Our individual journey to workplace wellbeing through managing stress and anxiety in 2021
We are living through an unprecedented and uncertain time, which asks each of us to navigate our way, as best we can, through this ongoing and ever changing global health crisis of Covid19. We know that with things changing so quickly, the resulting uncertainty and unpredictability takes a toll on our mental and physical health with many of us now experiencing higher than ever levels of workplace stress and anxiety.
Managing our emotions and supporting each other in the professional space of our work environment can be challenging at the best of times. This is why, more than ever now, we each need to find a specific way that works for us to regularly step back, take a pause, and regulate ourselves as we support others. I know that this isn’t easy, particularly in a time when we are busy, stressed and coping with significant challenge and change, and I want to support you with this.
2021 A New Year like no other, a time when managing stress and anxiety takes on a new urgency
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide and brought an unprecedented challenge to all of our major systems from public health, travel, food security and the world of work. The economic and social disruption caused by this pandemic has been devastating: tens of millions of people are at risk of falling into extreme poverty, millions of enterprises face an existential threat and nearly half of the world’s 3.3 billion global workforce are at risk of losing their livelihoods. At the time of writing 72.3 million worldwide have contracted the virus, with 47.3 million recovered and.1.61 million deaths. Where ever you are in the world reading this today you will be living with your own experience of this global story, its impact on you, your family, community and your workplace.
This has impacted on each of us with higher than ever levels of stress and anxiety impacting even those of us not usually aware of or bothered by our stress levels.
Reasons for our increased levels of workplace Stress and Anxiety
For many of us continuing to work we were hit these past months with the double whammy of gratitude that we can work and the impact a huge range new stressors from the significant changes in how we do our work. Most of us have rolled with the punches, done what is necessary, adapted to new practises, managing to keep up our focus and productivity
These early weeks of the new year are the natural time for us to take the foot off the pedal in our professional workspace, to review and reflect on the past year and to make plans to support our ongoing wellbeing and flourishing during the year ahead.
I am writing this blog especially for you if you have been working through the pandemic, adapting and changing your practises as required. This fast paced change in this time of global crises is heavy work. I am inviting you now to press the pause button, take a moment and to reflect on some actions you might take to support your own wellbeing as we begin a new working year.
Understanding how the COVID-19 pandemic related stress might affect our mental health.
The COVID-19 pandemic is to say the least a challenging event. While some of us find it more worrying than others it has affected all our lives in some ways. At various times over this past year you might have experienced some of the following:
- increased anxiety
- feeling stressed
- finding yourself excessively checking for symptoms, in yourself, or others
- becoming irritable more easily
- feeling insecure or unsettled
- fearing that normal aches and pains might be the virus
- having trouble sleeping
- feeling helpless or a lack of control
- having irrational thoughts
- feeling exhausted or burned out
The first thing to know is that there is absolutely nothing wrong here. Every one of these experiences is a normal response to such an event as Covid19. It is likely that for each of us our experiences within the COVID-19 pandemic will include a variety of unique stressors associated with life and work. From losing our job or being furloughed, and potentially losing a sense of identity, to significant work changes maybe including working remotely, and perhaps deciding whether to stay in a role that poses potential risk of exposure to the coronavirus, each of us is grappling with huge levels of uncertainty and with this comes much increased stress and anxiety.
Developing Coping Skills to Manage Stress and Anxiety
The need to develop new coping skills to manage the myriad stressors associated with COVID-19 is more important now than ever. While work related stress is usually focussed on managing working relationships, concerns about job security, and anxieties about job performance, now in the early part of 2021 the major source of work-related stress is how to navigate all these issues in the context of a pandemic. With physical isolation mandates in place, every business that provides a service has been impacted. Temporary closures and huge changes to work practises has led to new experiences of stress often showing up as boredom, loss of regular routine, unclear expectations, inertia, depression, and anxiety. We know that mental health concerns and continued stressors compound each other over time, setting in motion a vicious spiral. An extra level of challenge is coping with this stress and anxiety at a time when we are experiencing these new levels of stress along with the weakening of traditional organisational structure and routine.
So how can we manage our stress and anxiety and support our workplace wellbeing in these challenging times?
What does coping with work-related stress change in a time of pandemic and new workplace challenges look like As it turns out not much different than any stress event! Managing stress of any kind requires an awareness of the stress response and an understanding of how the human body works to maintain equilibrium during times of significant change and challenge.
Once we have a good this understanding of how our body responds in times of challenge, we can learn to interrupt the automatic stress response and better engage the part of the brain responsible for the relaxation response. Once we have an understanding of the natural physiological stress response and its effects, we can intentionally engage the same physiological system to relieve unhealthy stress and promote relaxation, peace and yes even happiness at work no matter what the external circumstances.
Stress is actually a good thing
We tend to think of stress as a negative. A certain amount of stress however is absolutely for our health and wellbeing. Stress gets us up out of bed, to an appointment on time, and it helps us to find the energy necessary to cope in moments of enormous challenge. Basically a stressor is anything in our experience or perception that requires the body to adapt and respond.
A stressor can be anything from a lack of sleep to money worries, or overwhelm with too much on our to do list, to questioning of meaning can all initiate the stress adaptation response, which you might have heard of as the “fight or-flight- or freeze” response. Our normal response to stress is simply our ’old brain’ response, doing what it can to keep us safe. In this ‘old brain’ response when we perceive a threat or challenge this basic stress response kicks in. Hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, which serve as chemical messengers and instruct the body to prepare for fleeing or fighting flood the body.
Normal functions like digestion, reproduction, higher-level cognitive functioning, and immune functioning that are not essential for survival are suppressed and that is when we experience many of the uncomfortable and often distressing physiological symptoms of stress. Our brain function also diminishes as we are less able to focus, think clearly as our attention is fixated on the perceived or actual threat.
Although this this old brain response to stress is automatic it is at times very unhelpful when there is not any clear action we can take to deal with the threat.Covid19 is a clear example of this. When we stay stuck on this automatic stress response we experience the effects of chronic stress in the body. We can then experience ourselves moving into anxiety which is simply our body’s way of signalling that we are experiencing too much stress at once.
The good news and the message of this blog is that with just a little effort each of us can learn and practice strategies to break the unconscious stress cycle, reverse the hormonal messages, and so engage instead the relaxation response. How powerful a skill is that, and what better time to flex this muscle than these early days, weeks and months of 2021?
Understanding The Stress Response as the first step in managing stress and anxiety
So we know now that the ‘old brain’ or sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for the “fight or flight” response during any potential danger. The parasympathetic nervous system or the ‘newer brain’ response on the other hand inhibits the body from overworking in times of stress and actually restores the body to a calm and composed state.
Mindful Actions as a route to strengthening the calming response to stress and anxiety
Mindful actions are one way to notice when we are stuck on fight/flight or freeze mode and to begin to learn how to engage and strengthen the parasympathetic response. The following three mindful actions are simple and effective ways you can immediately help yourself to better manage the increased levels of workplace stress and anxiety and begin to find more balance and calm as we begin a new year in this disruptive time of Covid19.
Three Mindful Actions to cope with workplace stress and anxiety
In this blog, I am focusing on mindful actions rather than mindful practises and specifically these three different practical actions that you can immediately implement to strengthen your own workplace wellbeing.
Each of these mindful actions is rooted in an evidence-based approach to offering you practical tools and techniques to help you to:
- manage uncertainty,
- recognise and respond wisely tostress
- reduce anxiety and
- stay connected, grounded and calm on even on the most challenging of days. By practising mindfulness you will become more skilful in cultivating greater and more objective awareness of your own inner landscape, the emotions of others, and the ever changing external circumstances you want to navigate with more grace and ease.
By taking these mindful actions we give ourselves more choice in how we respond to the various challenges we may face and we become more skilful in the ability to more consciously choose where we place our attention.
Mindful Action One:
Acknowledging challenges that have come with significant change
It is ok not to be ok,
Allow yourself to notice what is here, now for you,
Listen to your inner voice ( tired, stressed, overwhelmed, happy) and respond to yourself as you would respond to a very close friend in the same situation.
Mindful Action Two:
Redefining our boundaries in work
Establish physical space – conducive and supportive- and leave work here,
Establish digital boundaries,
Establish time boundaries ( including breaks, chats, one thing at a time, time for white space).
Mindful Action Three:
Acknowledge your own suffering – self soothe
Self Care in support of leadership in a time of disruption,
Know what supports your self care and commit to this,
Be kind to you,
Stay connected to others – not an interruption but key to the ongoing well being and resilience for both you and those you support.
Apart from the five mindful action steps above you can also manage stress and support your wellbeing by deliberately slowing down. Counter intuitive I know but maybe adapting the ten zen things below over the next few weeks will be your route to finding your own inner calm. To begin with you might even read through the ten zen things slowly and deliberately.
A Take Away Gift for further reflection as you learn to better manage workplace stress and anxiety
Ten Zen Things
This rule is simple to follow and is about focus.
1. Do one thing at a time
When you’re doing something, focus completely on this. As the Zen proverb says, “When walking, walk. When eating, eat.”
2. Do things slowly and deliberately.
Don’t rush. Keep things simple. Take your time and make your actions deliberate, not rushed and random.
3. Don’t move on to the next task until you’re finished.
Once you’ve completed the task you’re focusing on, then you can move on to the next task.
Too many times we get close to finishing but then leave things at the last minute. This creates a problem for us down the line.
Instead, keep focused and finish the task off so that you can move on to the next task.
4. Do less
This isn’t about being lazy. It’s about being selective with the tasks you choose to focus on.
It’s important to do things that are productive and help advance an overall strategy or mission.
Be mindful about what you’re working on so that everything adds value in some way.
5. Put space between things
Don’t schedule things so close together. Then you won’t have time to unwind and reflect on what you’re doing and why.
Having a more relaxed schedule helps you to manage yourself and create some space for when tasks take longer than expected.
6. Develop rituals
Rituals help to provide a sense of importance on things you’re working on. If it’s important enough to have a ritual, then it’s important enough for your focus.
7. Designate time for certain things
This is simple but deceptively important.
By creating a specific time for certain tasks, you ensure they get done on a regular basis. This helps you to create momentum in your life and gives you time to work on other important tasks.
For example, have a time for bathing, a time for work, a time for cleaning and a time for eating. It will help you develop a routine and you’ll be much more productive.
8. Devote time to sitting
In the life of a Zen monk, sitting meditation is one of the most important parts of the day.
The meditation practice is really just about being present. You can do this at any time, just sitting down and observing what’s happening around you, and how you feel in your body without thinking too much about it.
9. Smile and serve others
Zen monks spend part of their day in service to others, whether that be other monks in the monastery or people in the outside world.
It teaches them humility, and ensures their lives are devoted to others.
You can do this in your life as well, by focusing on helping others in your community, doing charity work or just generally being kind to people around you.
10. Make cleaning and cooking like meditation
Cooking and cleaning are two of the most important parts of a Zen monk’s day.
They are both great ways to practice mindfulness and can be excellent rituals to perform at set times.
Put your entire focus into these tasks, concentrate and do them slowly and completely. It may change your entire day, and create much better conditions for your life.
Wherever you are in the world I wish you and your loved ones a safe, peaceful and happy Christmas. I leave you with a quote from a favourite teacher –
“ Moment by moment we can find our way though ” Sharon Salzberg
Some of our other Posts
Mindfulness Exercises For The Beginner
Start to learn mindfulness with a course to suit you
Reasons for our increased levels of workplace Stress and Anxiety
For many of us continuing to work we were hit these past months with the double whammy of gratitude that we can work and the impact a huge range new stressors from the significant changes in how we do our work. Most of us have rolled with the punches, done what is necessary, adapted to new practises, managing to keep up our focus and productivity
These early weeks of the new year are the natural time for us to take the foot off the pedal in our professional workspace, to review and reflect on the past year and to make plans to support our ongoing wellbeing and flourishing during the year ahead.
I am writing this blog especially for you if you have been working through the pandemic, adapting and changing your practises as required. This fast paced change in this time of global crises is heavy work. I am inviting you now to press the pause button, take a moment and to reflect on some actions you might take to support your own wellbeing as we begin a new working year.
Understanding how the COVID-19 pandemic related stress might affect our mental health.
The COVID-19 pandemic is to say the least a challenging event. While some of us find it more worrying than others it has affected all our lives in some ways. At various times over this past year you might have experienced some of the following:
• increased anxiety
• feeling stressed
• finding yourself excessively checking for symptoms, in yourself, or others
• becoming irritable more easily
• feeling insecure or unsettled
• fearing that normal aches and pains might be the virus
• having trouble sleeping
• feeling helpless or a lack of control
• having irrational thoughts
• feeling exhausted or burned out
The first thing to know is that there is absolutely nothing wrong here. Every one of these experiences is a normal response to such an event as Covid19. It is likely that for each of us our experiences within the COVID-19 pandemic will include a variety of unique stressors associated with life and work. From losing our job or being furloughed, and potentially losing a sense of identity, to significant work changes maybe including working remotely, and perhaps deciding whether to stay in a role that poses potential risk of exposure to the coronavirus, each of us is grappling with huge levels of uncertainty and with this comes much increased stress and anxiety.
Developing Coping Skills to Manage Stress and Anxiety
The need to develop new coping skills to manage the myriad stressors associated with COVID-19 is more important now than ever. While work related stress is usually focussed on managing working relationships, concerns about job security, and anxieties about job performance, now in the early part of 2021 the major source of work-related stress is how to navigate all these issues in the context of a pandemic. With physical isolation mandates in place, every business that provides a service has been impacted. Temporary closures and huge changes to work practises has led to new experiences of stress often showing up as boredom, loss of regular routine, unclear expectations, inertia, depression, and anxiety. We know that mental health concerns and continued stressors compound each other over time, setting in motion a vicious spiral. An extra level of challenge is coping with this stress and anxiety at a time when we are experiencing these new levels of stress along with the weakening of traditional organisational structure and routine.
So how manage our stress and anxiety and support our workplace wellbeing in these challenging times?
So, how does coping with work-related stress change in a time of pandemic and new workplace challenges? As it turns out not much! Managing stress of any kind requires an awareness of the stress response and an understanding of how the human body works to maintain equilibrium during times of significant change and challenge.
Once we have a good this understanding of how our body responds in times of challenge, we can learn to interrupt the automatic stress response and better engage the part of the brain responsible for the relaxation response. Once we have an understanding of the natural physiological stress response and its effects, we can intentionally engage the same physiological system to relieve unhealthy stress and promote relaxation, peace and yes even happiness at work no matter what the external circumstances.
Stress is actually a good thing
We tend to think of stress as a negative. A certain amount of stress however is absolutely for our health and wellbeing. Stress gets us up out of bed, to an appointment on time, and it helps us to find the energy necessary to cope in moments of enormous challenge. Basically a stressor is anything in our experience or perception that requires the body to adapt and respond. A stressor can be anything from a lack of sleep to money worries, or overwhelm with too much on our to do list, to questioning of meaning can all initiate the stress adaptation response, which you might have heard of as the “fightr-flight- or freeze” response. Our normal response to stress is simply our ’old brain’ response, doing what it can to keep us safe. In this ‘old brain’ response when we perceive a threat or challenge this basic stress response kicks in. Hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, which serve as chemical messengers and instruct the body to prepare for fleeing or fighting flood the body. Normal functions like digestion, reproduction, higher-level cognitive functioning, and immune functioning that are not essential for survival are suppressed and that is when we experience many of the uncomfortable and often distressing physiological symptoms of stress. Our brain function also diminishes as we are less able to focus, think clearly as our attention is fixated on the perceived or actual threat.
Although this this old brain response to stress is automatic it is at times very unhelpful when there is not any clear action we can take to deal with the threat.Covid19 is a clear example of this. When we stay stuck on this automatic stress response we experience the effects of chronic stress in the body. We can then experience ourselves moving into anxiety which is simply our body’s way of signalling that we are experiencing too much stress at once.
The good news and the message of this blog is that with just a little effort each of us can learn and practice strategies to break the unconscious stress cycle, reverse the hormonal messages, and so engage instead the relaxation response. How powerful a skill is that, and what better time to flex this muscle than these early days, weeks and months of 2021?
Understanding The Stress Response as the first step in managing stress and anxiety
So we know now that the ‘old brain’ or sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for the “fight or flight” response during any potential danger. The parasympathetic nervous system or the ‘newer brain’ response on the other hand inhibits the body from overworking in times of stress and actually restores the body to a calm and composed state.
Mindful Actions as a route to strengthening the calming response to stress and anxiety
Mindful actions are one way to notice when we are stuck on fight/flight or freeze mode and to begin to learn how to engage and strengthen the parasympathetic response. The following three mindful actions are simple and effective ways you can immediately help yourself to better manage the increased levels of workplace stress and anxiety and begin to find more balance and calm as we begin a new year in this disruptive time of Covid19.
Three Mindful Actions to cope with workplace stress and anxiety
In this blog, I am focusing on mindful actions rather than mindful practises and specifically these three different practical actions that you can immediately implement to strengthen your own workplace wellbeing.
Each of these mindful actions is rooted in an evidence-based approach to offering you practical tools and techniques to help you to:
• manage uncertainty,
• recognise and respond wisely tostress
• reduce anxiety and
• stay connected, grounded and calm on even on the most challenging of days. By practising mindfulness you will become more skilful in cultivating greater and more objective awareness of your own inner landscape, the emotions of others, and the ever changing external circumstances you want to navigate with more grace and ease.
By taking these mindful actions we give ourselves more choice in how we respond to the various challenges we may face and we become more skilful in the ability to more consciously choose where we place our attention.
Mindful Action One:
Acknowledging challenges that have come with significant change
It is ok not to be ok,
Allow yourself to notice what is here, now for you,
Listen to your inner voice ( tired, stressed, overwhelmed, happy) and respond to yourself as you would respond to a very close friend in the same situation.
Mindful Action Two:
Redefining our boundaries in work
Establish physical space – conducive and supportive- and leave work here,
Establish digital boundaries,
Establish time boundaries ( including breaks, chats, one thing at a time, time for white space).
Mindful Action Three:
Acknowledge your own suffering – self soothe
Self Care in support of leadership in a time of disruption,
Know what supports your self care and commit to this,
Be kind to you,
Stay connected to others – not an interruption but key to the ongoing well being and resilience for both you and those you support.
Apart from the five mindful action steps above you can also manage stress and support your wellbeing by deliberately slowing down. Counter intuitive I know but maybe adapting the ten zen things below over the next few weeks will be your route to finding your own inner calm. To begin with you might even read through the ten zen things slowly and deliberately.
A Take Away Gift for further reflection as you learn to better manage workoplace stress and anxiety
Ten Zen Things
1. Do one thing at a time
This rule is simple to follow and is about focus.
When you’re doing something, focus completely on this. As the Zen proverb says, “When walking, walk. When eating, eat.”
2. Do things slowly and deliberately.
Don’t rush. Keep things simple. Take your time and make your actions deliberate, not rushed and random.
3. Don’t move on to the next task until you’re finished.
Once you’ve completed the task you’re focusing on, then you can move on to the next task.
Too many times we get close to finishing but then leave things at the last minute. This creates a problem for us down the line.
Instead, keep focused and finish the task off so that you can move on to the next task.
4. Do less
This isn’t about being lazy. It’s about being selective with the tasks you choose to focus on.
It’s important to do things that are productive and help advance an overall strategy or mission.
Be mindful about what you’re working on so that everything adds value in some way.
5. Put space between things
Don’t schedule things so close together. Then you won’t have time to unwind and reflect on what you’re doing and why.
Having a more relaxed schedule helps you to manage yourself and create some space for when tasks take longer than expected.
6. Develop rituals
Rituals help to provide a sense of importance on things you’re working on. If it’s important enough to have a ritual, then it’s important enough for your focus.
7. Designate time for certain things
This is simple but deceptively important.
By creating a specific time for certain tasks, you ensure they get done on a regular basis. This helps you to create momentum in your life and gives you time to work on other important tasks.
For example, have a time for bathing, a time for work, a time for cleaning and a time for eating. It will help you develop a routine and you’ll be much more productive.
8. Devote time to sitting
In the life of a Zen monk, sitting meditation is one of the most important parts of the day.
The meditation practice is really just about being present. You can do this at any time, just sitting down and observing what’s happening around you, and how you feel in your body without thinking too much about it.
9. Smile and serve others
Zen monks spend part of their day in service to others, whether that be other monks in the monastery or people in the outside world.
It teaches them humility, and ensures their lives are devoted to others.
You can do this in your life as well, by focusing on helping others in your community, doing charity work or just generally being kind to people around you.
10. Make cleaning and cooking like meditation
Cooking and cleaning are two of the most important parts of a Zen monk’s day.
They are both great ways to practice mindfulness and can be excellent rituals to perform at set times.
Put your entire focus into these tasks, concentrate and do them slowly and completely. It may change your entire day, and create much better conditions for your life.
Wherever you are in the world I wish you and your loved ones a safe, peaceful and happy 2021. I leave you with a quote from a favourite teacher –
“ Moment by moment we can find our way though ”
