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Stress is a natural part of life. It creeps into personal thoughts, family interactions, relationships with partners, and virtually every other area in which humans interact with one another — including the workplace. Expectations from coworkers, pressure from bosses, and the financial stress of keeping that paycheck coming in can prove to be one of the greatest sources of stress and anxiety that a person faces throughout their entire adult lives. 

What is of even greater concern is the fact that the anxiety caused by the typical workplace doesn’t remain within the office. It stretches its hand out into nearly every area of an employee’s life, impacting their health, how they feel, and how they think.

The Effects of Workplace Anxiety

While stress and anxiety are extremely common concerns that millions of employees deal with on a regular basis, there is a difference between being temporarily or even occasionally stressed and dealing with serious levels of anxiety. In fact, the latter is typically categorized under the title “general anxiety disorder” or GAD. 

Those diagnosed with GAD tend to suffer from a more severe level of anxiety, one that can be debilitating and can cripple things like creativity, productivity, and performance — all of which are critical factors for an employee. In fact, anxiety is one of the chief causes behind the unacceptably high rate of burnout in the modern workplace, an issue that reportedly 40% of employees in the U.S. and Canada suffer from. 

In addition to workplace performance, anxiety often comes with a host of other mental symptoms, including:

• Difficulty concentrating.
• Feeling nervous.
• Struggling with fear.
• Obsessive thinking.

Of course, anxiety also is infamously hard on the physical body, leading to things like:

• Restlessness.
• Chest pain and panic attacks.
• Dizziness and fatigue.
• Heightened blood pressure and weakened circulation and veins.

How to Manage Workplace Anxiety

While the effects of workplace anxiety are numerous, the modern awareness of the crippling issue has provided a variety of solutions that can be tailored to any scenario. Whether you’re worried about your commute, a demanding boss, your current workload, or even a stressful work environment, in general, here are a few considerations to help manage your anxiety and maintain your health while on the job.

Don’t Fight It

The first thing you should always strive to keep in mind when you feel the stress mounting is that stress is a very real, very normal part of life. Not only that, but the anxiety it can lead to is just as real as any physical wound or injury you might encounter. 

Consider, for instance, Steven Hayes, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Nevada in Reno. Hayes has created an effective, cutting-edge form of therapy known as acceptance commitment therapy or ACT. The entire practice revolves around the idea of accepting and considering your negative thoughts in a non-judgemental, self-compassionate way. In other words, instead of condemning your anxiety as the enemy, work with it, listen to it, and strive to understand it in order to better understand yourself and how to improve your life as a whole.

Practice Mindfulness

While ACT is a newer form of cognitive behavioral therapy, the field itself isn’t a new one. The practice of learning how to decipher your thoughts and the meaning and purpose behind them has been around for decades, with things like cognitive distortions helping sufferers of anxiety diagnose their thoughts on a regular basis. 

This approach to thinking can help foster a greater level of mindfulness and an awareness of one’s inner thoughts and conversation. Striving to become more mindful can be a powerful tool against anxiety, especially when it’s combined with physical activities like mindful meditation and deep breathing.

Live a Clean Life

While anxiety is largely a mental battle, there are still many physiological actions that can be taken to help promote your overall mental health. Most of them point towards the general (albeit laudable) goal of living a natural, clean lifestyle and include practices like:

• Exercising regularly.
• Drinking less caffeine and alcohol.
• Getting adequate amounts of sleep — typically between 7 and 9 hours.
• Eating a healthy, balanced diet.

Consider Natural Remedies

Living a healthy lifestyle is a good start, but if you find that your symptoms persist, there are many other natural remedies to consider in order to bolster your efforts. For instance, herbal supplements like kava root, passionflower, and St. John’s Wort are all effective options.

In addition, a newer corrective measure that is gaining popularity is CBD oil. While research in regards to anxiety is still scarce, initial findings have been positive, with studies reporting that cannabidiol can help with social anxiety, in particular, including things like public speaking. 

As an aside, if you choose to try CBD oil, make sure to consider your own body’s needs including things like your age and weight, physical condition, and how bad your anxiety symptoms are.

Calming Things Down

Anxiety is a perfectly common issue that remains one of the primary concerns of employees both throughout North America and across the globe. It has a quiet yet detrimental effect on both the physical and mental state of those it afflicts, subtly preventing proper cognition, stifling creativity, and crippling physical abilities. 

However, if those who suffer from anxiety take the time to diagnose their symptoms and take steps to address them, they’re likely to see a dramatic shift in their thought processes, productivity, and overall mental and physical health. The critical first step in that process, though, is the need to acknowledge the problem in the first place. Once that is done, anxiety can be treated with the same care and concern as any other mental or physical malady.

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