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By
Dr. Joseph Mercola
with Laina Krisik
It’s 6:30 p.m., you’ve just completed an exhausting 10-hour
workday, a stack of unfinished paperwork still lays in a pile on
your desk, e-mails sit in your inbox waiting to be answered and
you are now you sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic trying to psych
yourself up for the one-and-a-half hour drive ahead of you. Rather
than paying attention to the road and leaving your work in the office,
you’re making mental lists of what you haven’t finished
at work and then another list of what you need to do when you get
home.
Aside from causing physical health problems such as fatigue, headaches,
nausea, and rapid heartbeat, work-related stress can lead to poor
job performance, accidents on the job, termination and violence.
These are just some of the reasons that make work-related stress
a critical issue that shouldn’t be ignored.
Identifying Your Sources of Stress
The first step to dealing with work-related stress is identifying
the source of it.
There are two types of factors that cause work-related stress,
internal and external. Once you determine the types of stress factors
affecting you, you will be able to effectively find coping strategies
to dealing with it.
Some external factors may include:
- Personality conflicts with a co-worker or dealing with a difficult
supervisor.
- Technology overload--attached to work through e-mail, pagers,
cell phones and faxes.
- Understaffed due to cutbacks and downsizing.
- Lack of training or supervision.
- Working an excess number of hours and finding you are spending
more time at work than at home.
Internal factors include:
- Perfectionism--setting unrealistic expectations for
yourself.
- Having unrealistic expectations of your job.
- Taking on too much and ignoring your limitations.
Finding effective ways of dealing with stress while you’re
at work can help you improve your sense of control over your life
at work and better prepare you to plan and prioritize your time
at work and at home.
How to Deal With Stress at Your Desk
If your job involves working on a computer all day, you may not
be able to find the time to take many breaks away from your desk.
However, for your mental health it is important to make a point
of practicing occasional stress reduction techniques throughout
the day. This will allow you to clear your mind so you’re able
to produce quality work and reenergize your body physically. For
those aches and pains and moments of stress during your workday,
you could try these simple tips sitting right at your desk:
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Raise your shoulders and try to touch your ears. Stay
in this position for a couple of seconds, then release. Try
this about 10 times or until your shoulders feel less tense.
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For at least 30 seconds, shake your wrist.
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Take a deep breath and hold it for a few seconds,
then slowly exhale. Do this five times.
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Quickly rub the palms of your hands together until
they get hot, then close your eyes and place your palms over
your eyes. You will find the heat relaxes the eyeballs.
De-Stressing at the End of the Workday
Unwinding from the stresses of your workday should begin before
you leave the office. Here are some great tips that will help you
leave stress at the office where it belongs:
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Start winding down from your workday 30 minutes before
you leave for the day. You can do some professional reading,
straightening or cleaning your office area or putting away files.
This should be any task that is not demanding and can be done
leisurely.
-
Make a tomorrow’s to-do list and put a star by
two items that will give you a sense of accomplishment.
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If you have to deal with traffic on your way home,
try picking up books on tape or a comedy tape. Music is great
therapy so why not put on your favorite CD and belt it out.
-
Aromatherapy produces a calming effect, particularly
the scent of lavender, which you could spray on your dashboard
or buy a lavender-scented air freshener.
-
Take some winding down time for yourself when you
get home. This could be some kind of aerobic activity or reading
a book or favorite magazine.
-
Put the thoughts from your day out of your mind and
get a good night’s sleep.
The Powerful Stress-Relieving Benefits
of Exercise
Exercise is also an excellent
way to relieve tension and ward off the physical consequences of
stress. Studies have shown that during exercise, tranquilizing chemicals,
endorphins, are released in the brain. Exercise is a natural way
to bring your body pleasurable relaxation and rejuvenation.
Here are some suggestions to get you started:
Using Humor to Relieve Stress of the Workday
In addition to these tips, many studies have shown that humor has
increased work productivity. It has been cited as the best antidote
to stress. A good hearty laugh has been proven to increase the immune
system’s activity, lower stress hormones and increase the antibody
immunoglobulin A, which protects the upper-respiratory tract. Other
benefits of humor that make your work environment a more pleasant
place to be includes that it shows you are easy to work with, it
makes people like you and want to be around you, it enhances your
creativity and can change a negative perception into a positive
one.
Since stress in the office has become such a prominent issue in
our society, people have resorted to seeking a variety of products
from the practical to the bizarre to help alleviate their stress
at the office.
These products range from:
- Punching bags
- Desk pillows
- Stress relief aromatherapy kits for the office
- Having a dog at the office
- Essential oils in vaporizers
- Stress reduction office massages
- Magic eight balls
- Stress balls
- Stress check indicator cards
With stress-related complaints accounting for 75 percent to 90
percent of all physician office visits and all of the medical ailments
related to it, choosing not to deal with stress is not an option.
Sleep, exercise
and following a nutritious eating program
are the foundation of relieving stress and maintaining your optimal
health both in and out of the office.
For people constantly "on the go" and contending with
overwhelming schedules daily, I recommend you consider the book,
Getting Things Done:
The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. In this book you will find
practical and realistic approaches to improving your personal productivity.
It is also available on audiocassette, which is great because you
could listen to it while in traffic and discover ways to effectively
manage your time and prioritize your goals.
Related Articles:
Stress Often Leads to
Overeating and Extra Weight
Five Simple Strategies
to Reduce Stress and Eliminate Exhaustion
Stress Treatments
Helps Control Type 2 Diabetes
More Evidence That
Stress is Major Factor for Infections
Stress Management
May Help Heart Disease Patients
Beware of Colds If You Are Under
Stress
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