{"id":7868,"date":"2020-09-04T08:29:19","date_gmt":"2020-09-04T15:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bwblogdev.wpengine.com\/?p=7868"},"modified":"2022-12-14T12:56:56","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T20:56:56","slug":"understanding-the-stressors-that-impact-your-work-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betterworks.com\/magazine\/understanding-the-stressors-that-impact-your-work-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the Stressors That Impact Your Work Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Did you know that uncertainty can cause more stress than pain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In research published in Nature Communications<\/a>, a team found that the anticipation of \u2018something painful\u2019 happening can cause more stress than knowing for certain that it will actually happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As 2020 has shown us, life is full of uncertainty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether it\u2019s a global pandemic<\/a> or even a new boss \u2013 employees need tools to support themselves through change and uncertainty<\/a> in order to not only perform their best, but consistently perform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Performance Based Mindfulness<\/a> expert, I\u2019ve seen many ways stress take down your high performers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rumination:<\/strong> the stress response turns on our Default Mode Network and people find themselves thinking about the stressor at all hours (especially bedtime) rather than focusing on high priority items.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multitasking: <\/strong>the stress response increases their addiction to dopamine (a pleasurable neurotransmitter we get a hit of when we \u2018do\u2019 things) so employees are working on low priority quick tasks (like checking email) that lead to more \u2018hits\u2019 instead of impactful or strategic goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Negativity Bias:<\/strong> the stress response increases their attention on negative stimuli which is great when in a dark alley but not so great when they highlight only the negative parts of emails and focus energy thinking about how they are going to get fired, be furloughed, or how impossible challenges are to overcome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These stress responses are built to save us in an actual life-threatening situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as a daily response in our professional lives, not mindfully dealing with our underlying stressor may cause us to behave in ways that aren\u2019t healthy, nor impactful. IE \u2013 we get an email from a coworker and respond right away, which escalates a situation rather than thinking through what might be the best response to this situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It isn\u2019t just a case of building resilience, the step before achieving resilience is pausing and presence rather than moving straight to auto-pilot reactions that might not be the most healthy or impactful for the given situation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s about helping them be more present in the moment so they can process: <\/p>\n\n\n\n