Written by Kellie Smith, Certified Consulting Hypnotist, Mentor and Owner of Winter Garden Hypnosis

Picture this. You didn’t sleep well last night and you feel unprepared. As you shuffle in the door and fumble with your coffee, you finally sit down and open your laptop to find hundreds of emails and new fires to put out. The pressure is on and you don’t want to let anyone down. How do you feel in this moment? Do you feel overwhelmed, sluggish or pressured?

If you can relate to this more than you would like, there are ways to change your perspective that can provide you with an opportunity to enjoy these moments of pressure and the secret positive potential that hides within these experiences, instead of being overwhelmed by them. Here are five ways to help you relax, focus and change your responses to stress. You may have heard or read similar points before or even give these pieces of advice to others, but ask yourself are you really controlling these factors in your life?

1. Become Adaptable

Adapting to change is crucial in the world we live in. One of the presuppositions of Neurolinguistic Programming is that the nature of the universe is change. So you can fight nature or flow with nature. You can resist change or embrace it. When something new takes place at work like new clients or vendors changing, a new task that is on your plate, new management above you or new employees below you to manage and keep happy, if you are not comfortable with change, your whole world gets turned upside-down and you are not at your best. This slows down your productivity, piling up even more pressure. Instead, use your visual acuity to back away from your internal immediate view. See your reaction as though you are looking at yourself from the outside. Next, actually pretend you like change. Yes, pretend you like it. You can accomplish a lot by assuming you are already feeling the way you wish to ultimately feel. Imagine for a moment that 6 months have passed and you are already adapted to the change. Then compare the future you and the current you. See what feelings, attitudes and thoughts are different. Step into the mood of future you. What is future you seeing, hearing and feeling? What does future you believe about this situation now that time has passed? Now you have a blueprint for your new attitude. By doing this you are learning simple steps to self-mastery over your negative reaction to change. You are deciding to feel differently. Perhaps you choose neutral feelings, perhaps you even start to imagine a slight excitement for the unknown. What adventures await you on this new road? Just see how much control over your emotions you can truly build with this new skill.

2. Be As Healthy As Possible

Yes, I know you know this but let’s look deeper at the frame of how this impacts your stress and efficiency. According to Healthline.com* “consuming large amounts of processed sugar can trigger feelings of worry, irritability and sadness.” What if your stressed feelings about work really weren’t about work at all? What if they are just physiological reactions from eating the wrong foods? That can give you a new frame of thinking about it which can calm your nerves and give you new solutions you hadn’t thought of. Also, if you’re turning to sugary foods to feel better, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person or weak or stupid, it simply points to a lack of choices. It means you don’t have three to five ways to deal with stress, you just keep repeating the one choice, like reaching for the candy over and over again. Because it is better to add options rather than just take away your coping mechanisms, don’t think of changing your eating habits as taking away something. Instead, perhaps you start adding little breaks and take walks to escape the office for 5 or 10 minutes. Perhaps you set an alarm for 5 minute stretches a few times a day. Maybe you keep a massage gun at the office and release your shoulder tension.

Medicalnewstoday.com* and many other studies show that exercise is more effective than medication to treat a depressed mood. According to the article, the most effective kinds of exercise are short term sessions. That means you have yet another amazing and effective way to feel better at work. When you are moving your body whether it’s a brisk walk or dancing or going to the gym for 30 minutes you physiologically put yourself in a more positive mood thereby giving you a better perspective to look at issues you face. This is a part of life we often like to think is separate from our business life but in truth, it is completely intertwined. The more exercise you do, the better your brain can focus, the more endurance you have and the more confident you feel. Focus, endurance and confidence go a long way in the workplace. So does a positive attitude, and that is easier to do when your physical body’s needs are met properly.

3. Respect Other People’s Model Of The World

If you work with the same people for long enough, you will undoubtedly come upon a disagreement. After all, every business and organization is run by humans and all humans are very much… human. When you get irritated, hurt or triggered by someone it is important to always stay completely in control of yourself. The last thing you want to do is reveal an area of emotional weakness that someone can misinterpret or even worse, take advantage of. If not now, then at some point those same people you work with every day may need to lean on you for emotional support or leadership. Now is the time to lay the groundwork of being a solid, reliable person. So how do you make sure to never let them see you sweat? Realize that the other person has a completely different and unique map of the world than you. At the moment they are seeing things differently from you, your job is to step out of yourself and into their experience and with genuine curiosity and ask yourself, “what are they feeling right now?” This is much easier said than done and has to be done even when the other person is acting poorly. It is especially challenging if you have a short fuse, have a habit of being victimized or are not taking great care of yourself as stated in the previous section. Blood sugar, hormones and lack of sleep are true considerations for yourself and the other person as well. Sometimes we are genuinely affected by physiological effects that we cannot help. So you benefit greatly when you give a lot of grace to yourself and to the other person. Respecting the other person’s model of the world should go as far as wondering if they slept okay, if they ate enough, if they had a bad morning. You should go as far as wondering how they grew up, what their family is like or what their schooling may have been. Factor in everything in a respectful way to understand the whole person you are dealing with, rather than reacting to the moment that just transpired. This takes great maturity to do and no one does it perfectly but if you read this article and actually let it impact you to the point that you begin to practice this, you are miles ahead of the game and on your way to becoming a fantastic leader, co-worker and friend. Read more about emotional resiliency in the article “I’m Hurt, Now What?”

4. Focus On The Big Picture

The secret skill that most billionaires possess is the big picture scope. Imagine you could float way up above yourself and look down at yourself. See the building you are in, the town, the whole state, now the whole country then float all the way up above the Earth. Now think about those things that really matter to you. What if you knew your life was only going to last another six months. What would be on your mind? What would matter the most to you? When you’re seeing the entire planet do you care about your co-worker, boss or employee missing a small detail or screwing up? When you think about life being short do you care so much about your own little mishaps? Those small grievances and details should have less leverage on you in light of what really matters. Now think of your company. What is the main goal and mission of the business? When small things happen to distract you, irritate you or stress you out, take a huge step back and remember what the true outcome is in your life and your business or company. Remember that your life is a mission and there are more important things that require your focus. Don’t let little details overwhelm you, instead stay on the main point of what you’re there to accomplish professionally.

5. Learn Self-Hypnosis/Visualization Techniques

Learn the skills of self-hypnosis to effectively calm down fight or flight response, change eating habits, reduce tension in your body, make better choices, make decisions with more thorough commitment, become more adaptable to change and stay in the big picture. A quick and effective self-hypnosis technique is to close your eyes, roll your eyeballs upward and take ten deep breaths, counting from ten to one. With each breath, relax your body more and more. Once you reach number one, begin to visualize yourself feeling better, being healthier, calmer and less reactive to problems and more action-oriented. See the movie of yourself taking positive steps toward becoming closer to the person you want to be. Once you are this calm and you have seen the imagery of what you want, you can begin to make changes more easily. You can let go of the small stuff and remember what is important.

Don’t keep pushing through those stressful moments and think that soldiering through them makes things better. The more you slow down and become calm, the better you are at your job and the more you get done in a day. Practice the philosophies and techniques you have just read about and you will find a remarkable difference in your response to stress.

Kellie Smith is a certified consulting hypnotist, mentor and owner of Winter Garden Hypnosis. To learn more about hypnosis visit wintergardenhypnosis.com or call Kellie directly at 407-614-7355 for a free hypnosis screening and discuss how hypnosis can help you get your goals.

Sources

*1. https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/surprising-foods-trigger-anxiety#added-sugar

*2. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/is-exercise-more-effective-than-medication-for-depression-and-anxiety#A-worldwide-problem