How To Let Go Of Work Stress

Ways To Unwind And Avoid Harm To Your Relationship

• Find a therapist to overcome stress

Transitioning to home-life after a stressful day at work can present challenges for even the best of relationships. Stresses may include long commutes, disgruntled coworkers, overbearing bosses, and just plain mental fatigue.

To make matters worse, once you get home, you may face a hungry family, homework completion to supervise, childrens sporting events or music lessons, housework, and family events. In addition, we are supposed to get in 30 minutes of exercise? Unfortunately, my Fitbit tells me that doing dishes doesnt meet my daily cardio requirement.

I fully acknowledge that the Mom or Dad working at home, caring for young children, is no less taxed than those working outside the home. These ideas are meant for anyone who feels worn out by the end of their day.

Why Take Time to Relax?

Most of us know that good relationships require cooperation, patience, and good communication skills, among other things. All of these behaviors can be challenging by the end of a long work-day. You may know which issues are better discussed when you and your spouse are rested, but do you use that level of judgement when you are completely exhausted by your work-day? Good communication skills are much more difficult to practice when you are highly stressed.

Recognize Your Stress Response

Strategies for De-Stressing

When Is Workplace Stress Too Much

Stress isnt always bad. A little bit of stress can help you stay focused, energetic, and able to meet new challenges in the workplace. Its what keeps you on your toes during a presentation or alert to prevent accidents or costly mistakes. But in todays hectic world, the workplace too often seems like an emotional roller coaster. Long hours, tight deadlines, and ever-increasing demands can leave you feeling worried, drained, and overwhelmed. And when stress exceeds your ability to cope, it stops being helpful and starts causing damage to your mind and bodyas well as to your job satisfaction.

You cant control everything in your work environment, but that doesnt mean youre powerless, even when youre stuck in a difficult situation. If stress on the job is interfering with your work performance, health, or personal life, its time to take action. No matter what you do for a living, what your ambitions are, or how stressful your job is, there are plenty of things you can do to reduce your overall stress levels and regain a sense of control at work.

Common causes of workplace stress include:

• Fear of being laid off
• More overtime due to staff cutbacks
• Pressure to perform to meet rising expectations but with no increase in job satisfaction
• Pressure to work at optimum levelsall the time!
• Lack of control over how you do your work

Discuss Responsibilities With Your Partner

If youre planning a holiday with your partner, its only fair to . Make sure you set some time aside for open communication and have this conversation as early as possible. It will help you avoid confusion and unnecessary disagreements.

Additionally, make sure youre on the same page when it comes to the Christmas dinner itself your partner might want to spend the evening at their parents house instead of yours.

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Tune Out And Take Care Of Your Life

Sometimes, the first step to mitigating work stress is reminding yourself that your frazzled feelings are entirely valid rather than expecting your body to handle impossible workloads flawlessly all the time.

Many of us act like were invincible. We run around trying to be the perfect coworkers, the perfect partners, or the perfect community pillars, stretching ourselves too thin with obligations and deadlines and trying to prove our worth.

But we arent invincible. We burn out. We get sick. We are vulnerable. And excessive work stress only makes things worse, contributing to health issues like coronary heart disease and diabetes. Jaskanwal S, et al. . Association between workrelated stress and coronary heart disease: A review of prospective studies through the job strain, effortreward balance, and organizational justice models. DOI: 10.1161/JAHA.117.008073 Sui H, et al. . Association between work-related stress and risk for type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159978

Cut yourself a little slack and remember that youre more than the work you do. And rather than slogging through extra hours at the office each night, spend your off time tuning into the other parts of life that make you feel like you.

Soak In The Good In Life

Most news outlets flood us with reasons to think that the world is doomed and people are terrible, but if you focus on this alone then youll miss all the reasons to believe in hope and goodness. Taking a more balanced perspective is key to letting go of stress and worry.

Try to do something every day that turns your mind to the joy and good around you.

Whether its challenging yourself to find three uplifting news stories per day or volunteering somewhere where you can see like minded people making a difference for those less fortunate, youre sure to feel better about the world and your place in it.

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Avoid Living In A World Of Shoulds

In dealing with grudges, Conte says people often live a cartoon world, which emphasizes shoulds over reality. Overcoming this is one of the biggest challenges in dealing with a grudge.

Rather than using language like he shouldnt have said that, or this shouldnt have happened, think about the reality of the situation, says Conte: It did happen, and now, the question is, why choose to consciously carry it into your present moment?

Rather than letting the past ruin your present, Conte suggests learning to realign expectations with reality, and focus on the present instead.

How To Let Go Of The Things That Cause You Stress

To find peace of mind, we first need to learn how to let go of the many things that cause us so much pain, stress, and anxiety. ~ Luminita. D. Saviuc

A few years ago, I went through a major personal crisis. Actually, it was a bunch of crises, and they all hit me at the same time.

I took a series of pay cuts at my job. I owned two properties, neither of which I could sell or afford. And my fiancé of four years dumped me.

Over the phone.

Life does that to us sometimes. It doesnt just throw us a curveball it throws a whole bucket of fastballs at the same time.

It was the single most stressful, emotional time of my life. But it taught me some valuable lessons.

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Determine Whether You Are Eligible For Fmla

The Family Medical Leave Act applies to companies with 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius of the workplace. For FMLA eligibility, you must have been employed by your company for at least a year and have worked at least 1250 hours in the past 12 months. If you meet these qualifications, its possible that you are eligible for legal protection for your stress leave.

Go to your Human Resources department and let them know you would like to take an FMLA-approved absence for stress leave. They will provide you with the necessary paperwork that you must take to your doctor. Just saying you are too stressed out to work is not sufficientyour doctor will need to recommend that you take a stress leave.

When you speak with your doctor, its important that you speak honestly and not downplay your symptoms. She or he cant make a fair evaluation if you keep saying, Its fine. Everything is fine. Im just a little stressed. Remember, stress can affect you physically as well as mentally.

Web MD says Stress seems to worsen or increase the risk of conditions like obesity, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, depression, gastrointestinal problems, and asthma. Stress is not something you should ignore.

You have 15 days to return the FMLA paperwork, so make sure you get it back into HR. Its also okay to send the paperwork in with a spouse or a friend if your condition prohibits you from going into the office.

Task Management Tips To Reduce Stress At Work

• Prioritize tasks. Make a list of the tasks you need to complete and tackle them in order of importance. Tackle high priority items and unpleasant tasks first. This will make the rest of your day more enjoyable and less stressful.
• Break big projects down into small, manageable steps. Focus on one manageable step at a time, rather than taking it all in at once.
• Delegate responsibility. You don’t have to do everything yourself. If other people can do the job, why not let them? Let go of the desire to control or supervise every little step. In so doing, you let go of unnecessary stress.
• Be willing to compromise. If you ask someone to engage in a task differently, revise a deadline, or change their behavior at work, you should be willing to do the same. Sometimes, if you can both bend a little, you will be able to find a happy middle ground that reduces stress levels for all involved.

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Make A Schedule And Stick To It

Sometimes we can overcommit, and when we do so, we might not be able to do everything, or we might find ourselves losing sleep trying to get everything done. This goes back to setting boundaries and limits. The Mayo Clinic suggests making a list of family events on a weekly calendar so you have a plan and know what youre doing outside of work. I think this can be said for all your commitments, personal and work. If you have everything mapped out, youll know your bandwidth and be realistic about your availability.

Time is so valuable, so keeping track of how youre spending your time and whats being asked of you can empower you to say no to the things you cant physically or mentally take on .

Its Time To Break The Cycle

You dont have to be at the mercy of stress in your life. So many women tend to throw up their hands and shrug it off, as if theyre doomed to experience stress at this level. There are many women who say thats just not so and you can be one of the ones living their best life, less affected by the stress you encounter.

All it takes is a good understanding about the cycle of stress and a drive and determination to not let it rule you anymore. If youre ready to take back control and face stress head on to prevent it from wreaking havoc in your world, you can make a plan to do that.

Break the stress cycle! Get 50 strategies to fight stress.

Start by pinpointing and eliminating or reducing the stress you have in your life. Analyze how its affected your physical and mental well-being. Then strategize about how youll respond to stress in the future.

Engage regularly in stress-relieving measures. Dont only use them when youre already stressed. If you integrate them into your life consistently, it can stave off stress and the damage it does, before you ever have to worry about it.

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Be Honest And Realistic With Yourself

After organizing into areas of your life, take a good look at whats been plaguing your mind. Note anything that has a deadline, like dates to fill out the college financial aid forms for your teenager.

When looking for what to do when youre feeling burned out, its important to admit whats outside your control .

Is everything here really that important? Its critical to notice things that dont matter, like obsessing over Instagram posts from the “it girl” from high school. Where are you letting the fear of missing out get in the way? Where are you judging yourself too harshly? What do you not really even want to do?

Ease up on yourself, OK, darling?

Buried within the mountains of worries outside your control, things that dont matter, and unrealistic expectations are real gems. Youll probably have traces of your big dreams and goals, scattered like pieces of confetti throughout those must-do’s and have-to’s. Set those aside in another place for later.

Right now, were all about triaging you so that you arent in tears every Thursday night.

Help I Can’t Relax 6 Tips To Beat Work Anxiety

Maybe you have a new job, but you feel more like your job is having you. Maybe it’s the new responsibilities of a promotion that have you feeling frantic. Or maybe you just have a big project on your plate and youre really feeling the pressure.

No matter what the reason, youre overwhelmedand your work stress is starting to affect your personal life. You don’t eat lunch, you lay awake at night obsessing over your to-do list, you spend half the weekend worrying about Monday morning. Try as you might, relaxing is just not an option.

Here’s some good news: Its perfectly normal to be anxious about your jobstudies show that seven out of 10 adults experience stress or anxiety daily. But here’s some better news: There are some simple changes you can make to gain more control over your work life and be able to relax again in your free time.

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Look For Satisfaction And Meaning In Your Work

Feeling bored or unsatisfied with how you spend most of the workday can cause high levels of stress and take a serious toll on your physical and mental health. But for many of us, having a dream job that we find meaningful and rewarding is just that: a dream. Even if youre not in a position to look for another career that you love and are passionate aboutand most of us arentyou can still find purpose and joy in a job that you dont love.

Even in some mundane jobs, you can often focus on how your contributions help others, for example, or provide a much-needed product or service. Focus on aspects of the job that you do enjoy, even if its just chatting with your coworkers at lunch. Changing your attitude towards your job can also help you regain a sense of purpose and control.

Allow The Negative Emotions To Flow

If youre fear of feeling negative emotions is causing you to avoid them, dont worry, youre not alone. In fact, Durvasula says that many times, people are afraid of feelings such as grief, anger, disappointment, or sadness.

Rather than feeling them, people just try to shut them out, which can disrupt the process of letting go. These negative emotions are like riptides, explains Durvasula. Let them flow out of you It may require mental health intervention, but fighting them can leave you stuck, she adds.

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Tip : Reduce Stress At Work By Prioritizing And Organizing

When workplace stress threatens to overwhelm you, there are simple steps you can take to regain control of yourself and the situation. Your newfound ability to maintain a sense of self-control in stressful situations is often welcomed by employees, managers and subordinates alike, which can lead to better relationships in the workplace.

Here are some suggestions to reduce stress in the workplace by prioritizing and organizing your responsibilities.

Coping With Stress At Work

Working hard should not be confused with overworking at the expense of relationships and physical health.

Coping with stress at work.

Everyone who has ever held a job has, at some point, felt the pressure of work-related stress. Any job can have stressful elements, even if you love what you do. In the short-term, you may experience pressure to meet a deadline or to fulfill a challenging obligation. But when work stress becomes chronic, it can be overwhelmingand harmful to both physical and emotional health.

Unfortunately, such long-term stress is all too common. In fact, has consistently found that work is cited as a significant source of stress by a majority of Americans. You cant always avoid the tensions that occur on the job. Yet you can take steps to manage work-related stress.

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Take Control Of What You Can

Not feeling in control can often contribute to anxiety about work. And while getting in control of your entire work life is a longer-term project, there are smaller things that you can organize in no time to ease some of your anxiety.

For example, develop some quick techniques to tame your inbox instead of becoming a slave to the onslaught of new messages. Set up a good project management system or prioritize your to-dos first thing in the morning so you know what needs to get done today and what can wait until tomorrow. Even just dedicating a few moments to clear the clutter around your desk can help to calm your mind.

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You can also get support by hiring a coach or therapist. Their role is to be of service to you, to help you find ways to let go of the stresses of daily living. They can help guide you towards solid ideas and solutions to manage your life differently.

The hardest thing about asking for help is admitting you need help. Well, that and having to let go of some of the control. Darling, you deserve more than feeling stressed and overwhelmed.

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