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Stress can be an extremely detrimental force when allowed to get out of control – not only in terms of your overall sense of well-being, and your personal health, but also in terms of how things play out in your professional life.
In business – and especially if you are an entrepreneur – there will inevitably be all sorts of challenges and hurdles that appear along the way, which can be deeply disheartening if you don’t have good stress management skills. If you need to resolve a legal dispute with the help of solicitors, for example, that process can be taxing.
Here are a handful of tips for staying resilient against stress in your professional life.
Get regular exercise and physical activity, on a daily basis
At first glance, it may seem silly to mention things like regular exercise and physical activity in the context of your professional life. After all, unless you’re an athlete or a personal trainer, these things are completely separate from your personal life, aren’t they?
It’s important to realise that, as human beings, the state of our health and fitness, and the ways we spend our time in general, will influence us in every situation we engage in – whether that’s personal or professional. And this is seldom more apparent than with regards to stress management.
Getting regular exercise and physical activity not only helps us to be healthier and look more athletic, but it also helps to make us more resilient to stress on a deep biological level, while also helping us to deal with stress that we have already accumulated, as well.
It’s important not to completely train yourself into the ground at maximum intensity, of course, since this can be very stressful in of itself. But regular, moderate level exercise and physical activity can have a tremendously positive impact.
Have a good task and project organising system in place, so that you can be as effective as possible without becoming overwhelmed
If you are barely getting a handle on your various professional tasks and obligations, and are always at risk of forgetting important aspects of a given project that you might be working on, any external factor that makes things even slightly more chaotic can be completely devastating to your ability to stay on track.
Not only will these relatively extreme situations cause a massive spike in your stress levels, though, but even just the low-level stress that you accumulate each day by not being organised can really wear on you over time.
Having a good task and project management system in place can really help you to deal with stressful situations effectively, while also making you more resilient both in practical and emotional terms, against unforeseen developments.
Maintain good channels of communication with your colleagues and clients, so that you are less likely to be surprised by sudden developments
One of the situations that is most likely to cause stress and anxiety in a professional context, is having poor lines of communication with your colleagues and clients, such that there is a real risk of you stepping on each other’s toes on a regular basis, in addition to failing to work together smoothly and effectively.
Maintaining good channels of communication with your colleagues and clients can help you to resolve potentially negative situations before they come to a head, and can also help you to better avoid generating excess stress through interpersonal disputes.
Not only that, but you’re also likely to have a better read of what’s going on within your business or industry, if you maintain good channels of communication.
Get adequate sleep every night, and eat a stress-reducing diet
Getting adequate amounts of restful sleep each night – ideally in the region of eight hours – is one of the most powerful lifestyle practices of all for helping to effectively manage stress.
Research findings show that when people are chronically sleep deprived – or when they don’t get restful sleep due to having an irregular sleeping cycle – they experience more stress, misread people’s facial expressions and being more hostile, and more.
In addition to making a point of getting adequate sleep every night, it can also be a great idea to eat a stress reducing diet if at all possible – in other words, one which doesn’t cause an overactive fight or flight response, and frequent spikes of adrenaline and cortisol.
Generally speaking, eating three times a day – with breakfast being early, and dinner being at least a few hours before bed – helps to keep stress hormone levels better managed. Eating a diet high in wholefood carbohydrate sources also has a powerful effect in dampening the stress response, whereas popular low-carb diets such as the keto diet lead to an elevated stress response.
You may also like: 5 ways for small business owners to de-stress
Image source: Pixabay.com
