With understanding stress, a good place to start is to ask what purpose it serves. Stress is our body’s natural protective instinct in response to a perceived threat. It activates our fight, flight, freeze or fawn system, getting us ready to either evade or encounter danger. Stress can be defined as the degree to which we feel overwhelmed or unable to cope as a result of pressures that are unmanageable. Common characteristics of things that can cause us stress include experiencing something new or unexpected, something that threatens our sense of self, or feeling a lack of control over a situation.
Stress can have a wide variety of effects in several areas of our lives. Some of the top stressors reported globally include excessive workload, financial uncertainty, concern for health and safety, and responsibilities tied to relationships and family.
Stress, in small quantities, can also be helpful to stay energetic, focused, and motivated – known as eustress. However, in larger quantities, stress can impact our body, thoughts, feelings and behavior – known as distress. Headaches, heartburn, muscle tension, chest pain, fatigue and sleep disturbances are all physical manifestations (psychosomatic) of stress.
Experiencing feelings like anxiety, anger, fear, sadness and frustration can also be linked to stress. These feelings can, in turn, influence our thought patterns and commonly result in unhelpful thinking styles such as catastrophizing, where something may be inaccurately blown out of proportion, and jumping to conclusions, where we assume that we know what is going to happen in the future.
In the work environment, this can cause problems which can impact the quality of our work, our productivity, our ability to focus on tasks, and our relationships with our colleagues. It’s natural for any job to have a stressful element to it, even if you love what you do. The trick is to develop healthy and effective responses to the stress you encounter and minimize negative outcomes as much as possible.
Although it may sound unconnected at first mention, eating healthy, staying hydrated, reducing caffeine intake and getting a good amount of sleep helps your body cope better with stress on a chemical level. Dealing with stress in unhealthy ways such as engaging in behaviours like overeating, smoking and abusing drugs and alcohol gives us a temporary sense of ‘relief’, but in reality, these coping mechanisms only help us avoid the root cause of our problems.
Some factors that can help successfully manage stress in the workplace include:
Setting clear boundaries between work and home (work-life balance)
In today’s digital world, a common pressure people experience is that they feel the need to be available 24/7. Drawing a line between the professional and personal aspects of our lives are crucial to our mental wellbeing. In action, this could look like a commitment to not checking work emails or taking work calls at home or after a specific time of day.
A strong support system
Having people around you that you can trust and depend on, has shown to significantly increase both mental and physical health. Research shows that having a strong support system results in higher levels of well-being, better coping skills, and a longer and healthier life. This may be in the form of friends, family, co-workers, children, mental health professionals, and/or pets.
