3 Stress Management Tips for the Workplace
FRAMING
Raise your hand if you keep thinking to yourself (or out loud), “If I just get past XYZ I am sure that my life will be a lot less stressful,” or, “We MUST be getting close to the end of this seemingly endless state of global burnout. Right?!?!?”
<Looks into the world and every single hand is raised>
Without poo-pooing the hope for a worldwide recalibration, let’s be real, we just can’t wait for sweeping help from the outside. We need to deal with our stress right now before we careen into the abyss of burnout. Chronic stress is at epidemic levels. Full stop. There is no spa day or three-day weekend that is the magic bullet to equilibrium.
So many of us are grinning and bearing it, pushing forward valiantly, but the truth is that collectively our mental and physical health is suffering, our relationships are strained, and our creativity is stifled. So what can we do?
STRESS vs. STRESSORS
Before we move into the actual tactics of Stress Management, let’s do a little framing. Is there a magic bullet? A simple solution? No. Do we think that reading this article will magically change your life? Likely not. But are there things that you can do to take care of yourself on the day-to-day? Abso-freaking-lutely.
First things first. Let’s differentiate between Stress and Stressors. If you want to learn more about this topic, we HIGHLY recommend Emily & Amelia Nagoski’s book Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle.
Stressors = The shit that happens in your life that is….stressful. Juggling kid sports schedules, dinner, and work deadlines. The co-worker that you just can’t seem to get along with. The client that is kind of an asshole and has insanely unrealistic expectations, but is really important from a revenue perspective. Your relationship with your mother (insert any other family member that is consistently a little hard to deal with).
Stress = The actual physiological reaction that is happening in your body. The big cortisol dump into your bloodstream that makes your heart race and your face hot. The tension in your neck that you cannot ever seem to fully resolve. The inflammation of your digestive system that often makes it so that you cannot properly enjoy a plate of nachos.
Why “Stress Management” Often Doesn’t Work
So you have been working to managing your stress! You are reading the articles on LinkedIn, you have color coded your calendar, you are striving for better communication skills! Really you have! But you still feel like crap. We believe you. You are making a valiant attempt to take control of your life and emotional/mental health. We are here to tell you that all of the things you are doing are wonderful necessary steps to improve the quality of your life, but you need to start at the bottom. Your own physiological regulation.
Most of the time when people thing about ways to make their lives less stressful, they think of ways to address the STRESSORS. They try to navigate and solve the conflict and overwhelm that is happening in their environment. The tactics that we are going to outline below will not help you with that.
Your boss will still be irritating and your 14-year-old will still talk to you like you are the dumbest person on the planet. BUT, if you are consistently managing the physical stress in your body, you will be in a much better position to deal with the things around you, and you will have an easier time accessing the creative problem-solving part of your brain (which is literally turned off when you are in the throws of a stress response) to work towards more permanent and sustainable environmental and lifestyle solutions.
SIMPLE, BUT NOT EASY
The suggestions below are not complicated. They are not time-consuming. They are as accessible and simple as we could muster. The magic is in consistent practice. At Failure Lab one of our ongoing mantras is, “Simple, but not easy.” So many of the practices that have the potential to vastly improve our quality of life are not complicated. It is the regular, consistent, and deliberate injection of them into your day-to-day life that is the biggest hurdle. But if you have read this far, we believe in you! We are here to be your hype-team and support! So here we go.
“The magic is in consistent practice.”
ONE: MOVEMENT
Movement is the number one way to move stress through your body. If you want to manage the physiological manifestations of stress in the body….you need to speak the language of the body, and that language is movement.
Now, settle down. We are not necessarily talking about a five-mile run or a step aerobic class (although those are great practices of self-care too). Movement as simple as regularly releasing neck tension with 30 seconds of neck rolling standing up from your desk to stretch your arms over your head and touch your toes a couple of times. That simple. That fast.
“ If you want to manage the physiological manifestations of stress in the body….you need to speak the language of the body, and that language is movement. ”
Other mini-movement practices that are great:
Shaking out your hands. Like right now - take your hands off your keyboard and vigorously shake them for 15 seconds.
Clenching and releasing. Deliberately holding tension in your muscles by clenching your hands, squeezing your but, or pulling in your abs…HARD….and then releasing the tension deliberately and with a big exhale.
Jumping jacks. No, we are not joking. If your office door closes, you work from home, or you just don’t give a shit. Stand up from your desk and do 5 jumping jacks in between Zooms to reset your body and mind. Really. For really real. It works.
TWO: CONTROLLED BREATHING
It may sound a little woo-woo to you, but controlled breathing is one of the most accessible ways to calm your stress response systems. Controlled breathing speaks directly to your brainstem and nervous system and slooooowwwws it down.
The benefits of mindfulness and meditation are EVERYWHERE right now, but for such a huge number of people, these types of practices seem totally inaccessible, kinda strange, and pretty much impossible. We are here to tell you that you do not need to sit on a mountain top for a week or even on your bed for half an hour to reap the benefits of mindfulness and meditation. At its core, mindfulness and meditation is simply noticing. Paying attention. Slow, controlled breathing IS meditation.
Where to start.
Step 1: Just notice your breathing for 3-5 breath cycles. Don’t control it, don’t force it, just notice it.
Step 2: Slow it down. Inhale deeply. Exhale slowly. Notice.
Step 3: Slightly elongate your exhale. What does this look like? If you inhale for a count of 5, exhale for a count of 7. Work your way up to inhaling for a count of 8 and exhaling for a count of 10-12. Don’t force it. Don’t hyperventilate. Just give it a try.
The act of extending your exhale is the easiest (and most portable - you carry your ability to breathe with you wherever you go) way to activate the calming centers of your nervous system. This type of breathing is taught in meditation, athletics, and the military. It is starting to be taught in kindergarten classrooms, but for most of us that are currently trying to navigate the real world as a grown-ass-adult right now…..we didn’t get that training in kindergarten. So here you go. Give it a try.
THREE: SHARED LAUGHTER
Tactic three represents the tip of the iceberg for what we like to call community co-regulation. That is fancy-speak for “the ways that our bodies, minds, and emotions are impacted by group dynamics and shared experience.” There are lots and lots of these types of tactics. This is just one.
Everyone knows that laughter is contagious. But did you know that there is an evolutionary imperative behind the phenomenon of infectious laughter?
One, laughter is a very effective way for your body to complete a stress cycle. Have you ever been in an extremely tense situation and been overcome by an inexplicable urge to laugh? Laughter can reset and change the chemical composition within it. Laughter decreases stress hormones like cortisol and increases happiness and bonding hormones like dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin.
Two, shared laughter binds people together on a biological level, within existing communities AND between strangers. The experience of shared laughter (imagine group laughter in a movie theater, dinner party, or a fit of contagious giggles that spreads through a group of exhausted travelers) not only regulates individual chemicals, the shared nature of it creates a magic synchronous “togetherness” that melts away group tension, encourages bonding, and evens the hierarchical playing field, allowing humans to relate to one another simply as humans. Similar group regulation experiences include things like: dancing at a concert, singing in a choir or more informal group, drumming or clapping synchronously with others, and group meditation.
“shared laughter binds people together on a biological level, within existing communities AND between strangers.”
How can we use this information to manage stress in the workplace (or in any group/team/community setting)?
Seek: Seek out levity. Share a funny meme or direct a casual conversation toward humor. If humor is not your personal forte, find the people in your space that are naturally funny and find time to interact with them.
Ask: Here is one that is simple, but not always obvious. If you are anxious/stressed/in need of a reset, you can ASK for levity. Yes, you can proactively get up from your desk, go up to a college, and say something to the effect of, “I am trying to break myself out of my own head around a stressful client situation, could you help me by telling me something silly or funny that happened to you recently? I could use a good laugh.” Yes. It can be done, and it really isn’t as awkward as you fear.
RESULTS
If you have read this far, you have everything that it takes. Interest. Attention. INtention. Final note - be gentle with yourself. Doing jumping jacks next to your desk between Zoom meetings one time will not change your life (it WILL change that next Zoom meeting). This work is slow, it is kinda boring, it is not a sexy one-and-done helper.
But if you are consistent, kind, and patient with yourself, someday not too far in the future, you will come out a tense conversation at work <insert irritating encounter at Costco, grumpy teenager interaction, unreasonable client> and it will suddenly dawn on you…..“Damn. I handled that really well. Everyone else was kinda losing their minds and I stayed pretty calm and rational. Two months ago I would have left that meeting feeling pretty shaken up…..and now…..lemme check…..yeah, I’m okay. I’m okay.”
XO,
Anna Baeten @ Failure Lab