Managing work stress in high stress professions

In some jobs and professional projects, work stress is such a common element that it can become normalized, as if it were part of the office where you are going to work.

However, the truth is that if this psychological and physiological phenomenon is not managed properly, it tends to lead to performance problems and even pathologies of greater or lesser severity. Therefore, it is not convenient to assume that work stress is a simple and one-dimensional experience; Depending on how we face it, the results we obtain in our work and in ourselves will be very different.

Therefore, in the following article We will see how it is possible to manage work stress by focusing on work routines with the greatest capacity to push ourselves to the limit, that is to say, those that we develop in situations of great tension.

• Related article: "Psychology of work and organizations: a profession with a future"

Situations of strong psychological tension that generate work stress

Stress is such an important psychological phenomenon in our lives precisely because it can be triggered by a wide variety of situations. In fact, it is characterized by appearing above all in contexts that we are not fully used to, those that are beyond our comfort zone.

It is normal for it to be like this: the ability to experience stress is an adaptation produced by natural selection, since it helps us to react quickly at key moments, when we stop to decide what to do It can be very expensive for us to expose ourselves too much to a danger or to lose an opportunity important.

Thus, stress is the opposite of our state of relative relaxation in which we are "by default" when all our most important needs are covered. It arises when there is something that disturbs our emotional balance by introducing relevant changes in our present or in our predictions about what will happen, and at the same time we feel that if we are quick we can do something to improve our situation or avoid a problem.

Therefore, stress can take as many forms as there are ways that our present is disrupted by problems or unforeseen events. It is a mechanism of adaptation to the unpredictable that in most cases helps us to enhance our behavioral flexibility. However, no adaptation resulting from natural selection is useful 100% of the time, and the stress response is no exception to this. Which means that there are a wide variety of situations that can generate a stress problem if we do not learn to manage this psychological element well.

Although technically this range of stress-generating contexts is infinite, in practice, if we We stick to the world of work, those that tend to lead people to extreme situations are easier to delimit. A) Yes, those that are most often seen in a psychology consultation are the following.

• Exam preparation (even if it is not a paid job, there is a competitive aspect and schedules)
• High demand jobs where human lives are at stake: surgeons, air traffic controllers, etc.
• Development of projects with high workloads and tight deadlines.
• Jobs closely linked to maintaining a personal brand on social networks: influencers, designers, youtubers ...
• Competition in the field of elite athletes and professional sports
• Creative works in which a blockage of inspiration is a serious problem
• Situations in which more workload is assumed due to lack of staff

• You may be interested in: "Work stress: causes, and how to combat it"

Stress management strategies associated with difficult professional projects

These are several of the most widely used stress management strategies in psychotherapy to help people facing a very demanding professional context.

1. Mindfulness practice

Mindfulness or Mindfulness is a very useful resource for enhance the ability to maintain proper emotional balance, as long as we use it as a habit consistently. It allows us to reposition our attention focus in the present and stop feeding fears without real sustenance and obsessive thoughts that paralyze us.

• Related article: "What is Mindfulness? The 7 answers to your questions "

2. Relaxation techniques practice

Relaxation techniques such as deep breathing or Jacobson's progressive muscle relaxation aim to influence the psychological from the psychological, that is, to make the slow rhythms of our body is reflected in our way of processing the present and the stimuli to which we we expose.

• You may be interested in: "6 easy relaxation techniques to combat stress"

3. Establishment of guidelines and segmentation of tasks

Many highly stressful jobs produce a lot of discomfort because they expose us to intimidating uncertainty. They pose the question: What to do next? Because everything is so complicated and faced with so many tasks, we are paralyzed because we are not capable of facing everything, the situation overwhelms us.

For this reason, in psychotherapy people are trained in the ability to establish guidelines and segmentation of tasks, so that from the beginning let's establish a clear sequence of activities, composed of very short-term goals that serve as references of our progress and are always there to motivate us.

• You may be interested in: "Time management: 13 tips to take advantage of the hours of the day"

4. Attentional capacity training

The difference between knowing how to focus properly on the task and not doing it It can mean doing that activity in half the time or not. Therefore, this is one of the aspects of psychological intervention most valued by professionals, elite athletes, opponents ...

5. Learning the correct rest patterns

Being very forgiving of ourselves in the way we rest between tasks can cause lose control of the minutes dedicated to regain strength and fall into procrastination constantly, letting work accumulate.

But at the same time, falling short with rest time will bring us to a point where we are unable to concentrate and end up resting more equally, but in a chaotic way and not restorative.

For this reason, it is important to learn to distribute in our schedule the hours of rest that are adjusted to the demands of the work and to our personal characteristics.

• Related article: "The 7 main sleep disorders"

Are you interested in having professional psychological assistance?

If you are looking for psychotherapy or coaching services, get in touch with us. On UPAD Psychology and Coaching you will find a team of professionals trained to intervene in all areas of emotional well-being.

We offer services in individualized psychological therapy, couples therapy, coaching for opponents or professionals, sports psychology, sexology, and training courses in various areas of psychology for individuals and companies.