The holidays can be a very stressful time of year. With the added responsibility of buying gifts, decorating, and writing Christmas cards, that can put us into overwhelm. This holiday season, cut out the non-essentials, take time to slow down, and treat yourself to a nice hot bath!
Here are some of my favorite stress management quotes. These provide important truths to live by. Choose one quote that really resonates with you. When you find yourself getting uptight and anxious in the coming weeks, then reread your quote. You might even commit it to memory.
“There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. Your will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub.” Dr. Joyce Brothers
“If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.” Henry David Thoreau
“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is a nobler art of leaving things undone… The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.” Julie-Jeanne-Eleonore de Lespinasse
“Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency.” Lin Yutang
“There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them.” Ruth Stout
“For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.” Lily Tomlin
“One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.” Bertrand Russell
“There is more to life than increasing its speed.” Mohandos K. Gandhi
You just get off the phone with an irate customer who yells at you for not receiving her order in time for a major event. You’re feeling very tense and stressed out right now. What do you do? One of the quickest and easiest ways to counter stress is available to you at any time –- which is breathing.
When we become stressed, we tend to breathe shallowly from the chest. The antidote to this is deep breathing from the belly. Studies show that as little as one full breath starts to turn tension into relaxation. With just a half a dozen deep breaths your body can be in a state of relaxation.
Try it out for yourself.
Make yourself comfortable in your chair, and plant your feet firmly on the ground. Take several long, slow, deep breaths, breathing in fully and exhaling slowly. Close your eyes, and allow your breath to find its own natural rhythm. Become aware of your stomach, as it expands on the in-breath and relaxes and contracts on the out-breath.
Count to five on the in-breath and say “relax” to yourself as you slowly exhale. If you’re distracted and your minds wanders from counting, then simply notice the distraction like clouds floating by, and return to focus on your breathing.
Next, bring your attention to the area of your body where you experience tension or tightness, and imagine that area releasing and relaxing each time you exhale. Continue focusing on your breathing and releasing tension until you feel very relaxed.
Then, when you’re ready, open your eyes, and return fully alert to the present moment.
Use this relaxation technique whenever you’re feeling especially tense – at the office, in your car, or at home. You’ll find that in a matter of minutes you can let go of tension (and forget about that irate customer!).
Do you have more to do on the job than you can possibly get done? Is your heavy workload causing you to feel stressed, overwhelmed and exhausted? If you don’t address the issue, then your long work hours can lead to burnout. Burnout can be detrimental to your job and your physical and emotional health.
If you find that your workload has increased beyond your capacity, then it’s time to meet with your boss to address the issue. Here are key points to cover in your meeting.
- Assure your Boss of your Commitment to Work – Explain to your boss that your work is important. You’re feeling overloaded with work, and you want to continue to be productive and perform at a high level rather than burn out.
- Clarify Job Expectations and Priorities – The first step is to make sure you’re clear on your job expectations and priorities. Make a list of your most important work projects. Review this list with your manager, and together prioritize your work priorities. You’ll need to focus most of your time and attention on these priorities.
- Cut out any Non-Value-Added Activities – Review your job description. Make a note of any tasks you perform that are not part of your job description. Your boss may not even be aware of the extra duties you’ve been saddled with. Then determine if there are any tasks that can be eliminated. Maybe you’re expected to write a weekly report, but you know that no one ever reads the report. If it’s not adding value, then get rid of it.
If, after implementing these changes, you find that your workload still requires countless hours a week to complete, then schedule another meeting with your manager to explore other options, such as hiring an assistant or intern, or balancing the workload by assigning it to someone else.
By addressing your heavy workload, you’ll be able to meet your work commitments and deadlines without burning out!
After a particularly stressful day at the office, do you find yourself feeling tense and uptight? Many of us carry that tension in our muscles, particularly in our neck and shoulders. At times like these, it can be difficult to unwind and relax. That’s when we fantasize about having a full body massage from a professional masseuse! But who has the time and money for that? Here’s a great way to help you relax and release the tension in your muscles. You can do this on your own and it only takes five to ten minutes.
This muscle relaxation technique involves systematically going through the body and tensing and then relaxing each muscle group. You can do this either sitting comfortably in a chair or lying down in a comfortable position (without crossing the legs). Tense each muscle group for about five seconds. Close your eyes and breathe deeply throughout this exercise. As you exhale, let go of the tension and release it completely. Experience the muscle as totally relaxed and lead heavy. Begin with the top of the head and progress downward to focus on all the muscles in the body. Be sure to include the forehead, ears, eyes, mouth, neck, shoulders, arms and hands, chest, belly, thighs, calves and feet. If you have limited time, you can do this exercise for just certain muscle groups. Be sure to focus on those muscle groups in which you feel the most tension. After relaxing your muscles, continue to breathe deeply and notice any remaining tension in the body. Let it soften and wash away as though a wave were washing over you. Then enjoy the resulting sense of peace and relaxation!
Stress and change are a given in today’s workplace. In fact, employees are experiencing on-going change. They’re asked to take on new responsibilities, learn new skills, and do more with less. Many workers today have bigger workloads requiring more and more hours.
Highly resilient workers have stress-resistant personalities. They are able to manage the day-to-day stressors, and also cope well with high levels of on-going, disruptive change.
How stress-hardy are you? Here are five attitudes of resilient people. Review these characteristics to see how stress-hardy you are.
A strong sense of purpose. Resilient people have a strong sense of purpose and meaning for why they are doing what they’re doing. They are guided by a vision that gives meaning to their work and lives.
A healthy sense of control. The emphasis is on “personal control”. Stress-hardy people focus their energy on those events that they have influence over, rather than situations beyond their control. They accept circumstances that cannot be changed. Entrepreneur, Tim Baumgartner, an independent sales rep who sold electronics to Circuit City, was blind-sided when the company filed for bankruptcy. Within months, however, he launched an online consumer electronics store. “Whining and complaining about how you find yourself here doesn’t help,” Baumgartner says. “I’ve refocused my energy on the start-up.”
See change as a challenge or opportunity. Resilient people tend to see change as a challenge to confront and overcome, rather than an unbearable problem or a stress to avoid. They also see change as an opportunity for self-reflection, learning and growth.
Optimistic. Maintain a hopeful outlook, expecting good things to happen. People with an optimistic outlook do better at managing stress and chaos. When you catch yourself thinking negatively, challenge yourself to reframe the situation more positively.
Have a good sense of humor. Research shows that humor can lessen the impact of stress. Stress-hardy people are playful and curious. They find the humor in rough situations, and can laugh at themselves.
By developing these attitudes you can become more stress-hardy, which will not only help you survive, but thrive, in today’s workplace.
To learn more about managing stress, listen to Managing Workplace Stress CD.