Stress is a common occurrence many of us face every day, but we might not know how to deal with it. Today, especially, there are unknowns that can lead to stress. It is important to learn how to handle stress, because it can affect our performance and relationships at work and at home. And at work, stress can lead to distraction and cause an accident.
Stress usually occurs when there are changes in our lives and we feel that we don’t have enough resources to deal with those changes and demands. Stress can occur not only from negative life experiences, but also from positive ones.
Identify your stressors
The first step to managing stress is to identify your “stressors”: those things that are making you react. Stressors may be events that cause you to feel sad, frightened, anxious, or happy. You can also cause stress through your thoughts, feelings, and expectations.
A key to dealing with the big and little everyday stressors is coping with stress in a positive way.
- Acceptance: One way to manage stress is to accept when things are beyond your control. It may be helpful to think positive thoughts such as, “It’s a learning experience.”
- Attitude: Try to focus on the positive side of situations. Ask yourself, “What good can come out of this?” “What can I learn from this situation?” and “How can I handle this better when it comes up again?”
- Perspective: We often worry about things that never happen. Keep things in perspective by asking yourself “How important is this situation? Can I do anything about it? In five years, will I even remember it happened?”
Talk to your supervisor
Employee health has been linked to productivity at work, so your boss has an incentive to create a work environment that promotes employee well-being. Start by having an open conversation with your supervisor. The purpose of this isn’t to lay out a list of complaints, but rather to come up with an effective plan for managing the stressors you’ve identified, so you can perform at your best on the job.
While some parts of the plan may be designed to help you improve your skills in areas such as time management, other elements might include identifying employer-sponsored wellness resources you can tap into, clarifying what’s expected of you, getting necessary resources or support from colleagues, enriching your job to include more challenging or meaningful tasks, or making changes to your physical workspace to make it more comfortable and reduce strain.
(Condensed from an Everyday Safety Tailgate Talk from New York LTAP.)