Embracing work stress can help you manage it better

DESPITE growing awareness around the concepts of workplace wellness and well-being, today’s workforce is more stressed and burnt-out than ever before. The reason behind this is that while wellness works, the way we are working doesn’t.

- SOPHIA MULLINS

After spending a decade on Wall Street, I can attest that high-stress periods at work are inevitable. But when I learned that stress management is not about removing stress but about managing my energy, everything changed.

Good and bad

Stress is a natural response to stimuli that’s not innately good or bad. It can actually be positive in a corporate setting because it pushes us to meet a deadline or develop a skill set beyond our comfort zone. That’s why so many of us perform well under pressure. The human stress response, also known as the fight-or-flight response, activates adrenaline and cortisol. In moderation, this is helpful for accomplishing defined, urgent tasks.

Stress becomes negative when we engage our fight-or-flight response for prolonged periods of time. This leads to an exhausted nervous system and potential career burnout.

Over the course of my career, I’ve found that each person moves through three distinctly differ-ent but equally important energetic states during the day. By labelling and recognising them, a person can start to move between them more intentionally.

The key idea is to ensure you're not spending your entire life in a high-stress state. Not all work tasks need to be stressful. Activities like sending low-stakes emails or catching up with co-workers, for example, can actually be enjoyable and even restorative — conserving your energy for the next high pressure stint.

Intentional intensity