How to Increase Resilience Towards Stress

Stress is an essential aspect of growth and development. Optimal exposure to stress helps us grow stronger and more resilient. But excess exposure beyond our capacity creates adverse effects.

Take the analogy of the gym. When we lift weights, we stress our muscles, which causes them to break down. The body then initiates the process of rebuilding these damaged tissues. To recover successfully and repair the damage, the body needs adequate nutrition, hydration, rest & sleep. ImpropeHowever, improper or inadequate sleep means suboptimal results from strength training and, worse, injuries. Similarly, employees need time to recover, diffuse, and rest to increase their resilience towards the stresses of everyday work lives. Therefore organisations need to create a culture that understands the need for a balanced life and prioritises rest, recovery, sleep, yoga, meditation etc.

Here are some ways to increase resilience towards stress among employees:

1. Allow employees to reimburse their gym, yoga, or health club fees. You let them take charge of their health and fitness routine by giving them the freedom to choose their fitness activity. The reimbursement could be linked to attending the gym or class a minimum number of times a month, which adds a little challenge and gamifies it for them. This could simply be on an honour system. This works because wellness decisions taken autonomously are far more powerful than those imposed upon people.
2. Teach employees essential mindfulness, meditation, and breathwork techniques that they can learn once. This could include breathing techniques for calming the jitters before a presentation or finding greater energy when feeling dull, developing affirmations to counter negative thinking or limiting beliefs, and finding the right technique for meditation that suits their personality. This will make them self-sufficient in dealing with stress.
3. Create a rest/stretch/relaxation area with a view of outdoor greenery, plants, or the skyline. Encourage employees to take short breaks and move around, stretch, or go for a walk to help them recharge. Well-rested eyes are strongly linked to a relaxed nervous system.
4. Conduct cooking or healthy eating workshops. Diet is strongly linked to mental health. Eating whole foods improves the overall sense of well-being and positive emotions. But two of the biggest challenges of healthy eating are loss of flavour and repetitiveness, which makes people bored. That is why by teaching them how to be creative, you equip them to find novelty in old. By learning to do old things in new ways, employees can add more variability, which makes healthy eating fun and pleasurable. Additionally, provide access to healthy foods and snacks, such as regular whole almonds, cashews, figs, pumpkin seeds, whole seasonal fruits, and plain yoghurt etc in the cafeteria.
5. Prioritise sleep by coaching them on techniques like yoga nidra, body scan, or organising a cognitive-behavioural therapy session for sleep. Lack of sleep can lead to increased stress levels and decreased cognitive function. Getting adequate rest can help improve overall well-being.

Incorporating these practices into the workplace culture can help employees manage their stress levels and improve their resilience, leading to better productivity and overall well-being.

Namita Piparaiya?is a former corporate executive; she spent over a decade, from management trainee to business head, with leading MNCs, including Citibank, Aviva, and Generali. She is now the founder of Yoganama Wellness. The?Well-Balanced Newsletter ?is her initiative to bring practical wellness tips to the workplace. She regularly conducts corporate wellness workshops and training programs on workplace stress management techniques. Reach out to her at [email protected] for more details about her programs or book a 1:1 consultation on?yoganama.com