5 Helpful Ways to Reframe Stress

$300 billion dollars. That is what a 2015 report estimated stress costs in lost productivity and medical costs each year.

“Americans are among the most stressed people in the world.” That was the title of an article in the New York Times on April 25, 2019. You are correct – that was before the pandemic and its political conflicts and mask wars existed.

“Nearly a year into the pandemic, prolonged stress persists at elevated levels for many Americans. As we work to address stressors as a nation, from unemployment to education, we can’t ignore the mental health consequences of this global shared experience,” said Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD, APA’s chief executive officer. “Without addressing stress as part of a national recovery plan, we will be dealing with the mental health fallout from this pandemic for years to come.”

Perhaps reading about all of this stress is making you even more stressed out! Take a deep breath and consider the following helpful ways to reframe stress and move towards solutions.

1. Remember that stress is a normal part of everyone’s life.

The Mayo Clinic defines stress as “a normal reaction the body has when changes occur, resulting in physical, emotional, and intellectual responses.” From illness to loss of a job and from conflict to demands at work, no one escapes stress. And if you try, you will most likely fail! If you are feeling stress, you are not abnormal or weak or broken. You are normal. We also know that a moderate dose of “healthy stress” can improve focus, energy, and performance! The key is to harness the positive side of stress.

2. Take your stress temperature at work by discovering what is contributing to your stress.

For example, here are some of the common stressors at work. Which of these may be contributing the most to the stress in your life and what can you do to address it?

• Demands from others

• Difficulty with a supervisor

• Lack of control over your work

• Limited relationships with your coworkers

• Fear of losing your job

3. Assess where stress may be coming from in your personal life as well.

The workplace and employers often get accused of causing the bulk of a person’s stress, but our personal lives are often contributing to our sense of stress and burnout as well. For example, are any of these true in your life, and what are you able to control, modify or change? 

• Financial pressure

• Conflict with a spouse or child

• Serious or chronic health issues

• Anxiety and/or depression

• Excessively busy schedule

4. Take control of the chatter in your brain.

All of us talk to ourselves… a lot. In his book Chatter, author and researcher Ethan Kross explains how much we talk to ourselves (the equivalent of 4,000 words per minute!) and how this self-talk can be extremely helpful or damaging. If you don’t hit the brakes and change direction when you are treating your circumstances and stress as catastrophic, you will exasperate the problem. The research of Kross and others shows that just by stepping back and looking at your circumstances from a distance, you can provide yourself a different perspective and actually guide yourself towards a better approach. Proverbs 12:25 reminds us that worry can pull us down, but a good word can lift us up. In short, the words we hear from ourselves and others make a difference.

5. Provide help to your team or organization.

With the amount of negative impact organizations experience from excessive and unmanaged stress, every leader would be wise to consider making a small but beneficial investment in their people and their organizational culture. This can be done by providing an assessment to take the temperature of stress levels presently in your team as well as offering professional training on what you, your organization, and each team member can do to manage stress in healthy ways.

Because of our desire to provide services that advance organizational health and effectiveness, The Center Consulting Group is offering a unique training on managing stress. This will include an assessment of the 7 key types of stress that may be affecting your team and a 1.5-2 hour training session focused on empowering your team to grow beyond their pain points. You can learn more about this stress training package here: centerconsulting.org/stress.

Jay Desko is the CEO of The Center Consulting Group and brings experience in the areas of organizational assessment, leadership coaching, decision-making, and strategic questioning. Jay’s degrees include an M.Ed. in Instructional Systems Design from Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Leadership from The Union Institute.