You spend at least 40 hours a day in the office. If those 40 hours are filled with stress, it can easily affect you emotionally. Long term stress is not only an upsetting way to live – it can actually change brain chemistry in a way that causes problems in your own life and affect your health.
That’s why if you have stress at work and it’s starting to affect you personally, you’re going to have to deal with it. The following are several tips to control stress at work.
Note: Don’t Be Afraid to Talk to Someone
In my practice, many of my clients come to me just to vent out their frustrations and talk about their workplace stresses. Don’t be afraid to seek out help if you need it. Talking to someone can be one of the best ways to relieve your stress and feel calmer about your situation. We can go over stress reduction tactics, and we can figure out how to best cope with the pressures you’re experiencing.
Tips to Manage Workplace Stress
- Realize All Stress is Temporary and Minor
Remember that no matter what happens in the workplace, that stress usually represents only a small part of your day. Often it’s the difficulties controlling thoughts and coping with it that makes the stress last. But a small criticism, a late project, or an annoying coworker often are only around for a few hours, or one or two days a week, or sometimes only a few seconds. It’s the dwelling on it that lasts for hours. Being mindful of how you feel and how you can choose to feel makes a big difference.
- Make Work Lighthearted – Turn it Into a Game
You work to live. You don’t intentionally live to work, even if you love your job. Work is supposed to be something you do to enjoy your personal life. So if possible, try to adapt work to something you enjoy more. For example, turn your work into a game. Challenge yourself to see how much of your work you can do in a set amount of time, or see if you can compete with coworkers. If you have fun with your work every day, work will feel less stressful.
- Stay Active After Work
There has to be a clear difference between work and personal life. For those that keep “taking work home” by letting the stress affect them all day, then the best thing you can do is make sure you’re always doing something fun immediately after work is over. Sign up for workout classes, take your partner on a date, meet up with friends – whatever you can think of so that as soon as work is over, the non-work starts and your stress isn’t being carried with you.
Maintaining a Healthy Personal Life
These are only a few ideas. It does sometimes take a little bit of extra help in order to maintain your mental health when your workplace is stressful. If this describes you, contact me today to find out more about how to control workplace stress. Let’s schedule a meeting, and make sure that you’re getting the help you need.
