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Find 251 Stress Management for Life: A Research-Based Experiential Approach 3rd Edition by Olpin et al at over 30 bookstores. Buy, rent or sell. Download Free Stress Management For Life 3rd Edition emphasizes experiential learning and encourages readers to personalize text information through practical applications and a 'tool box' of stress-reducing resources, including activities and online stress-relief audio files. Stress is a fact of life, wherever you are and whatever you are doing. You cannot avoid stress, but you can learn to manage it so it doesn’t manage you. Changes in our lives—such as going to college, getting married, changing jobs, or illness—are frequent sources of stress. Keep in mind that changes that cause stress can also benefit you.
- By: Nicole J. LeBlanc, MA, Contributor,
- Luana Marques, PhD, Contributor
If you’re currently working, you probably know what it feels like to be stressed on the job. A must-do project arrives without warning. Three emails stack up for each one you delete. Phones ring, meetings are scheduled, a coworker drops the ball on a shared assignment.
How does your body react to work stress?
Imagine for a moment that your boss has emailed you about an unfinished assignment (a stressor). Your body and mind instantly respond, activating a physical reaction called the fight-or-flight response. Your heart beats faster, your breath quickens, and your muscles tense. At the same time you might say to yourself, “I’m going to get fired if I don’t finish this.” Then to manage your anxiety and negative self-talk, you work late into the night to complete the task.
Over the course of our evolutionary history, humans developed this coordinated fear response to protect against dangers in our environment. For example, a faster heart rate and tense muscles would help us escape from predators. In the modern era, fear continues to serve an important function. After all, the fight-or-flight response can provide the necessary energy to pull an all-nighter and keep your job.
But what happens if you encounter stressful experiences at work every day? Over time, chronic work stress can lead to a psychological syndrome known as burnout. Warning signs of burnout are overwhelming exhaustion, cynicism, and a sense of inefficacy. Certain work-related stressors are closely linked with burnout. Examples are having too much work or too little independence, inadequate pay, lack of community between coworkers, unfairness or disrespect, and a mismatch between workplace and personal values.
How can work stress affect well-being?
Long-term exposure to work-related stressors like these can affect mental health. Research links burnout with symptoms of anxiety and depression. In some cases, this sets the stage for serious mental health problems. Indeed, one study shows younger people who routinely face heavy workloads and extreme time pressure on the job are more likely to experience major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.
High levels of stress at work –– and outside of it –– can affect physical health, too. Repeated activation of the fight-or-flight response can disrupt bodily systems and increase susceptibility to disease. For example, repeated release of the stress hormone cortisol can disturb the immune system, and raise the likelihood of developing autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. Chronic stress can also affect health by interfering with healthy behaviors, such as exercise, balanced eating, and sleep.
Work stress can also harm companies or organizations. Burnout reduces job productivity and boosts absenteeism and job turnover, and also leads to conflict between coworkers, causing stress to spread within a workplace.
How can you cope with work stress?
All of us can benefit by learning skills to manage fear and anxiety on the job. Several skills taught in cognitive behavioral therapy may help, including these:
- Relaxation strategies. Relaxation helps counter the physiological effects of the fight-or-flight response. For example, progressive muscle relaxation helps reduce muscle tension associated with anxiety. To practice this skill, sit comfortably with your eyes closed. Working from your legs upward, systematically tense and relax each major muscle groups. Hold the tension for 10 seconds; release tension for 20 seconds. Each time you release muscle tension, think “relax” to yourself. This skill and many other relaxation strategies can help reduce symptoms of anxiety.
- Problem-solving. Problem-solving is an active coping strategy that involves teaching people to take specific steps when approaching a roadblock or challenge. These steps include defining the problem, brainstorming potential solutions, ranking the solutions, developing an action plan, and testing the chosen solution.
- Mindfulness. Mindfulness is the ability to pay attention to the present moment with curiosity, openness, and acceptance. Stress can be exacerbated when we spend time ruminating about the past, worrying about the future, or engaging in self-criticism. Mindfulness helps to train the brain to break these harmful habits. You can cultivate mindfulness skills through formal practice (like guided meditation) and informal exercises (like mindful walking), or try mindfulness apps or classes. Mindfulness-based therapies are effective for reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety.
- Reappraising negative thoughts. Chronic stress and worry can lead people to develop a mental filter in which they automatically interpret situations through a negative lens. A person might jump to negative conclusions with little or no evidence (“my boss thinks I’m incompetent”) and doubt their ability to cope with stressors (“I’ll be devastated if I don’t get the promotion”). To reappraise negative thoughts, treat them as hypotheses instead of facts and consider other possibilities. Regularly practicing this skill can help people reduce negative emotions in response to stressors.
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Comments
Stress at work (or in any other context for that matter) can tax our body, mind and overall well-being in many ways. I truly believe that meditation and mindfulness can radically reduce stress and anxiety. I am passionate about this topic and I have dedicated a lot of time on the subject of meditation during commute. After all, most people who commute to and from work, spend a considerable amount of prime time on public transport. Time that can be used to improve the quality of our life, not only professionally. For me, meditating on the London Underground on my way to work (and back) has been a life changing habit.
Here is my experience:
https://howtomeditate.online/how-i-meditate-on-the-tube/
https://howtomeditate.online/a-beginners-guide-to-meditation-during-commute/
I hope this can be useful for the readers.
All the very best
Davide
This is a very useful and important article that inspires us to adopt the process of Mindfulness, meditation and Yoga in life to overcome physical and mental stress in today’s stressed society. Your heartfelt thanks for this excellent article.
Here is also a great article on how to out-perform under work pressure
Super easy 5 ways :https://www.gameplan-a.com/2019/04/5-ways-you-can-out-perform-under-work-pressure/?section=main
I have to stress that mindfulness is 100% a key and powerful tool for stress management, and I would generally do not object to the use of technological aids such as apps, however I would not put all my hopes on using apps for meditation and mindfulness.
It could surly be the “gateway” for more advanced Technics and understanding but not an alternative.
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Oh..is this to handle the stress I’m so flattered to read this article I didn’t get this type of content yet I’m so glad to read this article…
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