Consequences of work stress
Sunday night is for a quarter of the working population the start of the working week nightmare. Are you so anxious about work that you dread going back to work on Mondays?
Is your sleep disturbed by worries about work? How much time do you spend agonising over a presentation, a meeting, a difficult phone call or a sales-follow-up? How does that affect your mental well-being? Headaches, sweaty hands, exhaustion? How does that affect your productivity? Procrastination, difficulty focussing, easily distracted?
Mental health charity Mind’s chief executive, Paul Farmer, said: “Considering how much time we spend at work, it is hardly surprising it can have a huge impact on our mental wellbeing. Working conditions have been incredibly tough and the emotional fallout of the recession doesn’t just centre on people who have lost their jobs, but on people who are struggling to cope with the extra demands of working harder, longer hours and under more pressure as their employer’s battle for survival.”
You might not recognise how you are affected by the work stress, but did you know that the most common reason people see a GP is a back problem? And did you know that the most common cause of this back problem is stress? In other words, if you have a back problem, you most likely have a stress problem.
Consequences of work stress
Most people think that it is okay to have stress, as everybody has it. You just have to get on with it. But stress is like a sneaky killer: it invades your mind (so you go round and round in circles and can’t think properly), it affects your emotions (moodswings and tendency to be more emotional), behaviour changes (for example, nervous tapping, faster speech) and your body suffers (higher bloodpressure, muscle tension leading to neck and back problems, migraines, low energy and more).
Don’t accept stress as part of your life, just take action to reduce your stress levels on a daily basis by breaking the cycle of the stress build-up. Take a regular time-out by starting meditation (check out my effective and easy OneMinuteMeditation), be in nature (take a walk at lunchtime), do regular exercise (stretch a few times a day), eat healthily and drink a lot of water. These are easy things to help you manage stress levels and get a good night sleep on Sunday night.
