Hi I'm Pablo Vandenabeele. I'm the
Clinical Director for mental health at Bupa. And today I will share
with you my five tips
for staying stress-free at work. Number one
engage in regular and moderate levels
of exercise. It's been recognised for a long period of time that exercise can be
of benefit
in the management of physical health
conditions. Increasingly there's also a body of evidence available
that exercise is of benefit in terms of
people's mental health. Such forms of exercise can be
engaging in walks, dancing, light jogging
and so on. We know
that exercise not only improves people's levels of
self-esteem, it also improves their sleep,
it fends off anxiety and depression
and it generally reduces the levels of stress.
Number two is to ensure that you have
regular and balanced meals. There is a clear link between stress
and our diet. Some of us when feeling stressed
will go off our food and skip meals.
Others may turn to comfort eating.
Many of you will also recognise
the feeling that when you're feeling hungry and your blood sugars are low
you become more irritable. When we think about comfort eating
the problem is that we have high fluctuating levels
in our blood sugar levels. We have a peak
of high blood sugar and then a quick fall
in blood sugar levels. The benefit of having regular and balanced meals
is that we achieve a more stable blood sugar
level you know in our bloods. My third tip
is to practice mindfulness skills. Mindfulness
is a mind-body based practice that
alters the way you feel and you think.
It stems from Eastern meditation techniques.
It helps you to focus very much on
the present moment. Mindfulness can be learnt
in groups or there's
various online resources available that may teach you
mindfulness skills. It's important to regularly practice
those mindfulness skills. First to avoid
stress from creeping up. Second
to master the skills so you can use them and rely on them
when you do feel stressed. My fourth tip
is to make sure that you set time aside for yourself,
your friends and your family. First of all
its important to set the time aside for yourself. Most of us
are not very good at saying no when demands are being made on our time
The result of that is that we stop doing
activities that we enjoy. Activities that help us to
escape and unwind. It is also important to set time aside
for friends and family. And there's three reasons for that.
First of all there's the direct enjoyment and pleasure
of having laughs with friends and family, spending time with them.
Second, it's important to maintain them
as a source of support to turn to when
things are getting difficult when you are feeling stressed. And finally
it is the case that actually those around us, our friends or family
who know us best
are in a better position to tell us when
we're not doing as well as we think we are doing. When you perhaps
are becoming stressed. Finally
my fifth tip is to avoid substances that you may use
to manage your stressors.
It is human nature to try to self-medicate
when things aren't going well and in terms of stress
people often turn to substances such as caffeine,
nicotine or even alcohol. All of these substances
may work in the very very short-term but long-term
actually have a detrimental effect upon your stress. For example
it is known that nicotine actually increases feelings of tension
and anxiety. Thank you very much for listening to these
five tips in how to manage your stress at work.
I truly hope that you find them helpful.