Stress seems like a buzzword these days, and it’s a factor that we all struggle with on occasion, or experience daily. The daily stress we may experience is known as chronic stress, and it has a severe impact on our mental health.
What Are Your Stressors
When we experience stress, tasks like getting out of the door in the morning can seem like an impossible feat. For me, when I am trying to get to work in the morning (especially to an important event or meeting), navigating the family needs can be much more stressful than on days I don’t have to be somewhere “important.” As a busy professional, can you relate?
On top of that, the further you progress in your career, the more frequent essential to-do’s become. And if you don’t pay attention, every day can feel incredibly stressful, putting a significant damper on your mood and ability to stay proactive with your health.
I know this all too well. This past week, I was tasked with moving offices and setting up my new workspace while keeping up with my commitments.
So, knowing we all will experience stressors that we cannot always control, we must control our body’s response to these stressors.
Check Energy Levels
A good way to tell if you are experiencing stress is to look at your current sleep and energy levels. Are you able to sleep at night like you typically do? Have your wake/sleep times naturally changed? Are you able to get through your workweek, or is it exhausting you? Tune into your body for a few days to find out how you are currently doing.
Tips to Ease Stress
Here are a few simple ways I’ve found success in reducing the stress from a full-time workload and full-time role at home:
1. Get work clothes, gym clothes, breakfast, and lunch ready the night before. Getting ready the night before will make your morning super simple, and you won’t be worried about taking care of yourself and your commitments. Put the gym clothes in the bag, hang your work attire on the door, save the leftovers from dinner, and decide what to eat.
2. Set a max number of “important” things you can accomplish each working day. For me, I choose to limit the number of worksites I can visit on a given day/week without feeling burnt out, or getting too behind on my office work. Another example is, I try my best not to do more than one speaking engagement on a given day. Engaging an audience requires a lot of energy and I want to preserve it to deliver my best presentation.
Who Do You Lean On
3. Create a peer network where you feel comfortable sharing your problems and lean on it often. From time to time, we all deal with worries about money, relationships, and the general state of the world. I’ve found it extremely helpful to talk with like-minded people about what keeps us up at night. Some may choose to speak to a mental health professional. Others may form a group of walking buddies to confidentially share their life concerns with, while problem-solving as a collective.
I genuinely believe, as busy professionals, we can focus on planning and connecting with people. Most of our worries won’t feel quite as big when consistent with the above stress prevention hacks.
What do you do to beat stress? I’d love to hear from you! Send me an email at Drew@teamupaz.com and let me know.
Your partner in health,
Drew Saenz
Drew@teamupaz.com
P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are a few ways I can help you and your team improve their health and company engage their people in a meaningful way:
Implement Workday Movement Breaks!
Are you looking to implement workday physical activity for your staff? Not sure if people will participate? This program kicks off in June, so there’s plenty of time to learn more and educate your team. Learn more about our Movement Break Program here.
Take our Corporate Wellness Scorecard
Are you curious about where your organization stands from a wellbeing perspective? I use a simple scorecard tool to determine your current stage of wellness readiness and the best next steps to improve. Email me with “Score Card” in the subject line, and I will get you all the details.
The 4 Your Health Blog is for working men and women who want to plug health and fitness into their everyday life. Together we’ll get there!
