Stress Busters

The Stress Busters List:

• The Dangers.
• Stress-Building Beliefs.
• Helpful Techniques
• Stress Builders and Stress Busters.

Stress and worry on the job can be harmful! They cause physical and emotional problems that may damage both your health and your performance. Furthermore, stress grows! Excessive worry is a major element in the vicious cycle of tension: the physical sensations of stress-tense muscles, headaches, insomnia and so forth-lead to catastrophic stress-building thoughts, which in turn aggravate unpleasant physical feelings, and so on up the tension cycle. Soon, just the thought of preparing an assignment or meeting a deadline triggers all the symptoms of stress, along with an overwhelming wish to avoid tasks.

But you can learn to avoid your "stress-building" thoughts and replace them with alternative "stress-busting" thoughts!

When you are under stress, what messages are you sending yourself? Are they alarming or reassuring? You can decrease your stress by learning to talk to yourself in a reassuring way. This is what "stress-busting" is about--getting your thoughts back on a reassuring track.

Stress-busting thoughts come from what we call the "Rational You." The Rational You thinks its way through life's events, evaluating the degree of safety versus danger involved. What happens to the Rational You in a stressful situation? It gets pushed aside by stress building thoughts which disrupt concentration and productivity at work.

Stress-Building Beliefs

Perfectionism

• Do you feel a constant pressure to achieve?
• Do you criticize yourself when you're not perfect?
• Do you feel you haven't done enough no matter how hard you try?
• Do you give up pleasure in order to be the best in everything you do?

Control

• Do you have to be perfectly in control at all times?
• Do you worry about how you appear to others when you are nervous?
• Do you feel that any lack of control is a sign of weakness or failure?
• Are you uncomfortable delegating projects to others?

People Pleasing

• Does your self-esteem depend on everyone else's opinion of you?
• Do you sometimes avoid assignments because you're afraid of disappointing your boss?
• Are you better at caring for others than caring for yourself?
• Do you keep most negative feelings inside to avoid displeasing others?

Competence

• Do you feel you can never do as good a job as other people?
• Do you feel your judgment is poor?
• Do you feel you lack common sense?
• Do you feel like an impostor when told your work is good?

Yes answers indicate potential road blocks to a stress-free work life. Challenge these beliefs. Experiment. Try acting in a way that is opposite to your usual behavior. Then, evaluate the results. For example, if you feel overburdened because of a need to control, delegate a task and observe the consequences.

Become aware of how your stress-building beliefs affect your behavior. Replace them with more realistic and less stressful thoughts.

Helpful Techniques

Keep a record of stressful situations and rate the actual level of stress from O (most relaxed) to 10 (most stressed). Start to monitor your stress on the "Practice Journal" worksheet before, during and after stressful events or situations. As you begin to observe your levels of stress, you will notice that these levels are not constant. You will find that stress levels increase when you are concentrating on your most alarming thoughts and bodily reactions, but stress levels fall when your attention turns away from these areas. This will show you that one way to reduce the level of stress in your life is to actively turn away from negative "stress building" thoughts and to concentrate on positive stress busting ways of thinking.

Combating negative thoughts and replacing them with positive ones takes practice, but the results are worth it. Review the facts. What is your evidence? Is there another way to view the situation? If not, what is the worst thing that could happen? You may have been concentrating on the worst possible, but by no means the most likely, outcome.

Stress Builders and Stress Busters

Stress Builder: "I'll never get this project in on time."

Stress Buster: "If I stay focused and take it one step at a time, I'll make steady progress."

Stress Builder: "My supervisor didn't say good morning. He's probably displeased with my work, and I'll get a bad evaluation."

Stress Buster: "I'm jumping to conclusions. My supervisor may have been in a bad mood. So far all my evaluations have been positive, so unless I get some negative feedback, I'll assume my supervisor is pleased with my work."  

If you have general stress at work, anxiety giving presentations, or fear that your will be called upon during meetings, I have experience as an outside EAP as well resolving work issues in my private practice.