Stress is a part of life in and out of the workplace. Some of the best ways to manage stress and anxiety are associated with the trappings of an overall healthy lifestyle: exercise, get a good night’s sleep, eat real food, stay organized. But what do you do about stress that’s happening in the moment? When you’re trying to meet a tight deadline, but a chatty co-worker won’t leave your office? When the 3:00 meeting gets moved up to 1:00? When news of a natural disaster appears in your news feed? And did someone just put an old shoe in the office microwave?
Some of the following strategies may be new to you. Others may be familiar but forgotten. Either way, by making these strategies part of your routine, you can diffuse anxiety even when your next yoga class is hours away.
Pay Attention to Your Body
There’s a reason exercise should be part of a long-term plan for dealing with daily stress. Physical activity has a proven benefit for mental well-being. Whether you have an exercise regimen in place or not, awareness of your physical state in the moment can have profound effects on your state of mind. Because stress is a physical response, activating our fight-or-flight instincts, it tends to throw off breathing patterns and raise blood pressure and heart rate.
One of the best and easiest ways to cope with stress during the workday is to pay attention to your breathing when stressful events take place. Deep breathing exercises are easy to perform anywhere and can bring those physical responses back into normal range. Give yourself room to breathe by maintaining good posture or giving yourself time and space to stretch at different times during your working day.
You can also quietly regulate your heart rate and blood pressure by activating pressure points in your hands, such as pressing the base of your middle finger with your thumb or squeezing your individual fingers with the opposite hand.
Pay Attention to Your Time
Build reasonable breaks into your day, and use them with an eye toward replenishing your energy levels and focus. Research indicates a two or three-minute break every hour or a slightly longer break after 90 minutes or two hours can enhance your productivity, so don’t think of breaks as wasted time. Instead these are chances to recharge your personal batteries and make sure you’re getting the most out of your time on tasks. Use this time to take a short walk, to stretch, or enjoy a few moments of quiet.
Setting achievable goals for each workday also helps you get the most from your time. Smaller, manageable tasks that add up for large projects provide a sense of accomplishment for continued motivation. Everything doesn’t have to be done right now. Also give yourself permission to delegate where you can.
Interruptions are inevitable in the most organized day, but you can control when and how they happen. If you have a door, close it when you need to focus. Set specific times of day to address emails and voice messages instead of having your inbox and media feeds running constantly in the background.
Pay Attention to Your Mindset
Stress is a physical state, but it’s also a point of view. It’s possible to think of the heightened physical state as a powerful motivator and energy source for productivity. Research has shown people who think of stress as an asset often cope better with stress and use it to their advantage.
You may also feel stress as a byproduct of insecurity or uncertainty. Engaging in positive self-talk can also boost your sense of well-being and allow you to face setbacks with a cool head and calm manner. It helps to look at situations objectively and rationally rather than focusing on events’ effects on you personally. A changed meeting time isn’t a personal affront. Chatty co-workers might be seeking outlets for their own stress. The person who put stinky food in the microwave is just trying to have lunch. Keep the big picture in mind, then step outside and breathe some fresh air.