Risk & Business Magazine CEO/CFO Business Today Magazine Fall 2017 | Page 18

FEATURE STORY
attention on. The point here is that you
must have something positive that you’re
ready to shift your attention to when
your thoughts turn negative.
THEY DISCONNECT
Given the importance of keeping stress
intermittent, it’s easy to see how taking
regular time off the grid can help keep
your stress under control. When you
make yourself available to your work
24/7, you expose yourself to a constant
barrage of stressors. Forcing yourself
offline and even—gulp!—turning off
your phone gives your body a break from
a constant source of stress. Studies have
shown that something as simple as an
email break can lower stress levels.
Technology enables constant
communication and the expectation
that you should be available 24/7. It is
extremely difficult to enjoy a stress-free
moment outside of work when an email
that will change your train of thought
and get you thinking (read: stressing)
about work can drop onto your phone
at any moment. If detaching yourself
from work-related communication on
weekday evenings is too big a challenge,
then how about the weekend? Choose
blocks of time where you cut the cord
and go offline. You’ll be amazed at how
refreshing these breaks are and how
they reduce stress by putting a mental
recharge into your weekly schedule.
If you’re worried about the negative
repercussions of taking this step,
first try doing it at times when you’re
unlikely to be contacted—maybe Sunday
morning. As you grow more comfortable
with it, and as your coworkers begin
to accept the time you spend offline,
gradually expand the amount of time
you spend away from technology.
THEY LIMIT THEIR CAFFEINE INTAKE
Drinking caffeine triggers the release of
adrenaline. Adrenaline is the source of
the “fight-or-flight” response, a survival
mechanism that forces you to stand
up and fight or run for the hills when
faced with a threat. The fight-or-flight
mechanism sidesteps rational thinking
in favor of a faster response. This is
great when a bear is chasing you, but
not so great when you’re responding to
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a curt email. When caffeine puts your
brain and body into this hyperaroused
state of stress, your emotions overrun
your behavior. The stress that caffeine
creates is far from intermittent, as its
long half-life ensures that it takes its
sweet time working its way out of your
body.
“YOU CAN’T
CONTROL YOUR
CIRCUMSTANCES,
BUT YOU CAN
CONTROL HOW
YOU RESPOND TO
THEM. SO BEFORE
YOU SPEND TOO
MUCH TIME
DWELLING ON
SOMETHING,
TAKE A MINUTE
TO PUT THE
SITUATION IN
PERSPECTIVE.“
THEY SLEEP
I’ve beaten this one to death over the
years and can’t say enough about the
importance of sleep to increasing your
emotional intelligence and managing
your stress levels. When you sleep, your
brain literally recharges, shuffling
through the day’s memories and storing
or discarding them (which causes
dreams), so that you wake up alert
and clear-headed. Your self-control,
attention and memory are all reduced
when you don’t get enough—or the right
kind—of sleep. Sleep deprivation raises
stress hormone levels on its own, even
without a stressor present. Stressful
projects often make you feel as if you
have no time to sleep, but taking the
time to get a decent night’s sleep is often
the one thing keeping you from getting
things under control.
THEY SQUASH NEGATIVE SELF-TALK
A big step in managing stress involves
stopping negative self-talk in its tracks.
The more you ruminate on negative
thoughts, the more power you give
them. Most of our negative thoughts are
just that—thoughts, not facts. When you
find yourself believing the negative and
pessimistic things your inner voice says,
it’s time to stop and write them down.
Literally stop what you’re doing and
write down what you’re thinking. Once
you’ve taken a moment to slow down the
negative momentum of your thoughts,
you will be more rational and clear-
headed in evaluating their veracity.
You can bet that your statements aren’t
true any time you use words like “never,”
“worst,” “ever,” etc. If your statements
still look like facts once they’re on paper,
take them to a friend or colleague you
trust and see if he or she agrees with
you. Then the truth will surely come
out. When it feels like something always
or never happens, this is just your
brain’s natural threat tendency inflating
the perceived frequency or severity of
an event. Identifying and labeling your
thoughts as thoughts by separating
them from the facts will help you escape
the cycle of negativity and move toward
a positive new outlook.
THEY REFRAME THEIR PERSPECTIVE
Stress and worry are fueled by our own
skewed perception of events. It’s easy
to think that unrealistic deadlines,
unforgiving bosses and out-of-control
traffic are the reasons we’re so stressed
all the time. You can’t control your
circumstances, but you can control
how you respond to them. So before
you spend too much time dwelling on
something, take a minute to put the
situation in perspective. If you aren’t
sure when you need to do this, try
looking for clues that your anxiety may
not be proportional to the stressor.
If you’re thinking in broad, sweeping
statements such as “Everything is going
wrong” or “Nothing will work out,” then
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