Stress is an inevitable part of human life. Starting from home to the office, we experience distress. Some forms are subtle, while others are life-threatening and require serious medical attention. Many stressors cause massive burnout. While strain can be caused by losing a loved one, family problems, and finances, it’s good to know there is hope.
There are ways of handling distress at work or the office and daily life. Identifying different causes of distress in life helps us find better ways of dealing with them. Distress can positively impact your everyday and office life, just as it may lead to severe problems. This article will help you understand what mental strain involves and remedies in daily life and at the office.
What is stress
It is what we feel when we are under pressure or threatened. We usually don’t have it when everything is working out well. The magnitude of it determines how we react. A little amount of stress can be a source of motivation for us. It can be a call to action to resolve a situation.
On the other hand, excessive stress can make our bodies be unable to restore their original state. A good example of moderate pressure may be preparing for an exam or achieving a given goal at the office. It is caused by a stressor or a stimulant that leads to it.
Two types of stress may be of health concern. Acute stress is when you experience it for a few hours. It occurs for a few days a week and is usually very intense. On the other hand, chronic stress is when there are regular episodes. It may be caused by everyday activities or other sources of it.
Day-to-day life
We deal with stress every day, not just at the office. It can be due to daily politics, weather, everyday pressure, and life at work, school, traffic, and home, among others. It is literary everywhere. There are several indicators of everyday strain, such as overreacting, drinking and smoking more than usual, excessive sleep, and handling too many tasks. For this reason, we need to know how to handle everyday life stress. There are simple ways through which you can be able to handle it daily.
Take a breath whenever things get more challenging. Taking a breath helps your body to relief strain. It enables you to think straight about the problem and find a better way of handling the issue. It also helps lower your blood pressure as well.
Talk to others about how you feel, and don’t forget to get enough sleep. People who are in beneficial social connections tend to experience lower cases of stress symptoms. Talking to someone will help you have a rational view of the problem. On the other hand, sleep will help you to operate at optimum. Such an action act as a relief towards daily strain. Consider seeking medical attention in case of persistent symptoms, such as headaches.
Stress in the office
Pressure is expected at workplaces and offices. Work-related stress is often caused by long working hours, heavy workloads, increased job insecurity, tight deadlines, changes of duties, lack of autonomy, over-supervision, and conflicts with workers. For many employees at the office, it may lead to decreased work performance. For this reason, it’s important to get a relief. Other symptoms include fatigue, muscular tension, headaches, heart palpitation, discouragement, irritability, and cognitive difficulties such as the inability to concentrate or make rational decisions, just to mention a few.
Other sources of stress
While we may find ways to relief mental strain, there are several causes of it, such as;
- Having family problems
- Financial problems
- Having a chronic health issue or illness
- The distress of having to take care of an ill family member
- Death of a loved one
Positive effects of stress
While it may harm your health, not all mental strain is harmful. Some benefits come with measurable levels of mental pressure.
First and foremost, it can improve your cognitive functions. Moderate mental pressure levels strengthen neuronal connections in your brain, improving your memory and attention, and helping you focus well. Good levels of mental pressure help new nerve cells in the brain grow, thus helping you better handle panic, help you work better, and perform well at work when under pressure.
A fight or flight response due to mental strain works to improve your immune system. Mental strain stimulants impact your defense mechanism to fight against possible infections such as a cold. It does so by helping your body to generate interleukins that boost your immune system, enhancing its fighting capacity.
Positive stress can also increase your level of energy. An experience of good mental strain, also known as eustress [1], motivates us, sharpens our senses, and helps us solve problems. It increases endorphin levels, increasing our energy flow, thus giving us the back push necessary to achieve our goal.
Furthermore, a proper degree of mental strain also increases your confidence. We all want to be confident enough to handle a challenge. When you feel tensed and your heart rate increases, it indicates the presence of endorphin. Therefore, you can take it as a way of your body signaling you to stand up to the task. It will thus increase your confidence and help you perform better.
When does stress become unhealthy?
Mental strain can become unhealthy if it’s chronic enough to cause serious health problems. When you are under pressure, your brain sends distress hormones from the hypothalamus to the target body tissues, thus causing a response. It injects a flight and flight response to handle the situation. However, over-stimulation of the distress receptors may lead to other serious problems. Excessive strain can induce insomnia, headaches, high blood pressure, depression, fertility-related issues, and a compromised immune system, among others.
Strain can also affect your memory and the structural shape of the brain. Research has shown that pressure decreases the number of dendritic branches and the number of neurons. It lowers the number of firing in the brain, affecting memory and brain weight. A combination of all these may lead to spatial memory. A compromised memory will also affect the learning process and the ability to concentrate.
High levels of mental pressure may also impact gastrointestinal complications. Distress affects appetite, thus affecting the uptake of nutrients. Consequently, distress affects how the GI tract functions. Scientific evidence has shown that too much distress affects the absorption process, intestinal permeability, the secretion process of mucus and acid in the stomach, the functionality of ion channels, and GI inflammation. These changes may significantly affect your GI operations.
The link between distress and burnout
Burnout is caused by deliquesce distress. The amount of agitation that leads to it is not too much to cause a health problem. Therefore, burnout is simply a feeling of emptiness and, mental exhaustion, lack of motivation. It causes you to feel as if there is no way out of your situation. It stimulates a negative response to a problem.
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Many times, it is related to it at work. When you overwork and are unappreciated, it is bound to occur. You tend to feel you have little or no control over your work. You may also feel unable to handle overly demanding job pressure. It can be aggravated by having little or no close relationships with friends or family. It becomes hard to open up to others.
You can consider applying the famous three Rs to handle burnout. Recognize all warning signs that may lead to it. Try to reverse the situation by managing the agitation. Lastly, build resilience by taking good care of your physical and emotional health.
How to manage stress
There are three ways through which you can manage. First, consider getting active and engaging in subtle activities. Regular physical activities can lower cases of anxiety. Some activities you may consider include swimming, taking a walk, biking, and dancing.
You may also talk to a close friend or family. Talking to someone can help you spill out the overwhelming pressure, thus creating a relaxed mood. You may also consider having medical assistance in cases of chronic distress. More importantly, learn to take one step at a time. Having a schedule of your activities can improve your ability to handle distress. Too many activities cause burnout and overwhelming pressure, thus causing more health problems.
Tips to reduce stress in the office
There are several ways through which one can control office-related distress and attain strain relief. Walking it off or having a chill room is one way of handling distress. You can resolve to walk around the parking lot, stroll at the workplace during breaks, or even walk home after work. A chill room can also work to reduce distress. If your workplace has a chill room, you may consider sending a few minutes daily in the room free from daily work routine. It will help you relax your mind and relief distress.
Another way to relief distress at the workplace is relaxation breathing and taking tea over coffee. Taking a deep breath will help you relax tension and strain levels. On the other hand, taking tea over coffee can improve your mood. Taking lavender and jasmine helps regulate distress hormones, thus improve your stress levels.
It’s also important to consider writing down your stressor at the workplace and the measure of stress level. Research has shown that having a routine of writing down stressors in a journal help improve your moods and provides an avenue for voicing your frustrations. Physical stretches such as desk stretches can help relief muscle strains during working hours and thus help deal with fatigue.
Importance of stress relief
Distress relief enhances better sleep and reduces blood pressure. Practicing small distress-reducing activities before bed can lower the possibility of insomnia. On the other hand, deep breathing and yoga have proved to lower blood pressure and relief mental strain.
It can also improve digestion and reduce muscle tension. Good stress management plans decrease inflammation in the gut, thus relaxing your digestive system’s muscle walls thus improve digestion.
FAQ
References
- Wikipedia.org – Eustress – found on 21-10-2022
Link to the page on wikipedia.org - world.org – Doing What Matters in Times of Stress – found on 21-10-2022
Link to the page on who.int - Helpguide.org – Stress at Work – found on 21-10-2022
Link to the page on helpguide.org
