Do you feel like stress is highjacking your workday?
Are fatigue and reactivity becoming your constant companions instead of productivity and creativity?
This episode of the Calm Compass podcast peels back layers on the pervasive influence of stress in the workplace. It's not just about the toll it takes on you but the ripple effect it casts on your team.
A stressed team leader often leads to a stressed team, so we underscore the need for leaders to manage their stress proactively.
Do you feel like stress is highjacking your workday?
Are fatigue and reactivity becoming your constant companions instead of productivity and creativity?
This episode of the Calm Compass podcast peels back layers on the pervasive influence of stress in the workplace. It's not just about the toll it takes on you but the ripple effect it casts on your team.
A stressed team leader often leads to a stressed team, so we underscore the need for leaders to manage their stress proactively.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Karm Compass podcast. In today's podcast episode, I really want to talk about how stress may be impacting your 9 to 5. You're feeling so uninspired in your workplace and you're feeling like you're almost too scared to leave your 9 to 5 because fear and stress is playing such a huge impact on you. And really today we're going to be talking about some of those symptoms that may be showing up for you and really, just you know, at what cost do we really start making attention and doing something about it? And I think as women, we have a tendency to ensure that everyone else's needs are met and it's really about how we've been conditioned and some people are very highly empathic and people pleases and we get a lot of enjoyment, almost like when a child goes into a candy store and they get that rush right, those endorphins. That's the same when we're doing something for others, even if it is at the cost of ourselves and even if it is at the cost of what is going to be supportive of ourselves. Sometimes we still will continue to do that. So we get that rush and it's just been aware of how stress it filters, not just in one aspect of our life but it flows in so many other aspects. But often you may notice how it's really showing up in your workplace, where you're working, in your career, and environments play such a pivotal role in how we feel about ourselves and how we respond. We have to also understand that as human beings we are designed to work. We work better when we're working with people of even if we are an introvert. We are not designed to just not be around other people.
Speaker 1:
So when we some of the symptoms that possibly could be showing up, especially when it comes to stress, is that really tired and reactive signs? So it might be that you're feeling quite tired. Reactive is basically that maybe something has happened, especially in the workplace, and you feel almost this negative trigger in you. You might get. Your first might response is you go into defensive mode or you might feel like, oh gosh, I've got a retreat, so that's running away. Or it could be that it's so emotionally exhausting all this stress and you can't pretend you feel quite fatigued. Even if the job isn't physical, you feel quite emotionally fatigued and that plays such a pivotal role in you being able to maybe self care and being able to do the very things that are supportive of you, and we've got to really understand that symptoms are how it possibly could be showing up for you. But with it's looking at the body and mind in which I talk about in my coaching leaders programs is�, unless you really understand and go to the core root of your stressors and people go oh, I know what my stress is, I'm fixed. No, you're not fixed. You are definitely not fixed just because you understand, because sometimes it might be well, my workplace is stressful or I'm a mum, so that's stressing me out. That's only one tiny part of the puzzle you need to have a really good understanding of. Well, this is where I'm noticing the stress, but I need to go into what is actually going to be supportive for me and my mind and my body and how I need to work.
Speaker 1:
We don't just do. We're also uniquely designed. We cannot expect that what works for one person may not work for another person. It's having tools that are going to enhance your ability to manage and respond to stress more effectively. So, rather than feeling in that stressed, fearful state, it's about being in environments that you feel you're going to thrive in. So it may be that there's nothing wrong with the workplace.
Speaker 1:
It may be that you have had a lot of different stress or is, and each one by one, cumulatively, has affected your ability to manage overall. So we've really got to understand that when there's lots of different stressors that are impacting our ability to cope and manage, we have to. If we have the tools accessible for our body and for our mind right, it may be that we can respond better in that environment that we work in and we may be more inspired to actually do something different in that environment, because we have been almost in that fearful state. When we're got fear and we're in scarcity, we can't see possibilities. It's almost imagining yourself in a maze and you're expecting to see the door out, and the more stressed you get, the more confused you get, the more you will just continue going in the same direction of that maze, and that's what we've really got to start training ourselves to learn different ways to respond more effectively, because stress may not be what you identify. It's basically how do I respond more effectively with my emotions, how do I talk to myself more kindly, and what is going to be the best thing for my body when? So I don't feel like if these things are my stress or's. So it doesn't basically decrease my ability to manage, but I learn how to thrive instead.
Speaker 1:
So it's been aware, first of all, what the symptoms may be showing up. So we've got to understand that there's so many different symptoms. There's the symptoms of looking at what type of thoughts are coming through. What type of behaviors am I noticing? What am I doing? Am I withdrawing? Am I getting defensive? Am I getting angry? What exactly are those symptoms? How is my stress impacting on others?
Speaker 1:
Now, if you're in a workplace and you are a leader, stress is incredibly contagious. People can sense it and feel it. They can sense, especially when the leader is in stress. All this abordinates and the team can feel it energetically, but also from a physical perspective as well. So if we are a leader, we have a duty of care, not just to ourselves to start looking at our relationship with stress, but to each of the people in our team, because even if you suppress it and you don't talk about it, you can feel it, and how the manager walks into the door will determine the productivity of their staff by 80%, and that goes up to 90% with coaching.
Speaker 1:
So you can imagine that if every leader walked in and was cursing and was not communicative, you would just be okay. They're in a bad mood. I can't talk to them and not feel safe, not imagine that, not feeling safe to talk to the person who is leading and being able to. Actually, they have to hold themselves and if they don't manage themselves, it's like this huge tsunami onto the team and even if we are part of a team, others can sense how we feel. Right, we don't have to say I'm stressed people can feel it of how we're responding.
Speaker 1:
So, even if you think that you're managing it well, you can start asking people how do you think I manage with that? And you may not be ready for the answer, but if you are, that would be something that I could, you know, may suggest. But it's really about looking after. What can I do to support myself? What are the symptoms that I'm noticing? What are the physical symptoms that I'm noticing? All of those things of what happens when I'm really stressed. What's the impact on my health and what cost do you put on stress to start making change?
Speaker 1:
Now, the worst case scenario is people have chronic health conditions and a lot of the health conditions are related to stress and can be reduced in the severity of that or could even be minimized or avoided. So we always want to look at, provide it, looking at the whole connection the body, mind and our soul and that might even sound a bit woo-woo, so looking at just the body mind connection. So I hope you have found this podcast episode insightful and helpful and, if you have, I would love you to share on your socials and tag us at Real Vision Life Coaching. Thank you so much for listening. Bye.