WAYS OF MANAGING STRESS.
Awareness of Stress
You should try to clear in your mind what stresses you more. What are your particular Stressors? Be on the lookout for your stress signals so that you know as soon as you need to take action.
Analysis and treatment of the actual stressor
You can improve your situation by clarifying for yourself the characteristics of your stressors and what would happen if you ignore them. A clear overall view will give you more chance of taking the correct action. There are four alternative strategies for managing your stressors.
- Take action
- This may mean learning new skills, acquiring information and being determined e.g. if you are scared of speaking in public, have some guidance / tuition and do some practice.
- Withdraw
- In some situations it may be more sensible to withdraw or leave rather than fight e.g if you are at a party and not enjoying , you can leave. When someone is being abusive you should withdraw mentally by telling yourself that you are experiencing the results of the individual’s tiredness or anger.
- Do nothing
- On a few occasions it may be rational to do nothing while you are waiting for something to happen before you act.
- Adjust your attitude
- Ask yourself what can be learned from exposure to the stressor. If you are about to lose something e.g your home or a close friend, focus on the benefit you have gained from living in that house or knowing the person.
- Grieving over a loss is a natural and important experience. Being caught in your grief for the rest of your life could keep you living in the past and ignoring what is happening around you.
- There are two basic necessities to adjust your attitude.
- Put the stressor in the correct perspective. Ask yourself, is it really that bad? Will I die of it? Will we go broke? Will we starve? Will we be handicapped? Will I lose my job?
- Avoid negative thoughts and fantasies. In a stress situation the worst is often exaggerated. It may never happen, so try not to consider it for a second. Save your energies for something constructive, make a list of all the positive aspects of the situation and think about it. If it helps make another list of the actual negatives but not the might have been….
Related Story: –
A group of 3 people are assigned a particular job on the aircraft in the night shift. After working for a while 2 persons out of 3 go to Airport terminal to fetch some food, third person remains there to work on the aircraft at midnight. Third person makes himself ready to start his job, opens panel and does visual inspection. While doing this he turns on his right after hearing some sound, finds total darkness and feels bit scared. He stops his work and starts chanting some prayer to beat his darkness fear. In the meantime his colleagues arrive and he tells them about his fear or phobia.
On that day, he realizes that he has kind of night phobia or say fear of darkness. What he should do for this. He plans that he should not work alone in the night shift. If at all he has to work he should work along with his team so as to get rid of this night phobia. And in case they have to go for food, all should go together and come back together. That is the remedy he finds for this night phobia or darkness fear. So he does analysis, finds treatment for this phobia, applies and lives his life comfortably. There are many types of phobia, chances that you are suffering from one of them and you come to know only when you come into that situation.
A Healthy Diet
You are very well aware about this
Relaxation/ Meditation
The body needs regular rest. Choose a relaxation programme that suits you, try to start on it as soon as possible and practice it regularly. You could try Yoga, Meditation etc.
Take short rest breaks during the day
Your body needs variation in its working rhythm. (Work, rest, Work, Rest) not full speed ahead all day. If you normally sit to work, stand as often as you can and vice versa.
Breathing
When your stress response is triggered, the first thing that changes is your breathing, and fortunately, breathing is easy to control.
If you can keep your breathing at a low, even rate, your body will relax, your mental state will be influenced and you will be able to control your stress level. Think how unlikely it would be to see anyone quarrelling in a sauna or swimming pool. If you consciously relax the body with slow regular breathing you will stop the stress response.
The Five Steps, Breathing Technique.
1. Breathe in deeply and out
For the next four breaths tense a group of muscles as you breathe in and relax them as you breathe out.
2. Feet
3. Hands and upper part of body
4. Jaw
5. Stomach
Prepare and organize your work
One of the big things you can do to avoid stress is to prepare yourself thoroughly, in your work and in your private life. Coping with the unexpected is much harder than managing the expected.
Mental preparation is important but it is also essential to ensure that you have the necessary skills and know-how to be able to anticipate and plan in advance.
If you feel that you do not have enough know- how to be able to plan ahead in your job, and many service- givers do feel this, then we recommend that you make a decision now to apply for further training.
- Take a look at the systems and equipment you use.
- Try to write things down
- Only work on one thing at a time…
- Keep an eye on the next thing to do
- Keep your work- place tidy
- Be able to lay your hands at once
- Store everything you use often within easy reach
Stress can be contagious. When number of people are asked to queue or are delayed or held-up in some way then stress levels soon rise. As a service giving company it is important to watch for signs of the epidemic spreading and to work to control this sort of situation.
Some of the stressors which occur in service work are :
Bottlenecks, rush jobs, seasons, quite times as well as busy times, unexpected crises caused by outside influences like weather, accidents, political etc., complaints about the mistake of others, lack of support from colleagues, lack of information from superiors and colleagues and inconvenient working hours etc.
Gentle Advice to Bosses
To minimize the stress in all service jobs , one should try to provide service givers with suitable systems and equipment, supply all information needed in an easily assimilated form, train all officers and staff, listen to the knowledge and feedback they are trying to give you, provide good internal service, keep working to create better physical and mental conditions and of course , keep encouraging them – keep giving your staff / officer/ manager good strokes means keep appreciating them whenever they do good work.
As we know very well that everyone is hungry for appreciation. Keep using this particular tool honestly and in return get good results for the company. As a head or Boss You can keep things very simple if you want to be.
Lastly….Plan to control your stress
What to do?
Make a list of the positive steps you are going to take to control your personal stress levels. Check through the list regularly and do make a note in your diary of your review dates so as to be sure that you are on the right track. You can add new things as you grow more knowledgeable and more aware about the work. You can also congratulate yourself when you make good progress. You have to say in your mind that “I’m doing good progress”.
Please do write your comments …Stay safe and stay Happy. Good Bye.