What would work be without stress? Pretty unsuccessful! Stress at work lets you know that you are challenging your own limits, when you are pushing beyond your own limits, like when you push yourself to finish a project before the deadline. Stress also wears down your physical and emotional systems. So stress management strategies are sought after by everyone.
Stress management and anxiety reduction in the workplace is used by most people to relieve the physical symptoms of anxiety attacks, which cause you to lose days off sick. It also allows you to focus on the many problems that arise on the job, and battle the stressor that is causing the anxiety. And it is only by eliminating the stressor that you can finally end the headaches, feeling of nervousness, and constant chest tightness from anxiety that is so harmful to you.
Let’s look at seven tips for stress management at work:
1. Identify whether your stress is real or imagined. In other words, if there are no tangible consequences to ignoring the stressor, then it is imagined stress and can be ignored.
2. If it is real stress, use creative problem solving to think of as ways to attack it other than your body’s “fight or flight” reaction. The bad health effects of stress are most often caused by this reaction.
3. Engage as many people as possible to help you. By sharing the burden, you lighten the load – and the stress – on you.
4. Make sure your management is aware of what you are doing. This eliminates the stress of doubt about how your work will be received.
5. Set this as a priority high enough to allow you to reject non-priority tasks and interruptions.
6. Take one concrete specific action toward step 1 of your first goal.
7. Assess the results.
While these 7 tips sound pretty common-sense, actually doing them is far from common-place. And performing them under stress is even rarer. Many run-of-the-mill stress management systems are built around one or two techniques, like deep breathing or meditating. But these seven tips for stress management, all performed by you under stress, are your ticket to comprehensive stress management and anxiety reduction in the workplace.
Be sure to talk to your doctor about other ways to reduce the physical symptoms of anxiety attacks. Medications or therapies may be necessary for some people. And, of course, you must be aware that the constant chest tightness from anxiety that you have might unfortunately be a heart attack! So consult with your doctor before and during any stress or anxiety situation.
RICK CARTER is the author of this article. As a trial attorney for over 15 years, he's had to do a lot of stress management: the stress of dealing with clients, stress of explaining clients' positions to opposing counsel, stress of advocating a legal issue in courtrooms and government agencies around the world. And that means handling a lot of stress effectively and quickly. And as a martial arts student for over 25 years, he's faced a different kind of stress in sparring, fighting, and perfecting. The result of this experience is STRESS JUDO: Black Belt Stress Management (http://stressjudo.blinkweb.com). For more information on this exclusive system (and how you can have a wallful of belts showing your expertise), click stress management (http://stressjudo.blinkweb.com/beltsystem.html).