5 Things You Can Do if You’re Struggling with Chronic Work Stress
It’s not exactly a surprise that work is a big source of stress for most Americans.
And not all work stress is bad. The kind of stress you get when you’re getting ready to make an important presentation or making a pitch for why you should get a promotion — you know, the kind of acute stress that quickly ends — can be good for you.
But chronic stress — like when you’re always working crazy hours, constantly in a pressure cooker or hate what you’re doing and watching the clock draaaaagggg by all day — has been noted as a contributing factor to 75–90 percent of diseases.
I’m just gonna repeat that: 75–90 percent of diseases.
Take a moment and really absorb that. This isn’t something to brush off as “well, it would be nice to have less stress” or to just accept as “the way work is.”
If you’ve been dealing with chronic work stress, especially for a long time, you almost certainly need to make some kind of a change in your work life — or at least in your work habits.
But you’re probably not able to walk out the door on your job tomorrow. And maybe you’re not sure if that’s what you’d want at all. So what should you do in the meantime? Here are five practices that can help.
- Try 4–7–8 Breathing
Deliberately slow breathing, in particular when the exhale is longer than the inhale, triggers the vagus nerve to switch your autonomic nervous system from a state of stress to a state of relaxation. I find the 4–7–8 yogic breath to be an ideal workday breath exercise because it shifts your body from stressed to calm in little more than a minute. Simply inhale through your nose for a count of 4, hold your breath for a count of 7, then exhale through your mouth for a count of 8. Then repeat, until you’ve done four rounds. I recommend my clients do this whenever they notice they are feeling acutely stressed.
2. Define Your Availability
Your organization may have an ocean of need with people having resigned en masse as part of the Great Recession. And while there are some employers that proactively care about their workers’ well being, in many cases, they are going to take from you whatever you will give.
A really effective way to look out for yourself is to decide for yourself what you’re able to do and when you’re available to do it — and communicating that. This doesn’t necessarily mean you say no when you’re asked to do an extra project or cover for a colleague. But when you’re asked to do something like that, respond by giving your employer necessary information about what is possible. Here are a few suggested phrases you can use:
- I’m happy to do that. I can get it to you next week.
- Sure, I’m available to work on that on Monday morning.
- I can do that. It’ll take a couple more days to finish it.
- What’s your priority, project x or project y?
3. Take a 20 Minute Nature Break
Spending just 20 minutes in your backyard, a green space near your office, or a park reduces the levels of stress hormones in your body. Try it out a few times a week. You can do this any time of day that works for you, but it’s important to stay off your phone to get the full benefits.
4. Try a One-Sentence Gratitude Journal
When done consistently over time, practicing gratitude leads to lower levels of stress. A fast and simple practice I recommend to my clients who want to reduce their stress or build a habit of practicing gratitude is to take a moment at the end of the day to reflect on something good in their lives, and then write one sentence memorializing that appreciation. Really try to pause and feel that gratitude as you do so: because our brains have a negativity bias, putting some extra emphasis on experiencing positive emotions helps them make more of an impact.
5. Write yourself a permission slip to leave
Recognizing that you have the power to walk away from a stressful job — and giving yourself the permission to do that — gives you control in the situation, which decreases your stress levels. If you’ve always been an achiever, it might feel like a failure or weakness to walk away. But the opposite is true. If you’ve spent a long time hanging on in a job that’s a poor fit for you or has you working around the clock, it’s a signal that you’re very strong and determined — and that it might be time to move on.
Putting it in writing can be a very powerful exercise to help you shift your mindset and empower yourself to make a change happen. Fellow career coach Lisa Lewis Miller has a fantastic template you can use if you’d rather not DIY it.
For some people, just implementing regular stress reduction techniques may be enough to see a big change in their stress levels. But many people will need more — and many people may really need to figure out what to do after writing their permission slip to leave.
The great news is that implementing these types of techniques is going to give you much more creativity, positivity and energy to figure out what that next step is for you.
Kelley Shields is a career and leadership coach, helping unfulfilled professionals find work they find meaningful, enjoyable and profitable. Feeling stuck? Wondering if you should stay at your job or if it’s time to leave? Check out my quiz, “Should I Stay or Should I Go?”
