Over the last six months, our most popular programs have been on two topics: improving communication and how to deal with stress. It was also the #3 most requested topic in our recent reader survey.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no surprise, considering\u00a043% of adults reported feeling more anxious<\/a>\u00a0in 2024 that they did in 2023 (and who knows what 2025 will bring).<\/p>\n Just look at the general state of things around you and it makes sense that The American Institute of Stress<\/strong><\/a> estimates that stress costs U.S. employers more than $300 billion\u00a0annually due to absenteeism, turnover, decreased productivity and direct medical, legal and insurance costs.<\/p>\n (I am curious what legal costs come from someone being stressed. Maybe lawsuits related to an overworked employee snapping at a rude customer?)<\/p>\n While we can\u2019t control the amount of stressors we experience in life, we can figure out ways to handle them better. No, I\u2019m not talking about drugs and alcohol\u2026 I\u2019m talking about humor.<\/p>\n For all the negative effects of work stress\u2014high blood pressure, muscle tension, irritable mood swings\u2014humor is one of the best ways to cope with the overwhelm. Humor lowers blood pressure, relaxes muscles, and helps you laugh instead of cry. Or laugh after you\u2019ve cried. Or laugh while crying\u2026 which is terrifying to witness.<\/p>\n So how do you maintain resilience in the current environment? Here are\u00a0four simple steps to managing stress at work<\/strong>:<\/p>\n 1. Reject stressful situations.<\/strong><\/p>\n The simplest (but often hardest)\u00a0way to combat stress<\/strong>\u00a0is to simply avoid it. Reject the activities or environments that cause stress by choosing not to do them or delegating them to someone else.<\/p>\n For example, reading the news stresses me out: it\u2019s full of doom, gloom, and things that boomed. So, I stopped listening to news stories first thing in the morning and replaced it with a crossword puzzle or jumping into creative work.<\/p>\n Now, if I could just get Pretzel (my wife) to do the same thing for both of our sakes, that would be great (hi, mi amor!). But she \u201cclaims\u201d that staying up-to-date on worldly events is \u201cimportant for her job.\u201d I mean it\u2019s not like she works at the UN or something\u2026 wait, no, she does work at the UN, so she may have a point.<\/p>\n For the rest of us, think about what you can stop doing by creating a to-don\u2019t list of the things on your to-do list that you no longer need to do. Be ruthless. If it\u2019s not something you have to do and it doesn\u2019t bring you joy (now or in the future), cut it or give it to someone else.<\/p>\n 2. Reframe work stress.<\/strong><\/p>\n The second humor strategy for coping with stress is to\u00a0reframe<\/strong>\u00a0the situations that cause you stress.<\/p>\n When faced with stress at work, there are two ways to react to it. The first is to let it get to you, to succumb to the negativity and allow it to consume your mental and physical energy.<\/p>\n The second (more effective) reaction is to find a way to laugh at the stress, to see it as a challenge to overcome, not a way of being.<\/p>\n Simply\u00a0reframing a stressful situation into a humorous one<\/strong>\u00a0can help reduce the tension of stress. Rather than dwelling on why a situation is so terrible, find a way to find the humor in it. Why lament over traffic when you can use it as an opportunity for an epic sing-along to the\u00a0Hamilton<\/em>\u00a0soundtrack?<\/p>\n Changing the way you think about a stressful activity or event can help you stop feeling stressed in the first place.<\/p>\n 3. Relieve stressful experiences.<\/strong><\/p>\n It would be naive to believe that you could reframe everything you have to do into something fun. If you\u2019ve just been fired or lost a loved one, it can be difficult to find the fun in the situation.<\/p>\n Forcing a smile on your face can sometimes be worse than accepting the reality as it is. But that doesn\u2019t mean the stress has to stay.<\/p>\n The third way to build resilience is to\u00a0relieve stress after you be stressed<\/strong>. Yes, exercise and meditation are great ways to do this, but so is finding an excuse to laugh.<\/p>\n When we laugh, we increase blood flow through the body, relax muscles, and burn calories. Not a lot of calories, but it\u2019s definitely healthier to laugh than to eat a Snickers.<\/p>\n The good news: this is basically a prescription for watching cat videos after a stressful meeting. The important thing is that when something causes you stress, you do something to relieve it.<\/p>\n 4. Recharge from stress at work.<\/strong><\/p>\n No matter how good your sense of humor or how adept you are at the previous strategies, you\u2019re still going to face periods of prolonged stressed (such as when working against an important deadline or spending the holidays with family).<\/p>\n The fourth way to handle stress at work is by\u00a0recharging\u00a0<\/strong>your human batteries, to take a break to recombobulate every now and then. Studies have found that when you take a vacation, you come back with increased feelings of productivity, ability to sleep, positive attitudes toward your job, and way too many Instagram selfies.<\/p>\n But taking a break shouldn\u2019t just be a weekly or monthly activity. It shouldn\u2019t even just be daily; there is strong evidence that points to the value of\u00a0managing your stress at an hourly level<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Research by chronobiologists (perhaps one of the coolest job titles) have found that most people\u2019s minds and bodies need recovery every 90 to 120 minutes. That\u2019s why planned breaks, aka\u00a0strategic disengagement<\/a>, is so important.<\/p>\n Create a Plan Now for Stress Later<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing revolutionary about these steps (although a lot of people like the idea of to-don\u2019t list). They make sense on paper (or on screen), the trick is implementing them, especially when you\u2019re already stressin\u2019.<\/p>\n One of the best things you can do in a period of \u201cno stress\u201d is to create a plan for when you\u2019re feeling \u201cyes, lots of stress.\u201d Rather than wait until you\u2019re completely overwhelmed, start managing your stress now.<\/p>\n You can\u2019t control the amount of stress that will come your way, but you can better manage it with these simple steps. It\u2019s time to put the superpower of humor to work for you so you can be more productive, less stress, and happier.<\/p>\n (an)drew<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n![\"four](\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F61179eed-9288-48d2-b13f-81a67f19e2db_1024x1024.png "\\"four")
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To learn more about stress, go to stress.org<\/a><\/h6>\n
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