10 Ways to Deal With Micro Stress

Productivity

10 Ways to Deal With Micro Stress

Stress is a huge problem, and there’s no doubt about that. Micro Stress is dangerous when left unchecked because it can lead to burnout and severe health problems.

When we think of stress, we try to think of more significant issues in our lives, such as financial problems, health problems or having too many tasks at work.

Although we’re exposed daily to more minor stressors, we might not notice them or gloss over them.

The most minor or most insignificant of stressors can cause you stress, such as sleeping through your alarm, getting stuck in traffic on the way to work, coming home to a messy house, or hearing criticism about yourself.

Though we may not give these incidents much thought, they constantly stress our brains and bodies. We may not realize it, but these incidents are draining us.

It may not be evident to you, but an app continuously runs in the background of your phone, which eventually drains the battery.

In other words, the more micro stress we experience, the lower our stress threshold becomes and the more likely we are to react in the wrong way – becoming upset or angry, or feeling anxious or depressed. It is precise because we do not recognize micro stress that is harmful.

Most doctor visits are for stress-related disorders, but micro stress is so subtle that we might not even realize what is causing our anxiety. As a starting point, you need to identify the primary sources of micro stress.

What Causes Micro Stress?

As individuals, we are vulnerable to micro stresses that drain us personally, like unspoken tensions with other people, mainly making our job more challenging or limiting our productivity.

Examples are people not delivering reliable results, misaligned roles and priorities, inadequate communication, erratic behaviour from people in authority positions, and increased responsibilities or creating a toxic working environment.      

Micro Stress can cause us to develop negative patterns of thinking and feeling by depleting our emotional reserves.

How we express ourselves can affect our emotions, such as fear of repercussions, worry about people we care for or feeling exhausted by expressing ourselves.

It is stressful to engage in conflictual conversations, perceive relationships as distrustful, feel responsible for others’ success, or interact with negative people.

Lastly, micro-stresses arise from interactions that challenge our sense of self and undermine the values that direct our home and workplace actions.

When this friction occurs, we feel emotionally exhausted. People damage your self-confidence and feelings of worth or impose objectives that conflict with your values and disturb your network, as examples of these stressors.

Learn more: When and How to Use 4’Ds of Time Management⌚📈

Micro-Stress: 10 Effective Ways to Manage and Reduce It

Micro Stress : 10 Effective Ways to Manage and Reduce It

Handling stress in your life is a challenging thing to do. Here are some fantastic tips to help manage micro stress at home, the workplace, and everywhere. 

Identify the Stressors

Many people think that stress is harmful and can cause severe issues like anxiety. However, micro stress is not always bad. Stress can be of two kinds: eustress and distress, motivating differently.

We experience eustress when we tackle a feasible challenge, which creates a positive experience and enables us to grow.

Stress is essential to survival and performance. Perhaps you’re about to relocate and are experiencing all the stress and excitement.

On the other hand, distress is associated with negative anxiety and impedes our ability to function correctly and think clearly.

Some distressing factors are feeling stuck in a job you don’t enjoy, conflict with colleagues, dealing with a workplace bully, constantly multitasking to meet deadlines, etc. 

Worker fatigue, lack of productivity, job dissatisfaction, attrition rates, and worse-case scenarios result from constant stress.

Additionally, chronic stress results in low energy, weight gain, high blood pressure, and ultimately lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and mental health disorders. 

Thus, it is vital to identify the causes of micro stress and mitigate them.  

Learn more: Tips to Maintain a Healthy Work Environment and Team Productivity📑📈

Calming Activities Can Help Reduce Stress 

Whether you are stressed at home, at the office, or on the way to work, you can always choose calming activities to reduce stress.

Many people prefer listening to the music of their choice when they feel stressed.

Listening to your favourite playlist while cleaning at home while travelling by train or bus to your workplace is the best way to calm down your temper and stress. 

As for other calming practices, you can try focusing on your breath, looking around at your surroundings, and enjoying. 

You can lower your body’s response to stress by adding leisure to your day. Taking breaks will decrease your heart rate and cortisol levels, stress indicators.

Additionally, they can boost your good mood and assist your well-being. 

Learn more: 20 Fun Games For Employees To Play at Office👩‍💻🎭

Communicate and Connect With People

Life has presented each of us with unique challenges. It’s possible to deal with loss, financial hardships, rescheduled life events, caregiver anxiety, or fear of contracting a disease once the government reopens.

With all of the ongoing stressors in the workplace, communication and compassionate leadership are more important than ever. Empathy meets action when compassion comes together. 

Both the person receiving help and the helper benefit when they practice compassion: Compassion reduces symptoms of depression, improves emotional well-being, and may even lead to improved physical health.

We will all feel more motivated and connected every day if we take action to support our colleagues. 

Learn more: 10 Best Tips to Deal With Workplace Stress 💻😣

Do Not Hesitate to Express Your Emotions

Feel free to express gratitude, disappointment, or concern. Express your feelings clearly to your colleagues. It is difficult to tell how you feel if you are not expressing it. 

Our ability to feel others’ emotions results from mirror neurons in our brain, which assist us in experiencing what they are experiencing. 

Please don’t rely on showing your emotions; try communicating them instead. Consider asking more questions before reading into what other people think or feel.

Practice Mindfulness Everyday

Psychologists suggest that mindfulness is the best practice to tame your mind and thoughts. Meditating can be difficult initially; you might need some time to learn to focus on your mind.

But with time, mindfulness becomes more comfortable with the practice. A mindfulness technique should not be perfect. It would help if you were open-minded, calm, patient, and non-judgmental.

The key to mindfulness is to be present and open-minded in the moment. You can build a habit of waking up a few minutes earlier and take some time to practice mindfulness techniques to calm your mind.

Mindfulness helps you keep calm and take control over stress. Prolonged stress can result in a disaster.

Thus, practising mindfulness and learning to remain calm in every situation will help everyone deal with micro stress.

Social Media Can Trigger More Stress: Avoid It

Social media can be remarkable in various ways, but it can also be stressful to use it sometimes. Taking regular breaks is mandatory.  

Using social media may cause stress in so many ways. Watching or following famous people on social media can cause lower self-esteem and lowered self-confidence.

Feeling like you aren’t good enough might lead you to compare yourself to others. When you see that other people are travelling and enjoying themselves, you might compare your lifestyle with others and feel depressed.

When you scroll through or read about accidents and deaths, you feel stressed. 

Also, it is possible to see advertisements that make you feel pressured to buy certain things even if you don’t have the money to do so.  

So, while dealing with your stress, you should consider detoxing social media. How can you do that?

You can avoid using social media as you wake up in the morning and for the last hour before bed. What about practising a day off from social media once a week or once every 15 days? It would help if you gave it a try. 

Learn more: Best Ways to Stay Productive While Working From Home👩‍💻📈

Maintain a Hygienic Routine Everyday

Stress can also happen when your body does not get enough rest, exercise, and sleep. A person who has an excellent daily routine is likely to have good mental health.

It is widely known that early to bed and rising have many benefits. When you get enough sleep, your body and mind become more relaxed throughout the day. 

Also, stress relates to the things you eat how and when you eat them. Eating healthy foods can also help you beat stress. Don’t skip diets. Stay healthy and stress-free.

Deep Breathing

Deep breathing is said to be a great stress reliever. People say that taking deep breaths takes the stress away. You’ll feel much better after deep breathing.

When you feel stressed, sit in a comfortable place in a comfortable position. If you can lie down, you should lie down. 

Relax your body and mind by closing your eyes. Think of your body in a comfortable position. If you can, listen to some relaxing music or sleep music.

Do what gives you a good and peaceful feeling. Take deep breaths steadily and slowly. Take in deep breaths and breathe out.

Learn more: How to Support Mental Health of Remote Workers 👨‍💻🤗

Take Breaks

Working long shifts can cause stress. So, it would help if you took short breaks in between work. When you feel stressed, you should take some personal thinking time.

Let your mind and feelings wander for five, ten, or fifteen minutes while you sit quietly, close your eyes, relax your body, tame your mind, and just let yourself be. You may peacefully observe how things unfold.

You can have any experience you wish, which I enjoy this practice so much. A few moments of personal reflection are a great way to check-in with yourself and slow down.

Moreover, it can help you manage stress because it allows you to process things you’ve struggled to do. You can also feel emotions you might have avoided in a safe environment.

Don’t Discourage Yourself

Self-discouragement is destructive, and Self-encouragement always helps. So, it would help if you never encouraged self-criticism. 

It can be beneficial when self-criticism shows you how to improve and grow. These stories can also become cruel, causing you nothing but pain and disappointment – they don’t contribute to your life.

Taking part in exercises can help you defuse upsetting thoughts. You can say, “Thank you, Mind!” in response to your self-critical thoughts. That way, you can create some space between you and what you’re thinking. 

If you hear yourself criticizing and believe it is true, rather than dwelling on it, it will grow stronger until you remember it is just a fleeting thought. Do not take it too seriously if you do not wish to.

Conclusion

You should never allow stress to rule you and your mind. Prolonged micro stress can cause some severe issues. So, one should take good care of their mental health and learn how to deal with micro stress. 

Don’t forget to subscribe to the timeTracko blog for more interesting and informative blogs.