When you think about combating stress and anxiety at work, you probably think of a big, time-consuming intervention: a week-long beach vacation, perhaps. A spa day. Or maybe find a new job altogether?
Those are all great ideas, and can probably do a lot for your overall stress level.
But what—apart from taking a few breaths before logging into your next Zoom—can you do in the middle of a busy day to maintain some calm? Try these four tricks, which you can do in less than a minute:
Get out of your ‘fear spiral’
Author Stephanie Vozza spoke with biologist Mary Poffenroth to learn about different ways to fight depression. The good news is that most of these strategies only take a few seconds, and can help you get out of a panic situation.
Another way is to use a concept that is no longer used in the workplace: smell. Poffenroth will rub a little tea tree oil under his nose before the big presentation. “This burst of strong smell helps to stop the amygdala, so that you can go back more to the brave place,” he told Vozza. “Peppermint also works well. Anything sharp and powerful will shake your mind into what I call ‘fear.’
Keep a record of your feelings
Creativity and learning to recognize your emotions can help you thrive under pressure, according to author and former FBI special agent Errol Doebler. He recommends logging your feelings four times a day for a week, because awareness is the first step to getting a better handle on your emotions.
“You’re probably angry because you have to write this noise,” Doebler tells Vozza. “I don’t care what it is. I want to be able to point it out and say it. At the end of the first week, people come back and say, ‘I didn’t realize how angry or frustrated I was, and I didn’t realize that this was how I was reacting to that.’ Awareness and recognition should come first in your mind.”
Write down your concerns
You are probably familiar with journaling as a way to cope with stress. Taking a little time to write down how you’re feeling and what’s stressing you out can help you feel more in control.
“It helps us slow down the noise in our mind that comes out every day in every part of our lives,” Chris Mosunic, chief clinical officer at the relaxation app Calm, tells writer Gwen Moran. “When you start writing a journal, you slow down and things start coming out that you didn’t even know what you were thinking [never] you mean any other person.”
Try breathing through a box
If you only have a few minutes before a big presentation or job interview, you might try breathing through a box. First, you breathe for five seconds. Then hold your breath for five seconds. Finally, breathe in for five seconds and hold for another two.
“Oxygen in the system allows you to chemically burn adrenaline,” said Richard Newman, author of Raise Your Impact. “You can move yourself out of the sympathetic nervous system, which is fight-or-flight mode, into the parasympathetic nervous system of rest and digestion.”
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