Latest / Unspoken Career Truths / The Pros & Cons of Stress: How to Stay Balanced

Transcript

The Pros & Cons of Stress: How to Stay Balanced · Unspoken Career Truths

• 0:00
  Welcome to unspoken career truths.
• 0:02
  I'm Cara Wood. And I'm Lauren Leevak Gilbert.
• 0:05
  And we're here to be the Co workers you can trust.
• 0:08
  In just 10 minutes, we'll cover the strategies you need, the
• 0:11
  mistakes to avoid, and the insider secrets no one tells you
• 0:15
  so you can show up with confidence at work.
• 0:19
  Let me paint the picture. You are sitting on the beach.
• 0:22
  In a lounge. Chair drinking hands just
• 0:25
  listening to the ocean that's what we all wish our lives were
• 0:29
  like, right low stress, just relaxing insert the kind of
• 0:34
  place you want to be at whether it's a beach or camping or
• 0:37
  anywhere just. I'm always wondering a rum
• 0:39
  drink. I'm with you.
• 0:40
  I'm with you. Yeah.
• 0:40
  Exactly, exactly. Well, the reality is that it's
• 0:44
  not how most of us live our lives.
• 0:47
  And stress is a really, really big piece of it.
• 0:49
  And it's not always a bad thing. But a lot of the stress that we
• 0:55
  experience in our lives is whether that's from the world
• 0:59
  around us or our family, work, personal stress, there's so many
• 1:04
  different ways that stress can get to us.
• 1:08
  But I do want to talk about two different types of stress and
• 1:10
  we're only going to talk about 1 today.
• 1:12
  The first one is you stress, also known as good stress.
• 1:18
  So that's the kind that kind of helps you bring back energy, it
• 1:22
  boost endorphins, it sharpens like your brain power.
• 1:26
  That's a good kind of stress. Stress, to me, is the signal
• 1:29
  that I'm excited about something.
• 1:31
  Yeah, you know. It's it really motivates, it
• 1:33
  fills you with indoorphins and and energy.
• 1:36
  It it, there's a positive to stress, right?
• 1:38
  There's not just negatives, the, the stress that we're talking is
• 1:42
  more distress, right? How you are being feeling
• 1:46
  anxiety or you're getting built up about something.
• 1:49
  And there's actually a bunch of stats about this.
• 1:51
  And I, I looked into this because I was interested because
• 1:54
  we all have so much stress. 43% of all adults suffer adverse
• 1:59
  health effects from stress and between 75 to 90% of all doctors
• 2:04
  office visits are for stress related complaints.
• 2:07
  That blows my mind. Like I am amazed that doctors
• 2:12
  hear about our stress so often, but it makes complete sense.
• 2:15
  I'm, I mean, it's not, it's, it's not surprising.
• 2:19
  It's kind of sad is what I would say, because I think the amount
• 2:23
  of stress that we are all under at all times is, has reached an
• 2:28
  all time high. I don't know about you Cara, but
• 2:30
  it is just a stressful time. I think there's stress can come
• 2:35
  from so many different avenues that you already like named and
• 2:40
  there are a lot, there's a lot of stress coming from places
• 2:44
  that we just can all accept globally and like that just adds
• 2:50
  to the baseline of stress. And I think if we think back to
• 2:53
  the episode where we talked about Like Your Buckets, you can
• 2:57
  get stress from all those buckets, even though you can
• 2:59
  also get fulfilled by all of those buckets.
• 3:01
  So it's really important to just understand how you're affected
• 3:05
  by stress in different ways. But I wanted to bring up a quote
• 3:09
  that was the most impactful thing for me when thinking about
• 3:13
  stress in car. I'd love to hear kind of your
• 3:15
  your perspective on this too. But the most impactful quote
• 3:17
  that someone ever told me about stress that actually completely
• 3:21
  changed my perspective was that stress will never go away, but
• 3:26
  you can change how you manage it.
• 3:27
  And that really kind of just flipped my perspective because I
• 3:31
  was approaching it as like all the stress is happening to me.
• 3:34
  Like, let me get rid of it. Like finish the To Do List, Like
• 3:38
  do less. But you're always going to have
• 3:41
  stress in your life, no matter if you're 25455565.
• 3:44
  Well, it doesn't matter. So it's about how you manage
• 3:47
  yourself and your reaction to stress.
• 3:49
  Yeah, It's like, I think the thing that has changed my
• 3:52
  perspective on stress is perspective itself.
• 3:56
  Like I think that, again, stressors can come from so many
• 4:01
  different places. And I actually think the more
• 4:04
  stress I've experienced, I sort of like almost build up this
• 4:08
  catalog of like, OK, I've done that.
• 4:10
  I've seen through this. This has gotten me and it's
• 4:13
  changed the impact of the stress.
• 4:14
  And so there is this, you know, ability to sort of people call
• 4:18
  it like somatic awareness where you just understand where you
• 4:22
  feel stress in your body and what's happening.
• 4:24
  And they're so, so often now I can, I can see the stress coming
• 4:29
  and then decide kind of like slow it down and decide how to
• 4:34
  how to handle it. It doesn't mean to your point,
• 4:37
  stress is always there, but it's sort of like, Hey, I recognize
• 4:40
  you. Oh, hey, like you're twisting my
• 4:42
  stomach. Oh, hey, like you're tensing my
• 4:44
  shoulders. And that actually really helps
• 4:46
  me to just kind of again, put it into perspective of like this is
• 4:49
  something that I've experienced before.
• 4:51
  Because you've addressed it like you've named it like it.
• 4:54
  It exists in in the universe. Exactly.
• 4:57
  And I think that's the kind of the first step if you think
• 4:59
  about managing stress in general, just really
• 5:01
  understanding your triggers, whether that is in your personal
• 5:05
  life, whether that's in work. I know for me, if I have
• 5:08
  back-to-back to back-to-back meetings and I don't have time
• 5:12
  to eat or get up from my desk, like no matter what, I will feel
• 5:16
  stressed because there's just not space for me to just be or
• 5:20
  like take a breath. So I manage my calendar
• 5:24
  accordingly where I have little gaps and I make sure I have at
• 5:27
  least some time to eat lunch or get up and just go outside or
• 5:31
  take a walk with my dog. Do we there?
• 5:33
  That's like a trigger that I know for me, but like.
• 5:36
  And you are so good at I love like for those of you, Lauren
• 5:40
  will say I she's taking a granola by break.
• 5:42
  Like she makes the time to feed her body and you know it.
• 5:47
  It's really great. Nobody wants to see me angry is
• 5:50
  the real reason for that. But yes, I try really.
• 5:53
  Hard. It's fantastic.
• 5:55
  Thank you, Cara. I thought we could both share
• 5:58
  some of our favorite things for managing stress because
• 6:01
  everybody's got different tactics.
• 6:03
  You have to kind of figure out what works for you.
• 6:05
  It takes practice and learning and it will change at different
• 6:08
  stages of your life, but for me specifically, moving my body is
• 6:13
  such a distresser. Just whether it's going for a
• 6:16
  walk, whether it's for me, dance, I love dance.
• 6:19
  So taking a Zumba class or taking a dance class or even
• 6:23
  just going for a walk with with Dewey, just being outside
• 6:28
  usually and moving and just not sitting in one place is such a
• 6:32
  huge distresser because it kind of hits on both the physical and
• 6:36
  mental aspects for me. Yeah, I have so many, but I,
• 6:40
  well, I meditate every morning and I know that that like kind
• 6:44
  of boost my daily awareness. And in that meditation I often
• 6:47
  am setting an intention which I can sort of like reflect back.
• 6:51
  And I usually make them sort of funny so that it's just this
• 6:53
  like funny one liner that I'm like making myself sort of laugh
• 6:57
  and smile throughout the day. I love to get outside if I can.
• 7:01
  And another thing is just connecting with other people,
• 7:04
  like reaching out to friends or yeah, it's just like hearing
• 7:07
  from people that I love. I love that.
• 7:09
  Well, the other one I have is hug a puppy.
• 7:11
  You know, there you go. And then the other thing for me
• 7:16
  is doing something creative. So I recently had time to kind
• 7:21
  of take a pretty extended break, which was amazing.
• 7:23
  And I kind of rediscovered the art of play.
• 7:27
  And there's actually a really excellent book about that.
• 7:30
  And it's called the, I believe it's called The Art of Play.
• 7:32
  And humans have kind of forgotten from childhood days
• 7:37
  what it's like to play. But it's so important for your
• 7:41
  brain. It gives you the opportunity to
• 7:43
  be creative, to think innovatively and just like have
• 7:47
  fun and relax. And there's actual science
• 7:51
  behind the concept of play. And so for me, it's like going
• 7:55
  to do pottery or doing a craft or like I'll even play with
• 7:59
  Legos, like doing anything with my hands and like doing
• 8:02
  something creative just kind of getting me out of the
• 8:05
  day-to-day. Like write the e-mail answer the
• 8:08
  answer, the slack. Well, because I think what
• 8:11
  you're talking about when you say play is things that are low
• 8:14
  stakes or things that you can experiment and do with no
• 8:18
  pressure of outcome. I love cartoons.
• 8:20
  So I think my version of this is like, is like reading comic
• 8:24
  books. But then sometimes I'll also
• 8:26
  just draw my own. Like I'll like draw my own.
• 8:29
  I didn't know that. Yeah, I'll just draw my own of
• 8:32
  whatever, like either like crazy creature or, you know, thing
• 8:36
  that happened in the day that again made me chuckle.
• 8:39
  I love that. That's awesome.
• 8:41
  So there's this really great quote from the book that I was
• 8:44
  mentioning by Stuart Brown, and he says stepping out of a normal
• 8:48
  routine, finding novelty, being open to serendipity, enjoying
• 8:53
  the unexpected, embracing a little risk, and finding
• 8:57
  pleasure in the heightened vividness of life.
• 8:59
  These are all the qualities of A State of Play, and I thought
• 9:03
  that was just so powerful and we have to intentionally infuse
• 9:08
  those kinds of moments into our lives.
• 9:09
  You have just described something that my first
• 9:13
  internship, my Scottish Co worker would say let's go on a
• 9:17
  wee donder, which is just a little walk and we wouldn't
• 9:21
  know. It's very like, yeah, it's like
• 9:23
  all of that like again, again, what are you going to encounter?
• 9:26
  Because we wouldn't necessarily walk in the same path.
• 9:29
  We might stop for like a little treat, but who knows what it
• 9:31
  would be. So there's always a little bit
• 9:33
  of wonder in a wee donder. I love that.
• 9:36
  I'm going to use that now. That's great.
• 9:39
  Well, that's actually, it's funny because after I took my
• 9:41
  break, I really wanted to focus on doing something different
• 9:44
  every day. So going on a different walking
• 9:46
  path, trying a new place, sitting in a different place in
• 9:49
  the house, like just mixing it up because it also makes time
• 9:53
  not feel like it goes as quickly, right?
• 9:56
  So there's beauty in the routine.
• 9:57
  I am someone who loves routine, but there's also beauty and
• 10:00
  wonder and figuring things out. Yeah, absolutely.
• 10:04
  So to close out important to reframe how you think about
• 10:08
  stress and maybe think about stress as a signal that your
• 10:11
  body needs rest and have a plan for how you want to manage it
• 10:15
  and understanding your triggers. So look at how you're feeling,
• 10:20
  what your triggers are, figure out some stress management
• 10:23
  tactics that you want to try, Try a couple, see if they work,
• 10:27
  pivot, go from there. And then just be really
• 10:29
  intentional about checking in. We're all feeling it.
• 10:34
  It's a challenging time, so check in with your friends,
• 10:36
  check in with yourself and change your perspective.
• 10:39
  Yeah, and tell us how it worked out or what your favorite thing
• 10:43
  is. I we never say no to pet pics.
• 10:46
  Yes, always send the pet pics. Hug a puppy, hug a cat.
• 10:49
  We love it. And that's a wrap.
• 10:52
  Thanks for joining us on Unspoken Career Truths.
• 10:55
  Don't forget to follow us on Spotify and Instagram.
• 10:58
  And if you like this episode, share it with a friend, yeah.