6 Tips To Deal With Workplace Anxiety
Is this situation common to you? You sitting at your desk at work feeling unsettled and anxious, worrying about how you can't meet an imminent deadline on a report your boss asked for.
His reminder mails you refused to reply to while distracting yourself gisting with your colleague about bbnaija finale are not helping your worry. Deadline is getting close, you start to harshly whisper to yourself something along the lines, “I need to focus and stop worrying! Just get back to work and stop stressing". You might even go as far as slapping your head in hopes that all the worries will somehow fly out and you’d “reset”.
Saying and doing all of that most likely wouldn’t work and next thing you know, it’s like closing hours Lagos traffic going on in your head (pure chaos). You start to think that you’re in danger of getting fired. You start to worry about what you’d do and where you’d start from if you get fired. Worry on auto-drive now, you start to worry about how much you’re worrying. Worst-case scenarios popping in your head like ‘kilode’ and before you know it, you’re experiencing a panic attack.
Here are 6 kinder ways to help you reduce workplace anxiety;
1. Accept it!
You should try not to hide from what you feel. It’s easy to get anxious when it has to do with work; a place where you’re almost always expected to be at your best and a lot is demanded of you. Let it in when it shows up and practice acceptance. Rather than trying to push it away (which by the way ends up being a waste of time and effort), make room for anxiety. It is showing up to try to bring your attention to something. The truth is you would only get anxious about something if you care about it. So acceptance helps you channel your efforts to what counts and could help reduce your anxiety level.
2. Take a break
The power of “breaks” can be highly underestimated. Taking a break is not going to continue the gist (🙄). Be mindful! You can take a brisk walk, plant your foot on the ground and just breathe. This will help you take your mind off your worries and gain focus on the task at hand!
3. Don’t stress eat or drink
It’s easy to start to munch on your favorite snack or possibly use a drink (such as coffee, carbonated drinks, etc), as a coping mechanism for the anxiety at that moment, try to avoid it. This is because you’re not eating out of hunger, it’s just your brain telling you to eat as a means to reduce stress and your cortisol levels. Stopping this is not always easy, so let’s start with replacing unhealthy options with healthy ones like water instead of sugary drinks, fruits instead of a bag of chips.
4. Try working on improving your time management
Sometimes we make the mistake of letting anxiety motivate us, by waiting until the last minute and when the anxiety builds immensely we start rushing to get things done (it can go all wrong o😪) How about we try better time management, split that bulky task into tiny bits and set friendly deadlines for each part. You can make yourself accountable by ensuring you record your progress.
5. Self-care
In the long run, you want to ensure you practice self-care. Eat healthily, make sure you’re getting enough sleep, dedicate time when you don’t think about work, you could simply be getting a mani-pedi, or having a relaxing outing with friends, get a massage or simply catch the latest show on Netflix and just chill. It could also mean health check-ups to ensure you’re in good health and the stress of Nigeria isn’t taking a toll on you. The important thing is ensuring you care for yourself.
6. Talk to a professional
This might seem like what everybody always says but it is important. Talk to somebody, but not just anybody, talk to a professional.
To cater to the growing needs of our clients, we have developed into a platform with carefully selected mental health experts to maintain quality of care and ensure you enjoy the unique EmpathySpace experience. Click the button below to connect with a therapist in the hub
Finally, it is important to remember that everybody is flawed and dealing with one thing or the other. There’s absolutely no shame in seeking help. After all, you wouldn’t be ashamed of migraines now, would you?
Same time next week!
Dr. Kafayah Ogunsola