Dealing with stress and anxiety through wellness
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During 2019 (so imagine what the figures will be now…) 79% of workers experienced stress at work resulting in sleeping problems, reduced confidence, low motivation and less time at work. Why does focusing on wellness help us? Because if we approach wellness properly, we achieve physical, mental and emotional balance…
Having recently found myself sliding gently down the slippery slope of stress and anxiety towards the dreaded depression reminded me that leading by example is always a good idea and I really should follow my own advice instead of simply coaching my clients and ignoring myself…
Wellness is so incredibly important for us at all times, but particularly when things get tough. The better our level of wellness, the more resistance we have to all problems. Wellness increases our resilience which is always a good thing.
During 2019 (so imagine the increase for 2020 with covid) 79% of workers have experienced stress at work (Capita Workplace Wellness, Employee Insight Report 2019) resulting in sleeping problems, reduced confidence, low motivation and less time actually spent at work. As well as this there are other impacts which not only affect the person who is stressed, but also those around them — 44% becoming more irritated, 25% drinking more alcohol, 15% smoking more and 28% giving their families a hard time because of it — not an easy situation for any of us.
As well as the above if we don’t do something concrete to reduce or control our stress and anxiety it can actively contribute to other more serious physical health problems like high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes and mental health issues like depression, anxiety, psychosis and PTSD.
When we feel stressed our body is stimulated to produce more of the hormones that trigger our ‘fight or flight’ response. If this is as a result of a genuinely dangerous situation and lasts only a short time that is fine, we return to our normal state and carry on living happily and actively. However, our body can’t tell the difference between a real danger or threat and the stress that we have more and more of in our everyday lives, both at work and at home. Our body is therefore producing this ‘fight or flight’ hormone far, far too often which then causes damage to our…
