The Work Assassin: Stress! How can you reduce your risks?

Approximately 65% of working people feel 'stressed' on a regular basis in their weekly work activities.Feeling 'out of control' is one of the leading causes of work stress. It is an overwhelming feeling that you can't get out from under all the work that seems to be around you, or the situations that are bringing the work to you. Picture if you will a piece of paper floating on a body of water; it begins to rain and drop by drop the rainwater sinks the paper. It is far more than a feeling though.

When you start to feel stressed, your adrenal cortex triggers cortisol, the body's primary stress hormone to be released, elevating glucose levels to provide ability for your 'fight or flight' responses. According to the Mayo Clinic, cortisol levels should return to normal once the stress feeling diminishes, but when stressors are always present the body will have a long-term activation of that stress response; disrupting other functions causing the following potential issues: anxiety, depression, digestive issues, headaches, heart disease, sleep problems, weight gain and concentration issues. According to www.stress.org as illustrated below there are many physiological ways the body expresses stress and has short as well as long term effects, potentially robbing years from your life. Many companies are trying to find ways to help their employee base manage stress by offering an array of on campus solutions such as board room yoga, chair stretching, on-site work out facilities, walking paths/groups, nature therapy and animal therapy in office.  

Not everyone has an employer that is willing to bring in a massage therapist each week or offer desk side yoga hours. While you can't eliminate stress altogether, you can take a look at the root causes, the immediate responses you have to it and try to build in a system to head it off or diminish it. Here are some common stress triggers and potential ways to push it out of your workday: 

Co-workers/Boss - Whether it is ultra-competitive co-workers nipping at the heels of your position, an over demanding manager or just the dynamics of working with the same people every day for years; it at times is enough to get under your skin and make your blood boil. 

What you can do: 

• Drown out the local noise - loud conversations, the nervous tapping of someone's fingers, an overzealous typer or even the normal buzz of the office can be minimized by wearing earplugs. While is sounds strange, it centralizes your focus back on you - your breathing, your tasks and while it dulls the noise, you can still hear if someone walks up to talk to you. Not a fan of electric orange earplugs? Okay, try using earbuds. You can have them in without music on or to enjoy your favorite music. It will help the day go faster and hopefully put you back in a state of calm. *Be mindful of the volume, you don't want to enhance other's stress or to not be able to hear your boss talking to you.  

• Walk it off -not walking out; but rather gain a little perspective. Most times it isn't the environment that is stressing you out; it is just exacerbating your existing stress. Change the scenery, walk to the restroom, get a drink of water/coffee, walk around the building, walk to your car and back. Usually pulling yourself away will assist with a refocus when you return. 
• Talk it out - sometimes it helps to just have someone outside of  your company that you can discuss situations objectively to see where the best solution is. Whether this is a BFF, a counselor or a partner, letting someone in on the struggles of your daily life makes you feel not so isolated. Rule of thumb is to not have this person be someone that works with you or is married to someone you work with. 

Feeling overwhelmed by work- It could be the amount of the work at the time, the pace at which it is coming at you, a huge project or covering for someone else. Whatever the cause - you are feeling buried and wish you had more arms, more hours or cloning was legalized. 

What you can do: 

• The first way to combat this type of stress is to realize that you are going to be able to do what you can, but you have to be okay with not getting it all done immediately. Setting realistic expectations for yourself and others is the best way to curb stress building workloads. Ask if the deadline is firm, push back on others that are utilizing you for projects, learn that saying "NO" doesn't make you less of a team player. A great way to say "NO" is "I would love to help you out, but I have several deadlines that compete with it and I'm not sure I could give it my full attention." Being clear on your willingness to help but also the reality of the situation will free you of guilt. 
• Schedule the interruptions - so many times during the day we are bombarded by things that are not critical to our productivity. Most of us actually spend 34% of our days on tasks that do not directly enhance our workflow. By blocking time on your calendar to handle these things help keep productivity high. EXAMPLE: A co-worker stops by to tell you a funny story. Tell them that you would love to talk to him/her but that you are right in the middle of something- could you catch up at 10 AM or 2 PM today to hear all about it? By blocking two 30 minute blocks in your day you can minimize distractions/interruptions and push them into that block. 
• Set times for checking email/voicemail. Unless your job is to answer the phone for others chances are that you are able to let things go for a little bit. Currently I set time up to check/respond to emails at 8:30 AM, 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM. By blocking 15-30 minutes for those activities I am not constantly having to stop my projects to respond to calls/emails. Knowing that you have that time in your schedule already protects it from meeting requests and it gives you structure in your day. (I also set times for a mental break- read an article, a joke, anything that isn't work related to lighten my mood.) 
• Balance your workload. Prioritize your work, lists, projects and be honest with the expected completion times. If you are still struggling, have an open dialog with your supervisor or manager to ask for help in reviewing the actual work that you are needing to do, set up a priority list and don't ever be afraid to state that you need help. Chances are if you are genuinely buried by the workload there are areas that your manager can help with.  

I can't explain it- I'm just always stressed!-  

This type of feeling isn't uncommon, but it is also alarming. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America calculated that 40% of people have daily stress and anxiety in their daily lives and 72% of them feel that it interferes with their lives moderately. While 30% of those listed have taken medication to deal with the stress, only 9% were actually diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. The bulk is just stress wreaking havoc on our emotional and physical well being.

What can you do?:

• It all starts with you - if you are taking care of your body and mind then stress will roll off your shoulders. Getting good restorative sleep is really critical to this. It doesn't have to always be 8 hours of sleep, but needs to be deep sleep. There are many fitness bands that will track your sleep patterns, and if you find that you aren't getting into a deep restful sleep, talk to your doctor. Targeting at least 7 hours of sleep with 3 hours of deep sleep should assist with stress levels.
• Did you know that one of the first forms of dehydration is confusion or brain fog? Being properly hydrated can help you stay focused, alert and less anxious. Do the math - take your total body weight, divide that in half and that is how many OUNCES of water your body needs to function daily. Scared of that number? Track it for a week - when you first wake up, drink a glass of water. Get into the office, drink a glass of water. Set up reminders throughout the day to drink a glass of water. Drink water with lunch and make up any deficits for your calculations with dinner. It is AMAZING what a big difference this can make. I was shocked at how easy it was to stay hydrated and even took it a step further; if I drank coffee/tea I would not count those, knowing that it actually takes away from the hydration and I would need to make up for that deficit. It was a fun math game during my day :) 
• Eating right. I'm not going to get on a soap box and tell you what to eat. I will say though that it is necessary to get enough protein and fiber in your body to help it combat stress. If you only focus on those two things- getting enough protein for your body and ensuring that your fiber level is met every day, you will feel the difference. (The Dietary Reference Intake is 0.36 grams of protein for each pound of your body weight. Average male 53 grams of protein needed, average female is 46 grams of protein daily.) Fiber, according to the Institute of Medicine requires women to ingest 25 grams daily and men to have 36 grams of fiber daily. 
• Get the blood pumping! Studies for decades have proven that moderate exercise 3-4 times per week will diminish your stress responses and lower your cortisol levels. Allowing your body to recover from those stress situations is going to help your overall health and lesson the likelihood of a stress related health issue. 

Understanding your triggers is a personal journey that only you can travel. I would suggest self monitoring and journaling to help track your behaviors over the period of a month. You should write down the things that made you activate that 'fight or flight' feeling, anxiety rising, anger bubbling up and also- how much time did it take for you to come back to a normal state? By reviewing the patterns, you will start to see the things that are causing the stress and you can then work to address how to handle or avoid them.

Bottom line, stress is inherent at work and has been for generations. How we choose to address it is going to make the difference. If you find that you are having to choose between your emotional well being and a job; it may be time to contact a recruiter to start looking for another opportunity. No amount of money is worth drowning in stress daily. If you don't have a recruiter, feel free to reach out to me.