Category: Stress Reduction & Mental Health

This can not just help to prevent the psychological impact of work pressure on your health, but also improve your career prospects.

Executive Summary:

1. Understand What You Control

Stress occurs when we feel the situation is out of our control. This feeling creates a sense of helplessness and wears down our confidence and concentration.

Hence, the first thing to learn how to handle pressure at work is to differentiate between the situations you can control and those you cannot.

For example, if the project deadline is near, you know you have the ability to rework the schedule. You can break down the tasks and create a new schedule. The situation is still under your control and applying your management skills would help you navigate through it.

But, certain situations are beyond your control such as job insecurity, global recession, etc. Accept these situations and focus on improving your performance instead of feeling demotivated due to it. This will help you avoid losing your job as your performance would speak for itself.

Thus, identifying controllable factors from uncontrollable factors will help you take the proper decisions and move on in the right direction.

2. Control Your Breath Pattern

When you are anxious or under pressure, your breathing pattern tends to be faster and irregular. This can promote the release of a negative hormone that can worsen stress. So, whenever you feel like under pressure like before meeting your manager for appraisal, monitor your respiration and track the changes in the breathing patterns.

This will allow you to set in the right breathing rate and pattern and help you feel relaxed during the meeting.

TRACK YOUR BREATHING AND MANAGE YOUR STRESS NOW!

Repeated distractions at work can move your focus away from the task and cause frustration. CLICK TO TWEET

If you are worried thinking how to handle pressure at work, just take a few preventative measures to avoid such distractions.

For example; inform your colleagues that you will be available to answer the emails only during a certain window unless it is something really urgent. You can reply to the emails faster when you have a specific time devoted just to this task. This will enhance your efficiency and reduce pressure to meet the demands in a limited time.

4. Take Short Breaks

An effective way how to handle pressure at work is to take frequent breaks. At times, you will be hounded with multiple glitches in the project at the same time. Such situations often create a mind block due to which you are not able to think of any innovative ideas to deal with the problems.

At this juncture, what you need is a few minutes away from your desk.

A study published in the BioMed Central Public Health has revealed that exposure to such restorative environments can improve your ability to concentrate and provide relief from negative emotions like pressure, stress, and fatigue.

This will freshen up your senses and unblock the network of confusion in your mind. So, by the time you return to your desk, you will be ready to think with a new perspective and find innovative solutions to the problems.

If it is difficult for you to go out, you can exercise in the office itself using an exercise ball for about 10 to 15 minutes. This will relieve pressure on your mind and allow you to focus better.

You can also avoid the negative thoughts stressing out your mind by using the meditation-headband to meditate at your desk and refresh your mind.

Meditating for a few minutes before any client meeting will help you avoid pressure and allow you to answer all their queries with confidence.

5. Be Flexible and Adaptable

As they say, the only thing that’s constant in the universe is change and this philosophy applies to your job responsibilities as well. Every day at your office is going to be different.

If you want to learn how to handle pressure at work, you must be flexible enough to adapt to the changing dynamics. CLICK TO TWEET

The market statistics, workforce, your colleagues, job demands and even your office hours can change frequently. This can prevent you from setting a routine and cause a feeling of uncertainty and pressure each time the change occurs.

You can avoid feeling extremely pressured by adapting yourself to the changes. You need to evaluate the new factors and determine how you can accommodate them in your routine. This will ease the pressure and help you perform better.

Extra tip:

Check out our books about productivity and focus selected with executives in mind and learn how to do more in less time. Become an expert in productivity at work!

I told you earlier that the two words, work, and pressure, have become synonymous. But, it is up to you to set apart the common links between these 2 words. Follow the tips given here for how to handle pressure at work. This will help you avoid undue pressure and improve your job satisfaction.

If you have any suggestions to avoid pressure at work, please leave a comment below to share the tips with us.

1. Asparagus

2. Wheatgrass

Wheatgrass is one of the best foods to fight stress, thanks to the high amount of vitamin K and magnesium in it. It can stabilize the hormonal balance in your nervous system and improve your moods.

A study published in Pharmacognosy Research has concluded that Wheatgrass has a unique ability to prevent stress-induced depression and its manifestations such as chronic fatigue syndrome. It can prevent fluctuating moods and reduce your risk of stress, and anxiety disorders.

It is a powerful adaptogenic food, which means it can help you to deal with stressful situations such as meeting targets, managing difficult clients, and balancing personal commitments with ease.

To consume, blend fresh wheatgrass to prepare juice and store it. You can add a small amount of it to water or fresh fruit juice. You can also add it to a smoothie.

3. Walnuts

Strawberries are the fruits we loved to eat during our childhood. Just the sight of these tiny heart-shaped, red fruits could improve our mood. Perhaps on our way to adulthood, we lost our innocence in finding pleasure in small things and started chasing bigger dreams!

But, now is the time to find the most pleasure. Strawberries can help you fight stress, not just with their attractive appearance.

They also act as an adaptogen and improve the body’s ability to adapt to stressful situations. The high amount of antioxidants in strawberries can even help to reduce the production of stress hormones called cortisol and relieve stress.

5. Schizandra Berries

6. Dark Chocolate

Conclusion

1. Cubebot

This combination puzzle, action figure, and toy robot is made of natural wood and elastic bands that enable you to transform the toy into dozens of shapes and poses. The design takes its inspiration from Japanese Shinto Kumi-ki puzzles.

Transforming the toy into new and creative poses not only sparks the imagination, but it can also provide a moment of light-hearted fun when tensions start to run high at the office.

2. Magnetic Sculpture Toys

One of the hottest stress relief toys on the market, magnetic sculpture toys allow you to transform a collection of metal ball bearings or cubes into anything that your imagination can conceive.

Transforming the toy into various shapes can also sharpen your hand/eye coordination and may even improve cognition and creativity.

Mr. Pen offers a functional desk toy with a hundred paper clips in a variety of colors that keeps the paper clips altogether and helps you relieve stress.

Miniature sand gardens are designed to encourage meditation and relaxation in the same manner as a traditional Japanese meditation garden.

Most sand gardens come with rakes and brooms that you can use to create intricate patterns in the sand. Toysmith offers a version that measures 9 inches by 9 inches and comes with stones and ceramic cranes for visual interest as well as a meditation booklet.

IF YOU FEEL ANXIOUS, ADJUST THE STONES AND SMOOTH OUT THE SAND!

4. Cast Metal Brain Teasers

Essentially 3-D jigsaw puzzles, cast metal brain teasers challenge you to separate the various components and then reassemble them back into their original shape.

Not only will these puzzles serve as a welcome distraction from the stress of work, but they also hone your hand/eye coordination and problem-solving skills.

Brain teaser stress relief toys are available in varying degrees of difficulty to ensure that you stay challenged.

5. Sand Art Pictures

Sand art pictures simulate the gentle undulations of sand dunes caused by the wind. The toy creates a new picture each time you move it as the sand shifts to create new mountains and valleys.

Not only is the movement of the sand hypnotic, but sand art pictures also have a way of transporting you from the chaos of the office to the tranquility of the beach.

6. Perplexus Epic

This classic desk toy challenges you to guide a small ball through an elaborate 3-D labyrinth toward a finish line. This model by Perplexus features 22 feet of track along with 125 barriers to keep you on your toes.

In addition to reducing stress, the puzzle will help improve motor skills, dexterity, hand/eye coordination, and spatial reasoning.

7. Nap Pillow

A short nap during your lunch break will not only help reduce stress, but you will be less likely to fall asleep during those long afternoon meetings.

To ensure that you do not wake up from your nap with a stiff neck, look for an inflatable nap pillow that provides the proper neck support. Inflatable pillows are also handy for those long airplane trips.

HAVE A DESK REST NOW!

8. Pin Art

This classic desk toy allows you to create 3-D impressions of virtually anything. Unleash your inner artist and imagination to create one-of-a-kind pin sculptures. The toy also serves as a great office conversation starter.

9. Newton’s Cradle

Perhaps the ultimate stress relief toy, Newton’s cradle is a device that demonstrates its namesake’s laws regarding conservation of momentum and energy. The toy consists of a series of metal balls suspended in a frame and has been a mainstay on executive desks since the 1970s.

When the ball on one end is lifted and released, its energy is transferred through the middle stationary spheres to push the end sphere upward.

10. Sports Toys

If sports are your favorite method of releasing pent-up frustration, consider adding sport-themed stress relief toys to your office.

A miniature putting green, basketball hoop, or even a desktop dart set can provide a welcome midday diversion. They may even help spark some healthy competition among your co-workers.

ADD SPORT-THEMED STRESS RELIEF TOYS TO YOUR OFFICE NOW!

Interested in working stress-free?  Check out our Books which are exclusively selected for executives who are looking for a calmer lifestyle.

What are your favorite executive stress relief toys? Let us know in the comments below.

Do you agree with this post? What other strategies would you add to this list? Please share your ideas with us in the comments!

Executive Summary:

Naila Rasheed writes in the International Journal of Health Sciences that “Stress is well-known fact involved significantly in the onset of almost all major depressive disorders. Moreover, prolonged stress in humans caused serious neurological disorders, cardiac problems (including heart attack), gastric ulcers, asthma, diabetes, headaches, accelerated aging, and premature death.”

The MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas is a world leader in cancer treatment and study. Markham Heid said long-term stress is the one that does harm. “This type of no-end-in-sight stress can weaken your immune system, leaving you prone to diseases like cancer,” he wrote:

“Yale researchers have found that psychological stress can facilitate sudden death by increasing the chances that arrhythmias — abnormal heart rhythms — are more lethal in susceptible patients,” says a news report from the Yale about a stress and mortality study. The two-year study was published in the journal of the American Heart Association.

British researchers also studied psychological stress. Their findings are published in the British Medical Journal. Among other things, the six medical professionals found an increased risk of mortality associated with long-term stress, and more specifically “cardiovascular disease.” Their findings also found an increased risk of cancer “with psychological distress at higher levels.”

The Huffington Post has an infographic in this article that walks you through stress and how it will affect you days, weeks and months later.

2. How Much Life You Are Losing

The question then becomes, how much of your life is being cut short because of stress?

The Independent, a British newspaper, reported on a study from Harvard and Stanford universities. The study is behind a paywall. Graphics in the newspaper article point to people losing quite a bit of life expectancy for a variety of reasons. One of the bar graphs in the newspaper article shows unemployment and layoffs being the second biggest stress factors on the job.

Losing your job is definitely a stressful situation. Even the threat of it will cause more stress than you need.

Finnish researchers also took a look at work stress from being tired and its effect on longevity. “These data suggest that work-related exhaustion is related to the acceleration of the rate of biological aging. This hypothesis awaits confirmation in a prospective study measuring changes in relative telomere length over time,” they wrote.

“When we’re under ongoing stress, it creates that fight-or-flight reaction in an unrelenting way, and as a result, stress chemicals are released into the body. What we know so far is that the release of those stress chemicals creates biological changes,” Dr. Vivian Diller, Ph.D., tells the Huffington Post. “It’s very possible that if you have a life filled with that constant stress, little by little the body is breaking down.”

3. What  You Can Do

The first part of getting a handle on the stress that is ruining your health is to admit it exists. As a successful professional, you are used to taking in uncomfortable facts and working with them. This situation is no different. So embrace this reality – work-related stress is the second-highest stress people experience. Only worrying about money is worse. The difference between being concerned about money and worrying about work is only 4 percent in the American Psychological Association poll.

 Step two is to find out how much stress you are under. How bad is it? More importantly, where is the stress coming from? The American Institute of Stress (talk about a stressful job!) has studied this. The breakdown shows 46 percent of job stress comes from the workload. Another 28 percent comes from dealing with people, co-workers, customers, bosses, employees, and vendors all come under this heading. Twenty percent is from trying to have a healthy work-personal life balance.

Let’s make this simpler. Stress at the job comes from:

– 46% work

– 28% of people

– 20% work-life balance

Now, which category creates the most headaches for you?

4. Implement the Plan

Beat stress. You can do it. You just need to have a solid plan and a good follow-through. Here are five tips:

1) Improve your relationship will important people in your life. Tell someone you love them.

2) Get more productive. Take control of your work environment.

3) Get enough sleep. Meditate. Exercise. Eat healthy.

4) Learn to relax.

5) Subscribe to our newsletter for regular stress-busting tips for professionals and business executives.

Do you think we are exaggerating? Feel free to leave your comments!

Want to work stress-free, sleep well, and free yourself from anxieties? Here are some of our favorite books on stress management selected with executives in mind. Relieve stress, calm your mind and body and boost your health from the comfort of your own home or office.