Stress Management 2021
The Effects of Stress on Your Body
You’re sitting in traffic, late for an important meeting, watching the minutes tick away. Your hypothalamus, a tiny control tower in your brain, decides to send out the order: Send in the stress hormones! These stress hormones are the same ones that trigger your body’s “fight or flight” response. Your heart races, your breath quickens, and your muscles ready for action. This response was designed to protect your body in an emergency by preparing you to react quickly. But when the stress response keeps firing, day after day, it could put your health at serious risk.
Stress and depression
Excessive stress often causes depression. Stress hormones suppress stem cells in the hippocampus. As a result, connections between neurons are disrupted, the process of formation of new neurons is interrupted and nerve circuits are destroyed.
Types of Stress:
There are 4 types of stress, and they have different effects on a person’s well-being.
Psychological or emotional, arising from strong positive or negative emotions.
Physiological, associated with the influence of such external factors as thirst, hunger, pain, heat.
Short-term, expressed in a short-term natural reaction to external irritation.
Chronic, from which it is impossible to get out without additional effort.
What is work-related stress?
Work-related stress is the response people may have when presented with work demands and pressures that are not matched to their knowledge and abilities and which challenge their ability to cope. Stress occurs in a wide range of work circumstances but is often made worse when employees feel they have little support from supervisors and colleagues, as well as little control over work processes.
Encourage Workplace Wellness
Stress is one of the most daunting obstacles to employee engagement in the modern workplace. We can encourage workplace wellness in the following ways:
Encourage employees to exercise (E.g. go on a walk during lunch breaks)
Offer healthy snacks in the office
Revamp the office environment
Allow for flexible hours and remote working
Recognise employee achievement
Provide opportunities for counselling
Many companies have begun providing counselling to help employees to deal with stress. This strategy, in or out of the office, in group settings or individually can help employees prepare for and cope with the stress that come their way.
