Some jobs are simply stressful, such as healthcare, education, and business leadership. People say, avoid stress, prioritize mental health, focus on well-being, but when a certain level of anxiety is basically built into your job description, where does that leave you?
The answer has some nuances. Even in jobs where stress cannot be completely avoided, there are ways to manage it effectively.
In fact, it is through strong stress management that high-level workers ensure career longevity. In this article, we look at how to manage your feelings and avoid burnout, even in high-pressure jobs.
1. Acknowledge your experiences with stress
One of the first steps to managing stress is to recognize that you are experiencing it.
This is easier said than done, especially since for many people their experience with stress is so internalized that they don’t even realize it’s happening until it has built up to an unhealthy level.
In these cases, it is important to actively think about how you feel at any given moment. What is your emotional base?
Sometimes, most stress-related symptoms are physical, which can make them very difficult to recognize.
Does your chest feel slightly tight? Are your muscles tense? Do you constantly feel overstimulated? These are signs of stress.
Similarly, if you regularly dread the idea of ​​working, feel a sense of anxiety every time your phone rings, or notice that your sleep schedule has been significantly altered, these are all additional signs that you are suffering from high levels of stress.
Recognizing that this is the case is an important first step because it helps you understand where you are and identify the most common triggers.
If you work in a constantly stressful work environment like a hospital, only through reflection will you be able to recognize what stress is incidental and what stress is deeply internalized.
2. Develop a routine to address stress
Once you’ve recognized the role stress plays in your life, it’s important to develop a routine to manage it.
This can be challenging because one of the reasons many people are stressed is that they feel like they don’t have time for anything, let alone managing difficult emotions.
To that end, there’s an old saying in the world of mindfulness and meditation: everyone should meditate 10 minutes a day, unless you don’t have time, in which case you should meditate 30.
The idea here is, of course, that the harder it is to care for yourself, the more important those activities become. Only by prioritizing mental health can you avoid burnout and improve your emotional experience with the world.
Believe it or not, through routine optimization, you can significantly change the way you feel without radically changing your personal or professional responsibilities. In the next sections, we will look at accessible techniques that anyone can and should use to manage stress.
3. Mindfulness
Mindfulness behaviors are any activity that encourages you to focus only on the current moment. Meditation is a very common method, but yoga, guided walks, and other techniques can have the same impact. The key is to simply clear your mind and allow yourself to be fully present.
This accomplishes several things. First, it floods your body with serotonin, the chemical responsible for relaxation. It is important to remember that stress is ultimately a chemical reaction and many of the most effective coping strategies involve reducing physical levels of anxiety in the body.
The chemical responsible for feeling stressed is called cortisol, and activities that release dopamine and serotonin generally reduce it in the body.
Mindfulness behaviors also train you to adopt a more productive mindset, which can be equally helpful in dealing with stress.
Much human emotional distress comes from an orientation toward the past or the future.
Basically, when you’re angry, it’s usually about something that’s already happened or something you think might happen in the future.
Rarely is the feeling you are dealing with directly related to the present.
For example, if you are lying in bed at 8:30 at night feeling agitated about the previous work day or the one to come, you are allowing the past or the future to ruin your present. Your negative feelings do not produce anything useful; They are eroding your sense of calm and peace.
Through mindfulness activities, you will improve your recognition of the realities of the present and allow you to have a greater influence on your initial experience.
4. Practice self-care
Many people think that self-care is like candles and bubble baths. While setting aside time for physical comfort can be a valuable part of a wellness routine, it doesn’t actually meet any of your specific emotional needs.
A well-developed self-care routine should focus on several key categories:
- your diet
- your dream
- your exercise
Basically, you want to make sure your body has everything it needs to be successful. That means getting seven to eight hours of sleep, eating nutritionally balanced meals, and getting the doctor-recommended 30 minutes of exercise a day.
All of these activities will help reduce cortisol in your body and give you the energy and clarity you need to make good decisions.
Don’t feel overwhelmed by your feelings of exhaustion until you’ve at least optimized your sleeping, eating, and exercise habits.
They are reasonably simple adjustments and can have a much bigger impact than most people realize.
5. Refine your habits
There are positive ways to manage stress and less positive ways to manage it. We have already talked about behaviors that improve your basic emotional experience.
These are activities that can literally change your brain chemistry. They can help you feel better and facilitate higher levels of relaxation and calm.
Psychologists call these eudaimonic wellness behaviors that sustainably increase serotonin and dopamine while lowering cortisol.
There is also hedonic well-being. Hedonic behaviors provide short-term stress relief, but do not offer long-term benefits.
This could include screen time, alcohol, drugs, and activities that are not necessarily objectively bad but are not considered good for you.
This doesn’t mean you can’t watch Netflix or enjoy a glass of wine or a legal food. That is, you must recognize that each day has clearly defined limitations.
If you only have a limited amount of time, you should use it in a way that maximizes your mental well-being.
Reading will be more effective for your mental health than screen time. Meditation will provide longer-lasting benefits than even moderate alcohol or cannabis consumption.
In business, it’s easy to recognize and prioritize productive behaviors. Do the same with your personal life.
If you spend three or more hours a day on your phone, scrolling through social media, or watching silly videos, you can probably find a more efficient use of that time. It’s a hard habit to break because screen time provides a very rapid dopamine response.
If you’re trying to reduce stress right away, this will be more effective than, for example, jogging, walking, or sitting cross-legged on the floor for a few minutes and focusing on your breathing.
But if you prioritize eudaimonic well-being every day for weeks, months, and then years, you will find that over time your emotional experience improves considerably and in a much more sustainable direction.
6. Recognize when stress is too much
Changing your behaviors and developing healthy habits is great. That said, at some point you will also have to consider whether the job you have chosen is right for you.
If you feel like most of your free time is spent on habits and behaviors that make your professional time tolerable, it could indicate that you’re doing a job you don’t really like. Life is too short to be miserable for 40 hours a week.
If you’re always stressed and on the verge of burnout, even after you’ve adjusted your habits or if you’ve simply realized that you’re unhappy at work, it may be time to explore another career.
For example, many nurses who feel burned out in the hospital will choose a specialized field.
There are so many rewarding ways to spend your time. Find a job that doesn’t make you miserable.
