questions come to your mind? Is it flashes of a multitude of things?

A quick formula for handling stressful situations-

I would like to share with you some actions that can help you in dealing with the situation-

* Don’t use your smartphone as a tool to destress or to avoid that stressful situation for the time being. Stay away from your smartphone for some time.

* Deep Breathing- a commonly suggested method, but still not been largely followed. Do deep breathing at least 10 times and focus on your breath.

* Say – I can handle it. I have the potential to handle it.

* Ask yourself-

• What is it that you are feeling right now?
• What is it that you are worried about?
  • Name people, emotions, consequences you are worried about?
• What is the worst that could happen to these people, emotions and situations?
• Imagine, if instead of you, it was your best buddy in the same situation. What would you suggest as an action to him/her?
• Write down that one action step.
  
  What is the fear of taking that one step?
  What is the benefit of taking that one step?
  
  
• What is the one thing you shouldn’t do in this situation?
• What else can you do to feel better in this situation?
  
  Call a friend?
  Park it for a day?
  Have a conversation with somebody?
  Or anything else..?

* And then take “action/s” based on your thought process.
* Pat yourself on your back for trying this out.

When you follow the above steps a number of times, they will become your thought process and slowly will become your habit and you will have a better way to handle stressful situations.

In addition to the above, do try to centre your thoughts a couple of times in a day and ask yourself how are you feeling?

Remember, in any stressful situation, it is not about eliminating or avoiding stress, it is about handling it and sailing through the situations which create stress for you.