There are many types of stress, but professional stress, or that which is related to your work or profession, is of a very special type.
If professional stress goes unchecked and allowed to linger, it easily deserves its name, “the silent killer.”
Here’s everything you need to know about managing professional stress.
professional stress
Professional stress is the stress that occurs in the workplace, or in the exercise of professional activity, and is nothing more than a person’s physio-psychological response to various stimuli that triggers our innate fight or flight reaction.
Stimuli can be caused by superiors, coworkers, tasks, workplace environmental factors, and many other conditions.
These stimuli give rise to stress and this stress, if it is constant, can and will affect the immune system, mental health and general physical well-being.
How professional stress affects us
In its basic form, stress and the fight-or-flight reaction are meant to protect us.
It causes physical reactions, such as the endocrine glands secreting hormones and enzymes to prepare our body for combat or a rapid elimination of stress stimuli.
Once resolved (either through fight or flight), our bodies return to normal.
In the workplace, where these stimuli are constant, our body is continuously in a state of stress.
It is now a well accepted fact that this type of stress is one of the main causes of all diseases.
This stress is responsible for both stroke and heart attack; daily destroys the immune system, in lighter forms it causes migraines, eczema, pregnancy complications and high susceptibility to any infectious disease.
Professional Stress Management
They are the techniques designed to provide the person with effective coping mechanisms and professional stress management.
The first step is to identify the stressor.
Whether it’s a boss, a co-worker, environmental factors, whatever, you first have to identify it in order to manage it. It’s not very difficult and a few moments of serious reflection will bring up what that stressor or stressors is.
The next step is to do a clear self-examination, outside of the workplace and in a relaxed state.
This self-examination will ultimately reveal how you react to stress, which psychologists determine as Type A or Type B. Whatever you are, you must know it, accept it, and then you can begin to manage the stress that plagues you.
This test will tell you what to do, when compared to the stressor.
You may need to become more organized, change your perspective, your attitude, force yourself to relax, change your diet or other habits, develop a better sense of humor, force yourself to relax (as in meditation or massage). Whatever it is, you will understand it from your silent analysis.
There are many remedies, including changing jobs, or profession in the worst case. However, there are also some very good habits to develop that will reduce or eliminate average and usual work stressors.
they are
1. Learn how and when to say ‘no’. Remember that people rarely walk on you unless you lie down first.
2. Strive to be perfectly organized
3. Reduce your anxiety by setting priorities and sticking to them.
4. If your stress is environmental, try to eliminate it, whatever its origin.
5. Learn the relaxing breathing techniques offered in any yoga course.
6. Don’t take yourself or your job too seriously.
7. Buy a stress ball and play with it during times of stress. Imagine the stress going into the ball and out of your body.
8. Manage your time well. The more professional you are, the more you need to manage your time professionally. This will reduce unnecessary stress.
