Our work takes up a large proportion of our life so maintaining our mental health in the workplace is extremely important. These are the tried and tested secrets that helped me with managing workplace anxiety.
When work gets stressful it’s important to know the different ways it can be managed. Today we’ll take a look at items and strategies to help with managing workplace anxiety.
After learning these secrets you’ll be more prepared next time work ramps up.
This post is all about the Secrets to Managing Workplace Anxiety.
*Disclaimer* I am not a medical professional, all advice given on this website is from my own research and experience. It is recommended you seek medical help to help with anything struggles you are experiencing.
Managing Workplace Anxiety.
One place I find really spikes my anxiety is work, especially if it’s work you don’t enjoy. Just before going to work is when I felt the symptoms of anxiety the most and actually what caused most of my panic attacks. Annoyingly, we need to work because we need to pay bills. What a stupid system we created for ourselves, hey? So how can we make the workplace better for our stress and anxiety?
Plants.
If you don’t have plants in the workplace yet, you need to. There are a bunch of reasons why so let’s look at a few before we talk about the effects on stress levels.
- They can boost creativity.
- Plants can help reduce noise levels (they absorb sound).
- They clean the air.
- Help reduce sickness.
- Improve concentration.
The most important reason to us:
Reduce stress.
A study was conducted in 2010 that looked at the effects of having plants in the office. They found those with plants experienced 37% less anxiety AND a 58% reduction in depression. This could be linked to plants or the colour of plants as the colour green is associated with calmness and safety.
Lavender essential oil.
Head over to “5 Of The Best Natural Anxiety Relief Products We Love.” to find out more. But essentially it’s the smell of lavender that helps our parasympathetic nervous system to do its job helping us to relax. So anyway you can get the smell of lavender around you will help. If you can’t waft essential oils all around your office check out lava ball jewellery, lava is a porous rock and so when you drop some essential oils onto it the smell remains for longer. Or you can check out essential oil jewellery to find one that will suit you!
Fidget items.
You’ve heard of the new fidget spinners for kids, I’ve actually found it helps for grown a** me too!
However, I don’t use the fidget spinners. I use items that I can play with in my hands and focus any extra energy towards. If you’ve ever seen Maid in Manhattan, you might remember to make a speech the main guy holds a paper clip in his hand. He explains it’s like a lightning rod to draw energy away.
What you use is completely up to you, I personally use crystals to focus my energy. I turn them in my hand or pass them between my hands to calm me. Crystals are also suggested to bring you certain energies, protecting you from others. Although I feel some of this might be a placebo effect for me. (I think if it works it works and sometimes you don’t need a study to prove how you feel). If crystals are something you’d like to try, two I’d recommend to help with anxiety are; Amethyst and Rose Quartz.
Use the physical to distract the mental.
I also found that a physical sensation can help to calm my thoughts. A panic attack strategy I stumbled upon was to use your finger to draw from the base of your palm to the top of your thumb, then retrace it back to the base. Do the same for your index finger, middle finger, ring finger and little finger.
Slow your breath to match the path you trace, so when you trace up to your fingertip breathe in, trace to the base breathing out.
I use a crystal to trace the path, sometimes just tracing the path is enough to calm your thoughts. Other times you might need to focus on your breath too.
Stress balls.
When you feel your stress levels rising, it’s a good idea to get moving somehow. This works to burn off the cortisol running around in your blood. Unfortunately, these days our work is mainly stationary and it’s not like we can just get up and start moving.
So a stress ball can help you in two ways.
- When you feel like screaming, squeeze hard. If someone annoys me in work, or if it feels so overwhelming that I want to run :p I squeeze really hard to try and release some tension from my body. Or I imagine someone or something as the ball!#
- Fidget. A stress ball is also great to fidget with, to pass between your hands or just continue to squeeze and release. This helps us to focus energy and get the blood moving to help us monitor that stress and anxiety without having to leave the workplace.
Switch the coffee for herbal tea.
I know you feel like you need coffee for energy sometimes, and I definitely do. But it’s also contributing to the nervous energy we feel when we are anxious. If you feel like you need the energy boost try some Matcha tea. The benefits of Matcha towards anxiety are said to be linked with the L-Theanin, which causes us to relax without us feeling sleepy. However, there are a lot of beneficial nutrients found in Matcha so it could be everything combined which helps us out.
If you don’t feel like you need the extra energy and focus, a tea I would recommend is Chamomile. An even better suggestion for the first-time Chamomile drinkers is Chamomile and honey. (Until you are used to the Chamomile flavour. There are more and more studies being conducted to suggest there is a link between Chamomile and its help with anxiety.
Extras.
If your work place is more relaxed a few others I would recommend are: music, especially lofi beats. (LoFi Chill Hop Study Beats on Apple music is a go to of mine!). Even if you can pop in a headphone I’d recommend it. Candles, if you can! Honestly, the light and effect candles give off really help me to relax, it’s also another thing to draw my attention to instead of my thoughts when they feel a little too much!
This post was all about the Secrets to Managing Workplace Anxiety.
Other posts you might like:
5 Of The Best Natural Anxiety Relief Products We Love.
Top Foods that Help Reduce Depression and Anxiety.
4 Easy Breakfast Recipes for Mental Health.
