Many people experience anxiety associated with their jobs or careers.
Job instability, office politics, deadlines, career advancement, and many other factors can cause workplace anxiety, and this can spill over into our interpersonal relationships, especially within the family unit. This can cause family strife, as the working individual injects or transfers the anxiety from their job into their family relationships.
There’s tactics you can use to mitigate & manage workplace anxiety.
Organization, good time management, and taking the time for self-care are all important tools for mitigating workplace anxiety.
It is also important to be realistic about your abilities and avoid overextending yourself. To the extent possible, avoid toxic co-workers and office gossip. It can also be useful to get a head start on projects whenever possible, and ask for help when necessary.
Most importantly for your personal relationships, you need to set boundaries. To the extent that your job permits, keep your work in the office and avoid taking work calls and emails from home.
Take advantage of your vacation time: try to use it to go somewhere that allows you to diminish your level of stress and return to work refreshed and rejuvenated.
Talking about your feelings, whether with a co-worker, family member, or therapist, can help you to understand and manage your anxiety.
Even the act of sharing your feelings can be cathartic and help to diminish your levels of stress.
Sharing your feelings with family members can also be important, as this allows them to understand the pressures you are under and may even help them overlook some venting behaviors.
One of the most important things is not to let workplace anxiety affect your personal and family relationships.
This requires a certain level of self-management. If you have a long commute, spending the time it takes to get home to cool off before interacting with your family members can be a useful tool. Calling a friend or other confidante to discuss your work situation before interacting with your family can also help you arrive home in a less agitated state. You can even discuss with family members that you need a certain, reasonable cooling off period after arriving home before being asked to address family and relationship issues.
All these tactics can help prevent workplace anxiety from harming your personal relationships.
If you find that workplace anxiety is persistent, irrational, or consistently overwhelming, you may suffer from an anxiety disorder. Speaking to a therapist can help you to diagnose such an issue and develop tools to manage your condition.
Even if your workplace anxiety does not rise to the level of a disorder, speaking with a therapist can help you to understand the sources of your anxiety and learn how to effectively manage it.
Next thing we’re going to do is Lion’s Breath. Lion’s Breath is a powerful technique which helps release pent up energy, including stress, anxiety and anger. See if you can do it along with me…