As defined by the American Psychological Association, anxiety, “ is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure.”
Whether you’re stuck on meeting several deadlines by the end of the week, have issues with a demanding boss, are conflicted with complex office dynamics, and are met with overbearing personal life events, anxiety can often arise.
4 Key-Signs of Workplace Anxiety:
It is imperative to understand that workplace anxiety can often be misguided or undermined. Understanding the signs and symptoms of workplace anxiety:
Signs and Symptoms:
- Inability to Focus
People who experience workplace anxiety can suffer from the inability to focus on work tasks. Which can reduce the job performance and quality of work produced. - Disrupted Sleep Pattern
Trouble falling asleep or disrupting the sleep pattern could be a sign of workplace anxiety. Because of their stress towards the following workday. - Forgetfulness
Brain fog or forgetfulness is a sign of anxiety because it describes mental fuzziness or lack of clarity. People who experience brain fog often have trouble concentrating and putting thoughts together. - Lack of Motivation
If a person is experiencing workplace anxiety, they might show symptoms of laziness or lack of motivation because the environment does not allow them the drive to push themselves to produce better work. - Physical Fatigue
Fatigue is one of the main symptoms associated with anxiety because it can often cause a hormonal rush that can leave one feeling tired, drained, and exhausted.
In order to effectively understand if you are struggling with workplace anxiety, examining and reflecting on the aforementioned signs and symptoms is crucial for healing and coping. Workplace anxiety can often take a mental toll on a person. Thus, their work is affected by their lack of focus and forgetfulness. And so, important deadlines and meetings can often be neglected and forgotten about.
Monitoring sleep patterns is also important, as disrupted sleep patterns or lack of it can often be associated with workplace stress.
Not only do feelings of anxiety cause extremely unmotivated work environments, but they also have crippling effects on the body physically such as feelings of fatigue and muscle tension.
However, there can be ways that can help deal with workplace stress:
1. Get to Know Your Limit
Pushing ourselves at work can often be difficult because we try to impress our boss. However, when we get to know our limits, we can alter our focus to specific work tasks and thus produce better results.
2. Talk it Out
When life gets too overbearing and overwhelming, it is important to establish a safe circle of trust that a person can turn to when they’re feeling burnt out. Whether this person is a friend, a family member, talk to them about the specifics of what is going on.
3. Take a Break
Hitting the pause button on work can often cause feelings of stress and shame. However, it is dually important to take indispensable time off for yourself! Whether this time off involves you doing fun activities on your own, taking a no-phone weekend for yourself, or traveling somewhere relaxing! Energizing yourself is one of the ways to combat work anxiety and feelings of burnout. Taking a break could mean different things for many people. It all comes down to what is considered as rest for you! Personalize your time-off with whatever suits you best, even if it is only for two hours a day.
4. Practice Mindfulness
When trying to combat a life full of anxiety, it is crucial to thoroughly reflect on the reasons behind the emotional and anxious state. It is essential to not only highlight the reasons but also validate them by understanding and acknowledging them. Thus, you will become more observant and aware of your surroundings and trigger points! Mindfulness is a process of meditation and paying attention to your thoughts and feelings. When you practice mindfulness and meditation, you will be able to be present and more aware of your surroundings rather than focusing on the past or imagining the future. One of the ways you could practice mindfulness is paying attention to your surroundings, living in the moment, becoming more intentional with everything that you do, accepting and treating yourself with care, and focusing on your breathing.
Anxiety can affect a person’s emotional, mental, and physical state in numerous ways. However, finding the right balance of small steps that can help is crucial to sustaining a less worry-free life. Oftentimes anxiety is hard to eliminate forever. Therefore, the goal is to try and cope with it in the healthiest ways possible. If you experience workplace anxiety, try to pay attention to the triggers. Afterward, try to practice some of the ways that can help reduce how anxiety could affect your life.
