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Everyone experiences workplace stress from time to time, but if your anxiety symptoms interfere with work life and personal relationships it might be worthwhile speaking with a mental health professional about medications or counseling services available.
From shifting deadlines and difficult colleagues to public speaking anxiety, workplaces can provide many avenues of stress. Here are some strategies for alleviating it in the workplace:
1. Take a Break
Work anxiety can easily spiral out of control, so taking regular breaks is one effective strategy to combat it. Although it may be hard to remember to step away, setting an alarm or agreeing upon a set break time with coworkers can help ensure you remain on track with your schedule.
Relaxation strategies such as stretching, listening to music or going outside are great ways to reduce stress and unwind tense muscles in the neck by rolling it back and forth - this also activates vagus nerve and helps lower heart rate!
If your anxiety at work interferes with your daily life outside the office, considering consulting a mental health professional to discuss potential treatments such as medication or counseling can also help. A healthy lifestyle such as getting enough restful sleep, eating well and exercising regularly may also help to ease symptoms of anxiety.
2. Breathe
Though some anxiety is normal in the workplace, prolonged stress and anxiety can have detrimental effects on mental health. If you find yourself becoming overwhelmed, consulting with a therapist or using mindfulness techniques as a means of controlling anxiety could prove useful.
Multiple factors can contribute to anxiety in the workplace, including tight deadlines and expectations, lack of support from managers or co-workers and an ever-increasing workload. Many of these symptoms can be managed using simple strategies like deep breathing exercises.
Anxiety causes your breath to become shallow, disrupting the equilibrium between oxygen and carbon dioxide in your body. Resonance breathing exercises, like deep breathing exercises, may be useful in relieving anxiety and stress symptoms. You may initially feel lightheaded when trying resonance breathing techniques but your body will quickly adapt with practice - make sure that these practices become part of your life in order to reap their full benefits!
3. Listen to Music
Music can provide an effective form of nonverbal communication that connects people back to experiences from early life - giving a sense of community that may otherwise be difficult to access in today's busy society.
Listening to soothing tunes can help you unwind, activate the parasympathetic nervous system and relax. Classical and ambient genres tend to be particularly beneficial as their lack of lyrics allows you to focus more on their soothing melody and rhythm without distraction from stress reduction.
Discover your ideal balance by experimenting with both tempo and volume levels to find what works for you. Music that is too fast may not be relaxing, while too slow might become boring or distracting. Furthermore, heavy texture music may become too intrusive while light textures provide insufficient relaxation effects.
4. Exercise
When you're feeling stressed, it is important to prioritize taking good physical care of yourself. This means getting regular exercise, limiting caffeine consumption and getting enough restful sleep. Indulging in activities you find enjoyable such as reading a book or walking outdoors.
Stress is your body's natural reaction to an obstacle or threat; anxiety, however, is more persistent and can have detrimental health impacts. If you're suffering from work anxiety it is crucial that it is addressed quickly as it could progress into full-blown mental illness.
At times of anxiety or stress, it can be helpful to talk about it with trusted colleagues or friends. But if that feels uncomfortable, self-soothing techniques such as deep breathing or autoregulation exercises may also provide relief from stress and anxiety. Furthermore, setting healthy boundaries such as not socializing after work and restricting email checking/voicemail messages at home can also be effective ways of alleviating symptoms.
5. Eat Well
Work-related stress can be an everyday occurrence; however, chronic or long-term stress can contribute to anxiety and health issues. If anxiety symptoms interfere with your job performance, personal life or mental or physical wellbeing, seek professional therapy services immediately.
Workplace anxiety often stems from long hours, high expectations and lack of support in the form of staffing services like Accountemps staffing services. According to their research, employees report unrealistic manager expectations, heavy workloads and approaching deadlines as key workplace stressors.
If you find yourself feeling anxious at work, take some simple steps to alleviate it. Prioritize healthy behaviors like eating well, getting enough restful sleep and exercise regularly. Avoid unhealthy coping mechanisms like bingeing on junk food or turning to alcohol as a quick fix as these only further add stress and anxiety levels.
Set boundaries by not taking work home with you and making it a rule not to check voicemail or emails after hours. Take vacations so you have time away from work to recharge and refresh yourself!
6. Relax
Workplace anxiety is an inevitable part of life, but too much anxiety may have serious repercussions for health and wellbeing. If it's impacting on your day-to-day functioning, seek professional guidance or find ways to better manage stress and anxiety at work.
Discover what triggers your anxiety. Once you know this information, it becomes easier to avoid or reduce its severity. Perhaps checking email is making you anxious or your morning meetings bring on anxiety attacks; then take steps to address each specific source.
Practice relaxation techniques at work to reduce workplace anxiety. Deep breathing exercises and mindfulness (the practice of observing thoughts and emotions without judgement) may help. Finally, remember to stay connected to friends and family - more social support means less vulnerability against workplace anxiety.