Beyond Blue – How to Deal with Stress at Work

Are you trying to figure out how to deal with stress at work? Then trust me, you’re not alone! Thousands of Americans are affected by work related stress on a daily basis, and a constant barrage of this stress could cause severe instability in your life.

Yes of course, many people like to say that “it’s just stress” and you should just let it pass by. But how long are you going to wait before realizing that this waiting game is never ending?

The University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) has stated, “If stress becomes persistent and low-level, however, all parts of the body’s stress apparatus (the brain, heart, lungs, blood vessels, and muscles) become chronically over-activated or under-activated. Such chronic stress may produce physical or psychological damage over time.”

This simply means that stress over time is not going to get better, and will actually only get worse unless you take action for dealing with stress at work.

There are many different ways deal with work stress. The first step? You have to admit to yourself that the stress is becoming a burden. Once you’ve convinced yourself.. go ahead and try out some of the stress relieving techniques below –

Coping with Stress at Work Through Exercising

Start your day with a couple of basic moves to relax your body.

Exercise and stretching techniques go well together when it comes to dealing with stress at work. These two techniques are great for you to use outside of work and even during your breaks.

This doesn’t mean you need to go out and get an expensive gym membership, nor is there the need for extra finances being spent on equipment either because you can do these exercises with your own body weight.

Body weight training is simple and effective. Two great exercises to perform are push-ups and squats. Both of these exercises help release hormones in your body that suppress stress related mental blocks, and they are great for getting your body in better shape!

Push-ups exercise your entire upper body from your shoulders down to your stomach, and then squats tighten up your legs and midsection. Beat stress and look sexy? Hell yes!

Kick Start your Day!

So how do you go about actually doing these exercises? A great idea is to make the most of the morning hours. When you wake up and start to dread about the work day – take a deep breath, smile you yourself and then all you have to do is:

[alert color=green align=center]

• Perform 20 push-ups.
• Stand up, and then bend over to touch your toes for 20 seconds.
• Next, hold your arms out straight in front of you and begin performing 30 squats[/alert]

These three basic techniques are going to get your body warmed up and refreshed for the challenges of your work day that are still to come! Be sure to eat a decent breakfast to give your body further energy that lasts throughout the day.

Stretch that Stress Away

Stretching techniques have been used for centuries by various cultures to ease the body and mind of physical and mental stress. Stretching could simply be rolling your head from left to right in order to relieve the tension in your brain cavities due to headaches caused by stress, or it could be more advanced techniques such as yoga!

Physiologically, yoga relaxes the body and mind. Yoga combines breathing and stretching techniques into an advanced, fluid motion of moving from one motion to another. You don’t need a class to perform the basics. Simply look up a few stretches and do them at home or at work.

Breathe In…Breathe Out…

Take a couple of minutes to breath. Go outside if you can.

Take a moment away from your busy schedule; take in a deep breath, and then exhale. Have you noticed that by doing so your body just naturally feels more relaxed and ready to take on the remaining work tasks? This is because every time you take in a slow, deep breath you send a chemical message to your brain. This message is to alert your brain that something is wrong, and then the brain takes the message and sends it via your nervous system to the rest of your body, which causes the relaxing feeling to occur.

The best part about using breathing techniques when it comes to coping with stress at work is that it’s free! No need for equipment and you can perform it anywhere you want, and to deal with any stressful situation at work. “Those things that happen when you are stressed, such as increased heart rate, fast breathing, and high blood pressure, all decrease as you breathe deeply to relax.”^

How To Deal With Stress At Work With Vitamins

Make sure B-vitamins are a good part of your daily nutrition. You will find it very helpful when it comes to dealing with stress at work. Dr Manny Alvarez has stated that, “B vitamins are known to promote proper functioning of the brain and nervous system, as well as help induce relaxation and fight fatigue.” All you have to do is make sure that you eat foods that are high in B-vitamins such as nuts and eggs – preferably in the morning when your body has just been fasted while you were asleep.

Tired of Feeling Like You Want To Rip Your Hair Out?

Dealing with stress at work just becomes cumbersome and tiring, and you understandably just want to start pulling your hair out. But hey, take a deep breath… and before you go crazy trying to figure out how to deal with stress at work – take an active approach. The methods shown above will help you get lead a better quality life with much less stress. Work is always going to be there so long as you have bills to pay, and a stomach to feed but stress doesn’t have to come with the package.

Taking an inactive approach only leads to depression, anxiety, and body fatigue, which only gets worse every day that passes on. Money is never an issue because most things you can do to prevent work related stress is free! So what do you think? Are you ready to change your life for the better?

Also learn how to deal with stress at work during pregnancy.

Do you have any tips on how to deal with stress and pressure at work? Do share – I’d love to know your thoughts.

^Murray MT, Pizzorno JE Jr (2006). Stress management. In JE Pizzorno Jr, MT Murray, eds., Textbook of Natural Medicine, 3rd ed., vol. 1, pp. 701–708. St. Louis: Churchill Livingstone.

3 Easy Ways to Balance Your Work and Life