HOW TO CHANGE EVERYDAY HABITS THAT DIAL UP YOUR WORKPLACE STRESS

HOW TO CHANGE EVERYDAY HABITS THAT DIAL UP YOUR WORKPLACE STRESS

By changing our everyday habits we can have some control of our day. One way to break habits is to focus on how damaging these habits actually are. Here are three ways to help change our habits:

Identify your negative habits. People develop habits to cope with stress and get a small sense of reward, but they rarely provide long-term relief. This provides a temporary distraction from the negative stressor but fails to address it. Other habits actually create negative side effects. For example, habitually looking at matters beyond the scope of our control can leave us more stressed than focusing on the present that we can control. The worst habits are ones that create more tension. Oftentimes we dwell on what could go wrong and a host of other “what-ifs,” and wind up feeling even more stress. Studies show that gaining an awareness of these habits can make us less nervous!

Change your thinking about what’s rewarding. The strongest habits are the ones you think are the most rewarding. But what you find rewarding can change. Once you identify your stress-based habits, stop and think about them when they occur.

If you’re concerned about the future, take note of how that makes you feel and how it hampers your work. Moments of apprehension are opportunities to see how bad habits make you feel and how they lead to unwanted behaviors, from diminishing your productivity to making you lose your patience with another person. Instead prioritize establishing boundaries on activities that cause unwanted emotions, and take more breaks during the workday to recharge.

Create new habits. Abandoning these negative-focused habits leaves space to replace them with new ones. Experts suggest that you confront feelings of worry and stress with a habitual mindful response, such as:

• Be curious. Instead of putting yourself down for being stressed or obsessing over where the worry is coming from, examine it. What does it feel like? Where do you feel it? How has it changed from when you first felt it?
• RAIN. Relax into the present moment. Accept it. Investigate your reactions: feelings, thoughts, sensations. Note what’s happening.
• Breathe. Breathe into the places where tension shows up, and breathe out apprehension.
• Think loving and kind thoughts. Send kind, caring thoughts to others—and yourself!—to create a feeling of warmth and peace.
• Take note. Consciously identify what’s going on, moment by moment: label your thoughts, feelings, and what you hear, see, touch, taste, and smell.

Then reinforce these habits by observing how good they make you feel.

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