Stress at work

Stress is one of the biggest problems employees admit to suffering from. The main causes of stress are usually due to workload, lack of job security or personal problems. Mental health in the workplace has an impact on the quality of work delivered, the number of sick days employees take and the general working atmosphere.

Corporate health is not just a buzzword. Its implementation is integral and necessary for mental health in the workplace. It’s important to ensure your colleagues or team are working in a stress-free environment and have access to resources that can help alleviate stress.
Encouraging your team or colleagues to exercise and eat healthily are two of the best stressbusters around.

Some ways employers or line managers can implement this include:

Encouraging staff to take brisk walks during lunch breaks
Hiring a yoga instructor to come into workplace and give staff free yoga sessions once a month
Offer employees subsidised gym memberships
Give out free fresh fruit and other healthy snacks to employees
Offer participation in frequent corporate mental health workshops

Try this today: Cognitive reframing to reduce stress
Don’t be put off by this term. Really this is just another way of changing the way you look at something. Take for example when your heart is beating fast, your mouth is dry and when you have sweaty palms – instead of thinking of this as fear, you could instead reframe it to tell yourself you’re excited.

The frame through which we choose to look at something changes its meaning for us. Stress is present in all our lives, but depending on how we look at it, it can have a much greater or lesser impact. If we can learn to embrace the concept of stress as something normal, temporary, and expected, we can start to be more resilient.

It’s time to engage with stress and view it more positively. This can encourage you to believe in yourself more and ensure you are resilient to deal with whatever is thrown at you.

And finally, our tip of the month; the one thing we ask you to do today if you do nothing else…
Practice gratitude: With the world around us feeling uncertain, focusing our attention on our constants, or even small positives can really help to re-shape our thoughts, which overall has a huge impact on how we’re feeling. Take the time, daily if you can, to reflect on three key things that you’re grateful for. It doesn’t have to be anything super positive or exceptional, it could be taking a moment to be grateful for the air in your lungs or the coffee in your mug.