Be true to yourself

How to achieve peace of mind? Part 6 Talk in English

Be grateful to your blessings

Overcome your fears

Never compare yourself to others | English | N.Ganeshan

Control your tongue

Rise above criticisms

Find simple joys in daily life | English | N.Ganeshan

Focus on the Positive

Reduce your expectations from others !

Bury your past and move on | English | N.Ganeshan

You are responsible for your inner peace |

How to achieve Peace of Mind? 1

New YouTube series "How to achieve Peace of Mind?"

From 21.10.2020 every Wednesday it will be updated at 11.45 am.

N.Ganeshan
 

How to manage work stress effectively?

 

Stress and its effects

In psychological terms, stress is defined by Professor Richard Lazarus as "a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize." This means that if you believe that you don't have the time, resources, or knowledge to handle a situation, you experience stress. In short, you experience stress when you feel "out of control."

 

The stress response is the body’s way of protecting you. When working properly, it helps you stay focused, energetic, and alert. In emergency situations, stress can save your life—giving you extra strength to defend yourself. Stress can also help you rise to meet challenges and sharpens your concentration. But beyond a certain point, stress stops being helpful and starts causing major damage to your health creating cardiovascular disease, stroke, depression, high blood pressure, and a weakened immune system. It also badly affects your mood, your productivity, your relationships, and your quality of life. 

 

Stress in workplace

 

Stress in workplace is expected and normal. But, in today’s hectic world, the workplace too often seems like an emotional roller coaster. Global urbanization, competition and the spread of technology have created a world in which access to information has become an obligation and necessity. People are now held accountable for their actions and whereabouts 24/7 and they are losing both their privacy and down time. 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 body—as well as to your job satisfaction.

 

You can’t control everything in your work environment, but that doesn’t mean you’re powerless, even when you’re stuck in a difficult situation. If stress on the job is interfering with your work performance, health, or personal life, it’s time to take action. Whatever may be your work demands, there are steps you can take to protect yourself from the damaging effects of stress, improve your job satisfaction, and bolster your well-being in and out of the workplace.

 

Ways to manage work stress

"Everyone feels overwhelmed and overly busy in modern world" says Sharon Melnick Ph.D., a business psychologist and author of the book “Success Under Stress”.  Citing 10 years of Harvard research and field-tested by more than 6,000 clients and trainees, Sharon Melnick offers the following four strategies to take your work stress down a peg, before it takes over your life.

 

Act Rather Than React:

"We experience stress when we feel that situations are out of our control," says Melnick. It activates the stress hormone and, if chronic, wears down confidence, concentration and well-being. She advises that you identify the aspects of the situation you can control and aspects you can't. Typically, you're in control of your actions and responses, but not in control of macro forces or someone else's tone, for example. "Be impeccable for your 50%," she advises. And try to let go of the rest.

 

Take A Deep Breath

If you're feeling overwhelmed or are coming out of a tense meeting and need to clear your head, a few minutes of deep breathing will restore balance, says Melnick. Simply inhale for five seconds, hold and exhale in equal counts through the nose. "It's like getting the calm and focus of a 90-minute yoga class in three minutes or less at your desk," she says.

 

Eliminate Interruptions

"Most of us are bombarded during the day," says Melnick. Emails, phone calls, pop-ins, instant messages and sudden, urgent deadlines conspire to make today's workers more distracted than ever. While you may not have control over the interrupters, you can decide what you should meet, what you should delegate and what you should avoid and act accordingly. 

Prioritize Your Priorities

With competing deadlines and fast-changing priorities, it's critical to define what's truly important and why. That requires clarity, says Melnick. It's important to understand your role in the organization, its strategic priorities, and your personal goals and strengths. Prepare and follow your to-do list by focusing on those projects that will have the most impact and are best aligned with your goals.

 

Other useful tips

The following tips are taken from articles and books of other stress experts and they can help you to reduce and manage the work stress.

·        Create a balanced schedule. All work and no play is a recipe for burnout. Try to find a balance between work and family life, social activities and solitary pursuits, daily responsibilities and downtime.

 

·        Break projects into small steps. If a large project seems overwhelming, focus on one manageable step at a time, rather than taking on everything at once.

 

·        Delegate responsibility. You don’t have to do it all yourself. Let go of the desire to control every little step. You’ll be letting go of unnecessary stress in the process.

 

·        Turn to co-workers for support. Having a solid support system at work can help buffer you from the negative effects of job stress. Just remember to listen to them and offer support when they are in need as well.

 

·        Develop healthy responses. Instead of attempting to fight stress with fast food or alcohol, do your best to make healthy choices when you feel the tension rise. Exercise is a great stress-buster. Yoga can be an excellent choice, but any form of physical activity is beneficial. Also make time for hobbies and favourite activities.

 

·        Don’t make mountains out of molehills. One of the best ways to make your day and life easier, lighter and less stressful is to not build mountains out of molehills. Do not create extra drama, over-think or create a problem out of something that doesn’t matter much.

 

·        Above all, remember that there is nothing exists like work pressure until you are doing the things you love. We have been heard the phrase "Do what you love, and love what you do", but rarely we believe in it. If you understand your work as your job, as your money source, you would get tired soon in your life. So discover positive things in your work and learn to love your work for them. You will never feel work pressure.

 

Conclusion:

Some things we can’t take back. We can’t flick a switch and slow down the world – the pace of innovation, market competition and limited availability of time are just too fast for that. To some extent, all that extra stress and pressure will be here to stay. But if we follow the above suggestions and make small changes to our work styles we can hugely reduce our stress levels and cope with our work better.

 

N.Ganeshan

Published in our bank magazine Bobmaitri (January-March 2020)