stress at work Archives

An Invitation to Refresh, Replenish, Rejuvenate and manage the stress in our daily lives- Nature Therapy

By Suzanne Radford

Feeling housebound and the effects of ‘cabin fever’?

One way to help manage stress and anxiety is to connect to nature as a way to quieten the mind and body. I work between the beauty of the sea and desert in the UAE and the forest and mountains where I live in Southern Portugal. Great if you can access natural spaces from your balcony, garden or walk on a beach or through trees but you can also gain benefits from connecting to nature from inside your home or office. I offer invitations on my forest bathing walks, to sit and feel the breeze on the skin, to notice sounds near and far, to smell the scent of leaves, bark and flowers and to taste the sweet freshness of the air. Water invitations are a lovely way to awaken all the senses and relax.

To observe water in a natural setting and listen to its sound can put our overloaded minds at rest. Whilst you are not required to actually swim, one of the most powerful elements of a forest bathing walk is being invited to sit or stand by the water and notice how it flows and what the sensations are that you feel when placing your hands or feet into the water. At home you could create a foot spa by using warm water with a drop of lavender or peppermint essential oil and soak your feet, close your eyes and notice how it feels.

Negative ions generated by waterfalls, ocean waves, and thunderstorms can give us a boost, negative ions in the atmosphere accelerate our ability to absorb oxygen, they can balance our mood and the stress hormone, serotonin. Negative ions can help rejuvenate the mind and improve our sense of wellbeing and even bring about a good night’s sleep.

So, as you sit with water notice its movement, the ripples or shapes that the water makes as you gently move your feet through it. As you sit with your eyes closed, notice the scent and breathe in, and breathe out. This could be done in the same way just soaking your hands in water. Imagine you are sitting by a river or waterfall and imagine the sound and sensations. If you are feeling any tension in the body gently stretch it out and slowly allow your body the time and space to just sit with the feeling of water and notice how it feels.

I invite you to sit with the waterfall and notice how the water flows. Follow the lines of the water as it falls. Watch the movement, the light and the shapes. Listen to the sound and breathe in, and breathe out…

Nature Therapy Waterfalls

Sipping on a refreshing juice or herbal tea or a chilled glass of water with a slice of cucumber or lemon and let the healing power of water wash over you leaving you feeling revitalized and rejuvenated.

Suzanne Radford is a Nature Therapy & Communication Coach, Forest Bathing Guide, Founder of The Nature Pod and International Consultant with the Human Relations Institute & Clinics. Contact us to find out more about our Nature Therapy for Stress Management 6 week online support group and series of workshops or our 1:1 coaching in nature therapy.

Loneliness: difference between physically being alone and feeling lonely

Loneliness is a universal human emotion that is both complex and unique to each individual. While it is commonly misconceived as the act of being in solitude and not having people around, in reality, loneliness is more of a state of mind. Contrary to popular belief, loneliness can affect even the most seemingly outgoing person. Being the ‘life of the party’ does not necessarily mean that someone is exempt from feeling lonely. In this article, we will show what is the key difference between being alone and feeling lonely.

Loneliness is commonly accompanied by deep-rooted feelings of inadequacy and poor self-esteem and can impact several areas of functioning. An important distinction to make is the difference between physically being alone and experiencing the feeling of being lonely. People who are often physically alone do not necessarily always feel like they are lonely. They might choose to live with comparatively less contact with other people and be content spending more time with themselves. While similarly, one can be surrounded by people or have a very active social life or be in a relationship, and still feel lonely – especially if they do not feel understood or cared for by those around them.

Being alone is most beneficial when it is done voluntarily. It is equally important for people to feel like they can return to their social world when they want to. A core contributor to loneliness is a lack of meaningful connection to others. This includes the quality of relationships with, and connection to, one’s family, friends, colleagues, and the wider society.

Loneliness is also interconnected with certain psychological conditions. For example, those with social anxiety experience difficulty engaging in everyday tasks and activities that involve other people, which may lead to a lack of meaningful relationships in their lives, and in turn result in feelings of loneliness. Similarly, individuals with depression experience low mood, low energy levels, and a lack of interest in social interaction.

On a physiological level, loneliness can increase the amount of cortisol (the stress hormone) in your body. This can affect your immune system and raise your risk for a range of health concerns, including high blood pressure and heart disease. It also contributes to increases in alcoholism and drug use, altered brain function, Alzheimer’s disease progression, antisocial behavior, decreased memory and learning, poor decision-making, stress, sleep-related difficulties, and even suicide.

What you can do to tackle loneliness:
– Strengthen the quality of existing relationships
– Prioritize your well-being
– Pursue your hobbies
– Get involved in the wider community
– Consult a mental health professional

What are boundaries?

Healthy boundaries are an important part of forming one’s identity and are a vital part of maintaining positive mental health and well-being. Common misconceptions, when it comes to setting healthy boundaries, revolve around the idea of being rude, disrespectful, and stubborn. In reality, setting boundaries are an important communicative instrument that outlines what an individual is willing to accept and what they are not. Boundaries can be physical, emotional, and material, and can range from those that are negotiable to those that may be more rigid. A complete lack of boundaries may indicate that someone lacks a strong sense of identity, is easily influenced by other people, or is even commonly taken advantage of.

Physical

Physical boundaries involve personal space, comfort with touch, and physical needs such as needing to eat, rest, and sleep. It’s certainly okay to tell others that you don’t like to be touched or that you would like some more space. It is also okay to tell others that you are hungry and would like to get something to eat. These can sound like “I’m not too keen on hugging, how about a handshake?”

Physical boundary violations include receiving unwanted or inappropriate touch, standing too close. It can also involve having someone come into your personal space in an uncomfortable way eg. A friend that walks into your house unannounced without knocking or ringing the bell.

Emotional

Emotional boundaries involve feelings, energy, and values. Setting emotional boundaries includes identifying how much emotional energy you are taking in, knowing when to share, and limiting emotional sharing with those who respond in an invalidating manner. This kind of boundary can sound like “I hear that this conversation is important to you. Right now is not a good time for me to take all of this in. Do you think we can get back to this at a later time?”

Emotional boundary violations can include assuming how other people feel, dismissing and/or criticizing feelings.

Material

Material boundaries refer to items and possessions such as your home, car, clothes, money, etc. It is important to understand and be clear on what you are willing and not willing to share, and how you expect your materials to be treated by the people you share them with. This kind of boundary may sound like “Sure, I would be happy to lend you my jacket. However, I need it back by Friday.”

Violations of material boundaries occur when things you have shared are destroyed, stolen, or ‘borrowed’ too frequently.

Verbalizing our feelings and expressing our needs begins in early childhood with our families, and then in our friend circles. These early boundaries are internalized and determine how comfortable we are standing up for ourselves. The inability to set boundaries usually stems from fears such as abandonment, losing the relationship, hurting other people’s feelings, being judged, being disliked, made fun of, etc.

Initially setting boundaries can come with a sense of guilt which can make it feel like it’s the wrong thing to do. Other people may not always be understanding of the reasons for our boundaries. Some may show resistance and even respond aggressively – this may be due to the possibility that, to them, your boundary means that they will not get what they want. Boundaries can be thought of as the terms under which a relationship can progress further. In contrast to common stereotypical misconceptions, people place boundaries in their relationships because they want to continue to carry them further in their life, and in a healthier manner.

Boundaries are an important aspect of self-care and are important in all aspects of our lives. They allow us to be our true selves, set realistic expectations, and create safety. As essential as it is to prioritize our needs, it is also equally critical that we respect the boundaries that other people have set for themselves.

Bullying in the Workplace

Workplace Bullying

With bullying, the idea that usually comes to mind may involve children or teenagers misbehaving, discriminating, and/or harassing one another. Bullying commonly involves a power imbalance and includes behaviors that are unwanted, threatening, humiliating, harmful, aggressive, offensive, and/or intimidating. These can be both verbal and physical. Bullying can be thought of as a mechanism used to re-take control and proclaim dominance that an individual may have felt they lost at some point in their lives. Bullies usually target those who may seem smaller, weaker, younger, or more vulnerable than themselves.

However, these instances and behaviors are not exclusive to youngsters and are also prevalent in various aspects of adult life, such as interpersonal and professional relationships. Although it may be widely observed in society, it is not always recognized as ‘bullying’ and thus, appropriate interventions are not implemented. Whether it is between children, teenagers, or adults, bullying is an issue that deserves attention as it can have a detrimental impact on an individual’s mental and physical health. Mental health effects include worrying about work constantly, wanting to avoid going to work, needing time off to recover from stress, a general loss of interest, and an increased risk of anxiety and depression. The physical health effects include feeling sick or anxious when thinking about work, digestive problems, high blood pressure, headaches, decreased appetite, and poor quality of sleep.

Bullying in the workplace also causes financial difficulties as individuals tend to leave their jobs as a result of being bullied. Some examples of bullying in this context include personal attacks such as yelling, threatening, and spreading rumors, as well as manipulation tactics, such as isolation, sabotage, micromanagement, and unrealistic deadlines.

In the work environment, bullies are often found to be bosses or high-functioning employees who are valued and supported by others because of their status and contribution to the company. In these cases, bullying may involve the abuse of power such as unjustified negative performance reviews, denial of time off, and threats of termination or demotion. However, bullying can also occur in other levels of employment. Those working at the same level may bully through gossip, rumors, work sabotage, and/or criticism. Lower-level employees may bully those above them by showing continuous disrespect, refusing to complete tasks, and doing things that may portray their superior in a negative light. Bullying not only impacts the target but increases stress for all those who witness it. Employees are also impacted in the form of decreases in trust, productivity, morale, and efficiency as well as increases in absenteeism and employee turnover.

Bullying has been shown to be more prevalent in work environments that:

Are stressful
Change frequently
Have heavy workloads
Have unclear policies about employee behavior
Have poor employee communication and relationships
Have more employees who are bored and worried about job security

Bullying is recognized as a serious problem in many organizations, and while most have a zero-tolerance policy, bullying can be difficult to prove, which in turn, makes it difficult for the necessary measures to be taken. Witnesses to bullying often refrain from intervening and stay silent out of a fear of becoming a target themselves. It is important to speak up and attempt to stop bullying when we witness it, as ignoring it contributes to a harmful work environment.

Effective ways to help include:

Offering support – this could involve being a witness if the targeted individual wants to ask the bully to stop.

Listening – If someone being bullied doesn’t feel safe reporting the bullying to HR, they may find it beneficial to have someone to talk to.

Reporting the incident – A third-party account of what happened may help bring attention to the problem, allowing it to be taken seriously by management and others.

Transactional vs Transformative Leadership

The concept of leadership is quite simple: a leader is one that aims to motivate and guide others to achieve an agreed objective. However, when we consider the diversity of leaders, it starts to become a little more complicated. Immediately we start to notice vast differences in how each person leads.

Commonly known as leadership styles, it refers to a leader’s behavioral characteristics when directing, motivating, mentoring, and achieving work expectations. Fortunately, researchers have delved deep into this topic to ascertain how to better communicate and motivate teams. As a result, different theories and frameworks were developed to help identify and understand the various leadership styles.

Most leadership styles tend to be either transactional or transformative. Generally, each of these types of leadership has different ways to influence attitudes and motivation among the employees.

Transactional leadership

As the name suggests, the transactional leadership style views a leader-employee relationship as a transaction. Leaders who adopt this highly directive style base leadership on a system of rewards and penalties in order to motivate the employees. For example, higher pay given in an exchange for increased productivity. Transactional leaders use a pragmatic approach to tackle problems, think of solutions, and drive people to get things done. As a result, employees receive definite and clear commands and are often carefully monitored to ensure that these expectations are met.

Pros

Transactional leadership tends to be most effective when problems are straightforward and clear. This style also works better for crisis situations where a solution is needed immediately.
As the leader is in command, it removes room for confusion and guesswork errors.
Transactional leadership creates clearly defined roles. Employees know what they are told to do and what they can achieve in exchange for their performance.
As this leadership is based on different sources of motivation, employees are motivated to perform well and achieve these rewards.

Cons

A transactional approach discourages out-of-the-box thinking and creative input from the employees because of its straightforward leadership.
There is a lack of focus on building relationships within the work environment. Because of the strict focus on using rewards to motivate employees, transactional leaders may not consider the working environment and tend to miss an attempt to build relationships with their employees.

Transformational leadership

Transformational leadership is a leadership style that directs positive changes to the employees. Not only do these leaders aim at achieving team objectives, but they also do so by focusing on employee needs and encourages them to reach their full potential. Unlike transactional leaders, transformational leaders find solutions by brainstorming and encouraging creativity among everyone in the team through an approach that inspires, nurtures, and develops the employees.

Pros

Research shows that this style of leadership is associated with positive effects on career employee development, satisfaction, and wellbeing as their needs are considered when expectations are to be met.
Employee creative input is encouraged and valued.
The experience is considered purposeful and enjoyable by the employees as their own needs and growth are highlighted in the process.
Leaders are value-driven and ethics-focused which encourages a shared group vision.

Cons

Employees may experience confusion as transformational leaders tend to take more risks in their approach to meeting expectations.
Transformational leadership tends to become too conceptual as proper task focus may lack for those employees that need proper guidance.

Research has shown that employees are also more likely to feel inspired, empowered, and stimulated to be part of the team and exceed in their team responsibilities when they receive leadership that is transformational. As a result, employees led by a transformative leader are more satisfied and often report higher levels of individual and team performance.

Whether you learned about leadership styles after reading this blog, it is likely that you are already applying some of the elements of transactional and transformative leadership. Here are some questions that you can use as a start to reflect on if you are leading with components of transformational leadership within your professional work: These questions were adapted from and inspired by Carless, Wearing, and Mann’s (2000) work.

Creative: Do I encourage people to think outside the box? Do I ask questions or simply take policies and procedures at face value?
Interactive: Do I encourage and recognize my employees for the work they are doing? Do I make myself accessible?
Visionary: Do I articulate a clear vision of the future for my employees?
Empowering: Do I actively work to build trust and foster teamwork?
Passionate: Do I show enthusiasm for the work I am doing? Do I provide extra encouragement when my employees seem discouraged?
Relationship builders: Do I take the time to get to know my employees personally?
Influence agents: Do I strive to be a good role model to my employees?

To sum up the difference between transactional and transformative leadership: transactional leadership looks at how to get things done through the use of rewards and punishments, and transformational leadership looks at how to inspire and motivate people to do things.

Tips for Maintaining Better Work-Life Balance

Have you noticed the culture of overworking? Some people think that working overtime equates to being hardworking. That those sending out reports or making calls out of working hours are sacrificing their personal time and seem to be dedicated employees. But when has this become true? Does overworking actually achieve what we think it does? Research suggests otherwise – that when we work longer hours, we tend to produce less outcome, make more mistakes and jeopardize our physical and mental health in the long run. For example, working adults that prioritize their work over their personal lives are more likely to experience stress, burnout, heart-related issues, and high blood pressure. So what about Work-Life Balance?

Indeed, the global pandemic has significantly impacted the way we live as we transit from physical interactions to virtual interactions. From Zoom parties to online workshops, technology has given us access to the virtual equivalent of the many outdoor activities we used to do before the pandemic. And as officials stress the importance of social distancing, people have the option to be able to work from home, thanks to tech apps such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom. But although we are a year into the pandemic, many employees working from home still struggle to find a balance between their work and personal life. As their work commitment bleeds into their personal lives all the more, checking emails and answering work calls over on the dinner table has become a common theme to many. As mentioned, this entanglement of work and personal responsibilities leaves many employees with extreme stress and discontentment which have an impact on both workplace and personal wellbeing.

Fortunately, one of the silver linings of the COVID-19 is the increased awareness of mental wellbeing, hence, the ‘always on’ work culture has been brought to the attention of many healthcare professionals. To help cope with this issue, the importance of ‘work-life balance’ is stressed in many mental health workshops and forums.

The key to work-life balance is effectively distributing time between professional and personal obligations. Achieving such a balance not only helps to maintain a healthy relationship at home but also gives a feeling of satisfaction and increases productivity at work. Research studies have shown additional benefits to work-life balance such as increased work engagement, creative thinking, and better physical and mental health.

Finding a work-life balance can be a challenge, but these ideas can help you make a start:

Reflect on your own work-life balance: How important is this for you? Since when have you noticed the imbalance? What changed? And what are the consequences? Asking yourself these questions is important as they help you understand your situation better to tackle it more effectively. Gain an understanding that overworking does not mean you are hardworking. And that you are more likely to produce more when you are at your full potential during working hours as compared to working overtime.
Define your workspace: When you create a designated workspace, you make a clear divide between your personal and working environment. This might look like moving from your bed to a designated table, or a specific room in the house. When making the switch to your workspace, you attempt to tell your brain it’s time to work and vice versa when you move away from your workspace.
Implement short breaks: Be sure to take some breaks throughout your working day. Giving yourself 10 to 15-minute breaks during your day helps you get back to work with a more refreshed, recharged, and productive mindset. Eating lunch with family, going for a walk, or even scheduling virtual water-cooler moments with your colleagues are some ideas on how to spend your short, but important, rest time.
Consider transition time: Create cues to help yourself adjust to when it’s time to begin work at the start of the day and when it’s time to stop working at the end of the day. This could mean, going for a short walk to mimic your previous commute to work, by changing out of your pajamas, or even taking your dog for a walk at the end of your working hours. This helps you ease into and out of your work or personal commitment.
Set and communicate boundaries: With your work devices in front of you, it’s easy to get tempted to send out one more email, write up one more report and make one more phone call. Although this might feel like it increases your productivity, over time it can contribute to burnout and cause feelings of frustration down the road. Therefore, it’s important to set your office hours and explicitly communicate them to others. This also makes it easier for you to see the distinction between work and personal time.
Practice self-compassion: Acknowledge the complexity of achieving work-life balance and be kind to yourself during these unprecedented Carve out times to be there for yourself, and allow mistakes to learn from. It’s a good idea to also recognizing the importance of your protective factors (for example, exercise, friendships, or leisure activities) for your wellbeing and include them in your week’s routine.

How to Relax at Work – Simple Techniques

While it may be well known that aspects of work can cause stress, less is known about ways to effectively relieve it. Whether it’s a new job, a promotion, tight deadlines, or uncooperative colleagues, everyone has aspects of their worklife that stress them out. In such times, it is important to manage thoughts and feelings in a way that helps rejuvenate, rather than compound what we are already experiencing. Some people may find that their work stressors not only affect their professional life, but aspects of their personal life as well, such as health, family, and relationships. Practicing techniques how to relax at work is one of the easiest ways to lower stress levels, manage symptoms of anxiety and depression, reduce absenteeism and increase productivity.

Although avoiding stressful situations altogether sounds like an appealing idea, this may not always be possible. Relaxation techniques involve refocusing attention towards something calming and increasing awareness of bodily sensations. Contrary to popular belief, relaxation is not only relevant to enjoying a hobby or achieving peace of mind. It is a process that decreases the effects of stress on the mind as well as the body.

Individuals who are more relaxed at work report being more motivated, take fewer sick leaves, and engage in less procrastination. Effectively organizing the physical workspace has also shown to declutter and calm the mind and boost productivity. Some relaxing elements of work environments include elements of nature such as plants and aquariums. While direct contact with nature has several health benefits, research shows that even glimpses of nature through a window or photographs can improve mental health and satisfaction and reduce stress levels.

Taking breaks from long periods of work is also an important part of maintaining health, efficiency, and productivity.

Some health benefits of relaxation include:

Improved digestion
Higher energy levels
Increased confidence
Lower blood pressure
Improved concentration
Improved quality of sleep
Reduced activity of stress hormones
Increased blood flow to major muscles

Some types of relaxation include:

Autogenic Relaxation

Autogenic relaxation is a technique that focuses on teaching the body to respond to verbal commands. This can include using visual imagery and bodily awareness to reduce stress. For some, it can look like repeating words and/or phrases either mentally or verbally, encouraging relaxation and reducing muscle tension. For example, individuals may imagine a peaceful environment, then focus on controlled and relaxed breathing which slows down their heart rate. Attention can then be diverted to feeling other physiological sensations such as relaxing each part of the body.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

This technique focuses on slowly tensing and relaxing each muscle group, directing individuals’ focus to the difference between muscle tension and relaxation and simultaneously increasing awareness of physical sensations. One way of doing this is starting by tensing and relaxing the toe muscles, progressively working up to the muscles of the head and neck, and then back down to the toes. Some practice tensing for five seconds, relaxing for thirty seconds, and then repeating.

Visualization

This relaxation technique involves forming mental conceptions to take a visual journey to a peaceful and calming place or situation. Relaxing using this technique is most effective when the sensations associated with all the senses are incorporated into the visualized scenario. An example of visualizing relaxing on the beach may include thinking about the warmth of the sun on one’s body, the smell of saltwater, the sound of crashing waves, and the texture of sand. A quiet spot void of distractions where individuals can close their eyes, loosen any tight clothing and focus on their breathing helps to make the visualization more vivid.

It is important to remember that instinctually implementing these techniques is a skill that will improve gradually with time and practice. Different techniques may be more suited to different types of people. With this in mind, it may be beneficial to consider professional mental health services if feelings of stress and discomfort are persistent and seem overwhelming.

Respect in the Workplace

Similar to one’s personal life, an individual’s work-life exposes them to people with different personalities, dispositions, and temperaments. However, in a work setting, the option to disengage with someone with opposing values and/or opinions may not be available. If it is though, it may have consequences, impacting factors such as job performance, group dynamics, and organizational health as a whole. To ensure that organizations perform to their full potential and grow, navigating interpersonal relationships respectfully and productively is crucial.

Previously, organizations followed a conforming mindset in which they stayed within familiar operating methods. As a result, differences, in general, were largely viewed and reduced to potential sources of conflict and difficulty. However, recently, management has increasingly been coming to realize that when individual differences are encountered in an effective and considerate manner, they can be a source of significant innovation, collaboration, and long-term success. On an internal level, differences collide in daily interactions between people within organizations. Some apparent distinctions between people include age, gender, education, and ethnicity, while the more subtle differences may involve values, attitudes, behaviors, and personality types.

Characteristics of people that are difficult to manage when considered in a work setting include anger, indecisiveness, negativity, complaining, and competitiveness. If not managed sensitively and appropriately, these characteristics lead people to find themselves in tension-filled situations which often lead to conflict. In avoiding conflict, it is important to realize that these behaviors are not personal. In viewing people from this perspective, the chances of retaliation are minimized, allowing for constructive interventions to take place. For example, indecisive individuals tend to procrastinate, avoid making decisions and doubt themselves. Responding from a place of empathy and respect to someone like this would involve clarifying their options to help them make better decisions.

A disrespectful workplace often leads to unnecessary stress, anxiety, depression, lack of motivation, and low self-esteem. While removing conflict-inducing factors may seem like the obvious solution, research shows that this change is short-lived. Focusing on cultivating a more respectful culture, on the other hand, proves to be a more sustainable solution as it enhances how conflicts are handled when they arise. Companies that have medium to high levels of conflict while simultaneously maintaining a high level of interpersonal respect thrive more than those with different respect-conflict combinations. When people are very similar to each other there is room for long-term stagnation. In settings where people feel free to disagree and differ from the majority while knowing that they are still valued and respected, they tend to learn from each other’s differences, thus stimulating a thriving environment.

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is defined as feelings of discomfort, such as worry or fear, that range from mild to severe. Some examples of anxiety symptoms include:

feeling nervous or on edge
increased heart rate
shortness of breath
trembling
sweating
thinking that something bad is going to happen

Difference between Anxiety and Stress

Although it may seem similar to stress, there is an acute difference between the two. Both anxiety and stress are emotional responses, but stress is usually coupled with an external trigger, which means that the feelings are relieved as the stressor is dismissed. Anxiety, on the other hand, refers more to the persistence of a worry or fear even when there may be no apparent external trigger.

Having to give a presentation or attending an important meeting, for example, may induce these feelings. In situations like these, experiencing anxiety and stress is natural and everyone encounters them in a variety of different settings. While a stressful response would include nervousness building up to the event, anxiety may involve worrying about what people may say, think, or do, the negative ways that one may be perceived, what might go wrong, etc.

Some people find it more difficult than others to relieve their anxiety, as it may be more invasive, thus hindering their daily functioning. Some common anxiety disorders include Phobic disorder, Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and Social anxiety disorder. Contrary to widespread inaccurate and stigmatized views, symptoms of such disorders are not as simplistic as being shy at a social event or color-coding your belongings. These disorders present symptoms that make undertaking and maintaining roles and responsibilities related to work, school, and personal relationships very difficult.

Anxiety at Work

In the workplace, anxiety can create limitations to one’s own professional progress. Perfectionism and procrastination are two of the main ways in which anxiety manifests. Perfectionism involves the need to be or appear perfect and procrastination is the act of delaying a task, often due to a fear of failure. In the organizational context, these may present themselves in several aspects of work. Fear of failure along with constant feelings of dissatisfaction may lead people to treat themselves harshly when they perform below a certain expectation or make small mistakes. Some people may avoid collaborating with colleagues, office parties, staff lunches, and work events due to a fear of being in social situations or public speaking. Anxiety can also directly impact an individual’s ability to meet their deadlines and complete tasks. People may even turn down promotions and refuse assignments if it involves an activity related to their fear such as flying or traveling.

With managing anxiety, it is important to manage it when it is experienced. Identifying the thoughts that come up when feeling anxious is the first step to this. Initially, anxiety may only be apparent when it is felt. Separating thoughts from feelings can prove difficult at first because they may be very quick and automatic. With practice, however, thinking patterns can become clearer. Thoughts may present themselves as words or statements like “what if..” or “I can’t cope” or even as vivid images in one’s mind, both of which can cause high levels of anxiety.

Helpful Hints to Relieve Anxiety

Some questions that help identify thoughts are:

What does this say about me if this is true?
What would it mean if ‘x’ were to happen?
What does this mean about what other people think/feel about me?
What was going through my mind before I started to feel this way?

After having identified the anxious thoughts, the next step is to attempt to evaluate whether the thought is realistic and in proportion. This is useful because anxious thoughts are usually based on exaggerations and assumptions. Learning to develop alternative ways of thinking about the same situation helps break out of cycles of anxiety.

Some questions that help identify thoughts are:

What does this say about me if this is true?
What would it mean if ‘x’ were to happen?
What does this mean about what other people think/feel about me?
What was going through my mind before I started to feel this way?

If you are looking for anxiety disorder treatment in Dubai to help you overcome any symptoms of anxiety, the mental health counseling services offered by HRIC Dubai might be helpful to you. Human Relations Institute and Clinics is a psychology-based practice based in Dubai, UAE, providing mental health and psychological services to individuals and businesses around the globe.