How to cope with stress when “everything is on fire” at work?

What is stress

Stress is a normal reaction of a healthy body to threat or overwork. In this way, he tries to resist high stress, fear, excessive physical and psychological activity. As a result of such protection, the nervous system is primarily affected.

If the overload protection works normally, this is not a problem. This way a person remains cheerful, efficient and fit for a long time. However, such loads are often prohibitive. This has a detrimental effect on health and causes chronic diseases.

Stress is an abnormal state of the body. When a person is exposed to it for a long time, the body intensively spends energy.

How to get out of anxiety on your own?

In cases of panic and anxiety, breathing exercises are widely used—most often, experts recommend diaphragmatic breathing, square breathing, or four-count breathing. These are all different options for breathing exercises that allow you to reduce anxiety and tension here and now. It is advisable to practice breathing before a stressful situation occurs. The mechanism is simple: deeper and rarer breathing allows you to normalize signals coming from peripheral organs to the brain and interrupt the acute stress reaction.

Speaking of other daily exercises that help reduce anxiety, let's analyze how much physical activity has decreased recently. Remote work, cars and other types of transport, online communication - all this makes us less mobile every day. Moreover, any physical activity has a whole list of beneficial effects - from switching attention and distraction to training the cardiovascular system and normalizing the psycho-emotional state (for example, due to the release of dopamine). Incorporating moderate-intensity physical activity, preferably one that you enjoy, is a good way to increase your resistance to stress. In this context, it doesn’t matter what you choose - dancing, cycling or the gym - all this with regular exercise (at least three to four times a week) will give the desired effect.

Source: https://www.glamour.ru/story/kakie-sposoby-borby-so-stressom-sushestvuyut-razbiraemsya-vmeste-s-vrac…

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What are the causes of stress?

There are many causes of stress. Each person has an individual body and psyche. The same factor may not affect one of us at all, but cause a violent reaction in another. The most common factors in the development of stress:

• conflict situations at work or at home;
• discontent;
• lack of money;
• long absence of a full vacation;
• routine life with no change;
• death of a relative or loved one;
• lack of vitamins, poor nutrition;
• problems in sexual life;
• fears;
• loneliness;
• sudden change in environment;
• other reasons that can hook a person.

Symptoms of stress

Each person reacts to stress differently. What all reactions have in common is a negative impact on the psyche and physical state. The person becomes aggressive and his mood worsens. It happens that stress also causes other reactions - silence, detachment, passivity and isolation. It all depends on the type of temperament.

Typical signs of stress are:

• inability to concentrate on any one type of activity;
• causeless attacks of irritability, anger, dissatisfaction with others;
• lethargy and weakness, depression;
• insomnia, nightmares;
• inability to completely relax and unwind;
• panic attacks, constant feeling of fear;
• desire to cry, melancholy;
• lack of trust in yourself and the people around you;
• lack of appetite or, conversely, the desire to eat a lot;
• sudden appearance of bright and strong emotions (for example, laughter, which quickly gives way to tears and vice versa);
• increased sweating, excitability, itchy skin and headache;
• dizziness, rapid breathing;
• numbness of the limbs;
• nervous tics, desire to bite nails or lips;
• interest in alcohol or drugs;
• chronic fatigue that does not disappear even after a night's rest.

Irritation and discomfort

When we are nervous, we begin to get lost, when we are lost, we become nervous. You need to be able to break this vicious circle. Make it a habit to breathe deeply whenever you feel irritated. This will help you calm down quickly enough to make the right decisions.

Pay attention to yoga. This activity is designed to ensure internal harmony, and this is precisely what is lacking in people exposed to stress. A few tens of minutes a day, and you are already quite capable of controlling your emotions and easily escaping discomfort. Breathing techniques, correct postures and thoughts are all aimed at enabling you to achieve absolute calm.

Why is stress dangerous?

When stressed, cortisol is released, which changes the functioning of the entire body. The cardiovascular and nervous systems are primarily affected. People who are often under stress experience the following symptoms:

• redness of the skin, appearance of a rash;
• chronic fatigue;
• losing weight or vice versa, developing obesity;
• bowel disorders.

Prolonged exposure to stress is dangerous for the body as it causes such consequences.

1. Increased blood pressure. At the same time, under the influence of adrenaline, cardiac output increases. All this leads to an increased risk of developing a heart attack. People who smoke and are overweight have a significantly higher risk of heart disease.
2. People who are constantly under stress are at risk of developing acute respiratory diseases and bronchial asthma. This happens because prolonged overexertion and hormonal imbalances disrupt the functioning of the immune system. Medical research shows that chronic stressful situations in adults adversely affect the health of their children.
3. Chronic stress negatively affects the functioning of the digestive tract. A person often develops gastritis and peptic ulcers. In addition, stress negatively affects the intestinal microflora, which causes pain, flatulence, diarrhea or constipation.
4. Problems of the musculoskeletal system. Increases bone fragility and the likelihood of developing a fracture.
5. Endocrine disorders. Stress leads to increased production of glucocorticoids, in particular cortisol. An increased level of this hormone in the blood can cause diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and depression. The risk of developing autoimmune pathologies increases.
6. Stress depletes the central and autonomic nervous system.

To prevent the dangerous effects of stress on the body, it is important to learn how to resist it.

take care of yourself

Have you found yourself in at least one risk group? This means that you urgently need to take measures to prevent work stress from affecting your health.

Get enough sleep! If there is not enough rest, then the reaction to stress will be inadequate. In addition, lack of sleep combined with stress can cause heart attack, stroke, and thrombosis.

Eat right. It is very important to get enough B vitamins (the body uses them especially actively during stress), omega-3 fatty acids - they will help prevent depression, magnesium - it fights muscle tension, antioxidants - they reduce the damage that cortisol (a hormone released during stress) ) causes brain cells.

Play sports. Physical education is training not only the muscles, but the whole body. During exercise, the same hormones are released into the blood as during stress, but in small quantities. This helps the body adapt and survive in a critical situation.

With all my might. How and when should you rest in the office? More details

Ways to deal with stress

In any stressful situation, it is very important not to lose composure and control. You can cope with surging emotions with the help of such actions.

1. Sit down and relax. It is important to ask yourself how important the problem is at the moment and how its solution (or lack of solution) will affect the near future (a few months, a year or five years). This will help you understand the importance of anxiety.
2. Write down on paper individual words or phrases that come to mind during stress. This will be a bit of a distraction. You can read these phrases the next day and understand how significant stressful events are.
3. Run your index finger horizontally across your lips. This technique calms well and quickly.
4. Tighten all your muscles, clench your fists and grit your teeth for 10 seconds. This will help you feel how your body switches and how relaxation comes
5. Try any classic relaxation methods. This could be a walk, a warm bath, herbal tea, a bar of chocolate, a hobby, or chatting with friends. Perhaps this is what will help you relax.
6. Try to turn a negative into a positive. The most important thing is not to let stress take over.
7. Stop overwhelming stress and negative thoughts. To do this, you can simply clap your palms.
8. You can’t turn off your phone or ignore the attention of loved ones and friends. Even the thought of hiding from others should be avoided in every possible way. Live communication is the best medicine against stress. On the contrary, you should not isolate yourself: this will only aggravate the situation.

Recommended techniques for dealing with stress are simple. If you contact them for several days after a difficult situation, they will definitely help. Even one of the suggested techniques will help cope with a difficult situation.

By learning to control stress, you can reduce the risks of developing depression, bronchial asthma, heart and vascular diseases, gastritis and obesity. For this you need very little. Even small lifestyle changes will improve your condition and reduce the negative effects of stress.

As a rapid diagnostic method, the Reader scale for self-assessment of stress levels can be recommended.

Be gone, worries!

Of course, taking preventative measures will make you more resilient in the face of stress. But what to do at a time when emotions overflow?

Try relaxing with breathing exercises. Deep breathing will quickly normalize blood pressure, heart rate, and reduce stress levels. Inhale deeply for 4 counts and exhale through your mouth for 8 counts. Repeat the exercise 3-4 times.

Another quick way to relieve stress is to massage the back of your neck. There are several points here that you can act on to relieve tension and get rid of headaches. To massage, tilt your head forward and place your index, middle and ring fingers on the area located below the base of the skull (the distance between the fingers of both hands is about 3 cm). Massage these areas quite intensively for 5-7 minutes, breathing during the massage should be slow and deep.

How to calm down quickly

Drink some water. Cool liquid, drunk in small sips, helps to even out your breathing and control yourself. Quickly clench and unclench your fists. Sudden movements reduce the level of adrenaline, one of the stress hormones. If possible, breathe in the air for at least five minutes. During times of stress, the brain often experiences a lack of oxygen.