In this guest post for PepTalk, Kim Murray, a workplace mindfulness expert and founder of Happy Heads, explains some simple daily practices to reduce stress and anxiety, calm your nervous system, and boost focus and wellbeing.
Why do we experience stress and anxiety?
Anxiety and stress are two completely normal human emotions to experience but they’re not always easy because when we experience them our nervous system goes into high alert. From an evolutionary perspective, stress and anxiety helped to keep us alive, without them we would all be lemmings walking into the road so ultimately we need them to keep us safe.
What happens in our nervous system when we feel stressed or anxious?
A key part of your brain that you need to understand is your amygdala. This is your brains fear response and triggers the ancient fight, flight, freeze anytime you feel stressed or anxious.
The stress hormone cortisol starts to fill your body, adrenaline starts pumping around and your nervous system gets primed for action thinking that it needs to fight the perceived threat.
Your muscles tense, heart beats faster, digestive system slows down, breathing becomes shallow - this is your sympathetic nervous system.
What can trigger your nervous system?
This response was absolutely essential for survival back when we were cavemen and needed to fight sabre toothed tigers, but the problem is these days, our brains don’t know the difference between a real and perceived threat, which is why the work place can be (often unconsciously) triggering.
Maybe you have to stand up and present in front off all your colleagues, you’ve just been given a really tight deadline, running late for a meeting, have a big presentation in front of an important client or entering a crunch time in the year - your nervous system will be going into that same high alert and thinking you’re about to get eaten.
What can we do to reduce stress and anxiety?
There are many ways that we can bring our nervous system back into balance and luckily they don’t take long and are super simple to do:
- Set your brain up right. Never look at your phone first thing in the morning. You will be creating stress and anxiety without even realising it. Instead do something calming that sets your nervous system up for the day (meditation, tapping, breathwork, journalling).
- Regulate your breath throughout the day. Belly breathing is the best way to engage your parasympathetic nervous system (rest and relaxation). Inhale through nose as your belly goes up, exhale through mouth as your belly goes down). The power is in your exhale so extend this for as long as you possibly can.
- Stop multitasking! The human brain actually can’t multitask so do one thing at a time as often as you can.
- Focus on the present moment. Regularly use your body and breath as a tool to ground yourself. Take a deep breath, then scan your awareness down your body and notice how it feels without any judgement. Don't worry if you get distracted, even the act of bringing your awareness back to your body is still strengthening your neurological pathways.
- Tapping is great at reducing stress and anxiety because it engages your parasympathetic nervous system (rest and relaxation) and sends a direct calming signal to your body and amygdala that you are safe.
- Use affirmations like “I am safe, I am the present moment and that’s all that matters, I can handle whatever comes my way” during meditation, tapping or journalling. They speak directly to your nervous system and amygdala - the perfect way to reduce stress and anxiety
- Prepare your brain for sleep. Your mind needs to unwind at the end of a busy day so get off any screens at least 1 hour before bed. Instead do something calming that tells your brain it’s time for rest (meditation, hot bath, journalling, tapping, read a book, breathwork). Sleep is the foundation of your mental health, improve this and it will much easier to regulate your emotions the next day.
Small adjustments to your daily routine will make a big difference, allowing your nervous system to remain calm, balanced and grounded no matter what the working day throws at you.
» EXPLORE: PepTalk's top stress management speakers.
💡 Would you like to explore managing stress in the workplace with a keynote speaker like Kim Murray? Email us at hello@getapeptalk.com or send us a message via the chat. You can also call us on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US). Remember, it’s always a good time to get a PepTalk!
