5 Powerful Strategies to Beat Stress in Your Career

Working remotely these days? Feeling a little tense about all the COVID-19, or coronavirus pandemic talk?  Are you wondering how all this might eventually impact your work situation - and subsequently - your paycheck?  Learning to deal with job stress can take time and effort, but there's no better time than the present to get started on your journey to successfully handling stress and enjoying your job, day after day.

And here are a few strategies to help you beat stress at the office.  It makes a better work environment for you and everyone you work with!

There are mental and emotional manifestations of stress, but there are physical ones as well. Recognizing those triggers can help make it easier to understand where most of your stress is coming from. Knowing where you experience most of your stress won't remove it. But knowledge is half the battle.  It will help you start finding ways to lower your stress.
Some things that make you stressed while at work can include:

• Performance evaluations
• Deadlines
• Making mistakes
• Work overload
• Bad supervisors/leaders
•  Office conflict

But even if there are a lot of things going on that cause you stress, you can let that stress go and feel good again. Here's how. 

1. Remember to breathe. Breathing is vital for survival, but it's also great for calming you down when you breathe effectively. Inhale slowly through your nose, and feel the air fill up your abdomen, not your lungs. Then exhale slowly through your mouth. If you do that a few times, you'll feel calmer and less stressed. It's great for anxiety, too.
2. Consider prayer, meditation, and/or yoga.   These activities can rejuvenate your spirit and help your attitude.  I love all three in terms of helping me chill out and remembering that I'm not always in control.  I can be calm about that.
3. Don't forget to exercise.  Sometimes something as simple as taking a walk can help you disconnect from negative situations and get in touch with being calm.  
4. Talk things over with friends and family.  You can allow others to help you put things in perspective.  When you let go of job stress daily as it happens, you can avoid going around frustrated and angry. Or even better, you can avoid burnout which can derail a successful career.  To learn more about avoiding burnout, get my e-book, "Healing from Burnout." 

Finally, I believe the most important strategy we can use to deal with stress is practicing gratitude.  When you're grateful for the small things in life and in your career, you can feel so much better about life.  Mastering your mindset is critical to attaining the type of career success you want.  See you at the top!