My aim in this article is to explain to you how people respond to stress. To manage stress you need to overcome negative self talk. I will explain how one person has trouble in the workplace.
Why is it that Jane, 42 years of age, suddenly has difficulty going out with her husband? When she goes to parties she hides away from everyone. This behaviour seems to stem from her workplace where she feels everyone is critical of her. She was stressed at work. She feels she doesn't have her colleagues' respect. She believes that her boss is overly critical.
Jane's problem is that she is experiencing work stress. She feels constantly worn down and tired. Physically she feels nauseous and sick. Emotionally she feels depressed and terrified of making mistakes and she reports feeling unable to cope with work demands.
It is clear that Jane is not very productive or effective at work. She has limited stress management skills and she feels that her system is overloaded. Does this sound like you? Can you empathize with Jane? Do you feel as though things are on top of you? Have you lost the zing in your life and feel tired all the time? I your friends worrying about you? Is your life meaningless? Have you lost the ability to cope? Is your work suffering from how you feel?
If you believe that this fits you, you are having problems with stress at work. We seem to be working longer and being stress more. Some people think this is acceptable. Reported cardiac illnesses increased after the 9/11 attack. High blood pressure, strokes and related disorders increased. With emotional trauma comes physical ailments. When people are unwell emotionally they don't function well at work.
We need to know what causes this workplace stress. What are the factors that create problems for research work? There are many of them as you will soon see.
These include excessive workplace demands. Poor management and poor communication in the workplace cause stress. Oddly enough, poor relationships at home can cause workplace stress as much as interpersonal conflict with colleagues.
How do we cope with all these stresses in the workplace? This depends on you. Job changing is one solution but not a good one. A devious strategy for a bad boss is to list the boss' name with a headhunting agency in the hope that your boss will get a job elsewhere. Poor role specification in my view is a major problem for workplace stress. If you and your boss have different views of your job, stress and conflict will emerge. The first step in dealing with stress is to outline ways of controlling the situation.
But what does this mean? Here's the first message - YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK. You are your own pilot navigating your way through your own life. YOU are responsible for yourself. YOU can make the changes in your life if you want. If you are in a stressful situation, you CAN deal with the stress and the situation. The first principle is to know yourself and the nature of your self-talk. Most of how we feel is determined by what we think. We spend a very large amount of our day filling our head with self-talk - little conversations we have with ourselves.
What I am going to say sounds simple but it is true. We are our own worst enemy because we constantly criticize ourselves. The ratio of negative to positive thought is 10 to 1. Our constant self-criticism causes stress. Our situation can be made worse if our friends and loved ones criticize us. To start to manage workplace stress and personal stress we need to begin by eliminating negative self talk and increasing positive self regard.
Why is it that Jane, 42 years of age, suddenly has difficulty going out with her husband? When she goes to parties she hides away from everyone. This behaviour seems to stem from her workplace where she feels everyone is critical of her. She was stressed at work. She feels she doesn't have her colleagues' respect. She believes that her boss is overly critical.
Jane's problem is that she is experiencing work stress. She feels constantly worn down and tired. Physically she feels nauseous and sick. Emotionally she feels depressed and terrified of making mistakes and she reports feeling unable to cope with work demands.
It is clear that Jane is not very productive or effective at work. She has limited stress management skills and she feels that her system is overloaded. Does this sound like you? Can you empathize with Jane? Do you feel as though things are on top of you? Have you lost the zing in your life and feel tired all the time? I your friends worrying about you? Is your life meaningless? Have you lost the ability to cope? Is your work suffering from how you feel?
If you believe that this fits you, you are having problems with stress at work. We seem to be working longer and being stress more. Some people think this is acceptable. Reported cardiac illnesses increased after the 9/11 attack. High blood pressure, strokes and related disorders increased. With emotional trauma comes physical ailments. When people are unwell emotionally they don't function well at work.
We need to know what causes this workplace stress. What are the factors that create problems for research work? There are many of them as you will soon see.
These include excessive workplace demands. Poor management and poor communication in the workplace cause stress. Oddly enough, poor relationships at home can cause workplace stress as much as interpersonal conflict with colleagues.
How do we cope with all these stresses in the workplace? This depends on you. Job changing is one solution but not a good one. A devious strategy for a bad boss is to list the boss' name with a headhunting agency in the hope that your boss will get a job elsewhere. Poor role specification in my view is a major problem for workplace stress. If you and your boss have different views of your job, stress and conflict will emerge. The first step in dealing with stress is to outline ways of controlling the situation.
But what does this mean? Here's the first message - YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK. You are your own pilot navigating your way through your own life. YOU are responsible for yourself. YOU can make the changes in your life if you want. If you are in a stressful situation, you CAN deal with the stress and the situation. The first principle is to know yourself and the nature of your self-talk. Most of how we feel is determined by what we think. We spend a very large amount of our day filling our head with self-talk - little conversations we have with ourselves.
What I am going to say sounds simple but it is true. We are our own worst enemy because we constantly criticize ourselves. The ratio of negative to positive thought is 10 to 1. Our constant self-criticism causes stress. Our situation can be made worse if our friends and loved ones criticize us. To start to manage workplace stress and personal stress we need to begin by eliminating negative self talk and increasing positive self regard.
About the Author:
Dr Jeff, psychologist, helps stressed patients. Why put up with stress? Learn how to overcome stress. Click here for the free What is Stress by Dr Jeff. Don't waste another minute stressed and burnt out. Get moving - learn how to relieve stress.
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