Feeling stressed at work?

Who isn’t, right? Increasing workloads, crises of all kinds, and competing demands can all be culprits.

We all know that stress takes a toll on our health and general well-being. But how you handle stress on the job can also affect your career trajectory – up or down.

Decisions made or courses of action taken when you are feeling especially stressed might not turn out to be your best work.

Without going too deeply into the physiology, we are talking about two distinct centers of the brain here – and they are not very far apart. The fight-or-flight center is the ‘amygdala’ and the thinking center is the ‘neocortex’.

If your flight-or-flight center is in charge, you might act more out of emotional reflex than if you really thought things through. We have all been there.

And I don’t know about you, but when I am stressed it’s not a lot of fun if you have to interact with me. So whatever interpersonal activities I am involved with at work (meetings, team projects, etc) now might not get the real ‘me’.

So what’s the answer? Calm your mind.

But you’re at work! Can’t take a nap… Or meditate… Skip the stressballs.

Try this – just a little deep breathing can do it.

And the additional oxygen won’t hurt either.

No one even has to know.

Find as quiet a place as you can. Start by observing your breath. First take a normal breath. Now try taking a slow, deep breath. Then just breathe out again.

Do these a few times. Pay attention to how it feels on a normal breath vs the deep ones.

Do this for a few minutes and you will see a real difference. Seriously.