Today, we face unprecedented hypercompetitiveness and a rapid pace of change, which leads us to ask ourselves: How can we stay calm at work when stress levels are high?
According to the American Institute of Stress:
- 80% of workers feel stress at work.
- 25% have felt like screaming due to work-related stress.
- 14% of respondents have felt like hitting a coworker in the last year, but did not do so.
- 9% are aware of a violent act in their workplace
Under stress, we regress
Many psychologists believe that we revert to behaviors we used in childhood when faced with an emotional threat.
If as a child you used to run away and hide in your room, or sit sulking if things didn't go your way, it's very likely that today your reaction to stress is to "shut yourself off" and exclude people.
Where is the difference?
Most agree that a good company executive behaves in a calm, confident, and assured manner. While others rush around and react throughout the day, highly successful executives seem to walk calmly, with purpose, and remain focused on their predefined goals.
Three questions we all have in our heads:
- How do successful people do it?
- How do you stay calm under pressure?
- How do you overcome the natural reaction to retreat when you are under stress?
1- They take care of their bodies
The environment is the biggest variable when it comes to behavior, and the body is the immediate environment of our mind.
Successful people are intentional about when and what they eat. Food is fuel!
And so are they with regard to their sleep. Eight hours is unrealistic for most of us, but instead of thinking about the quantity of sleep, we should focus on its quality (maximizing deep sleep time).
2- They exercise
Numerous studies have shown that exercise reduces stress, anxiety, and even depression.
This is because it increases the amount of feel-good hormones, such as serotonin, and reduces cortisol, which is the main stress hormone.
3- They train their minds
Many of the most emotionally stable people have strengthened their minds through meditation.
A Harvard study showed that after eight weeks of meditation, there was growth in the hippocampus (the area of the brain that regulates emotions) and a reduction in the volume of brain cells in the amygdala, the part responsible for anxiety and stress.
➜ The good news is that mental training through meditation only takes a few minutes.
➜ If you want to learn how to meditate, some of the most popular apps include: Headspace, Waking Up, and Muse.
4- They are grounded in gratitude
Highly successful people have an attitude of gratitude. Negative emotions are eliminated by positive feelings of gratitude.
No matter how bad our situation is, if we pause for a moment, it is usually very easy to see how much better off we are than others. Similar to meditation, having a solid gratitude practice literally changes our brain.
If stress is a focus on something we value that is under threat, it's no wonder we're all feeling it more than ever. We worry about our careers, being good parents, our health, our faith... However, there are only so many hours in a day.
