Stop Stress Spiraling At Work

Is work your greatest source of stress? Does your stress spiral out of control at work, and then you crash after with burnout, emotional explosion, become shut down, or more? It doesn't have to be this way. In this meditation, you'll learn easy, meditative ways to dial back stress that you can implement during the workday. Most importantly, you'll start to explore the root cause of your stress at work, and how to stop it once and for all.

Transcript

Hello,

Welcome to this meditation.

Today we will be exploring why we spiral into stress about work and how to stop these stress spirals.

To start,

I'd like you to be comfortable in any position you like and if it feels good to you,

Gently close the eyes.

Begin to slowly,

Smoothly deepen your breath,

Whether through the nose or the mouth.

Whatever feels good right now.

Good.

Now,

I'm assuming if you chose this meditation,

You're already feeling some type of stress about work,

So let's address that first.

And once we have you in a more balanced,

Neutral,

And open state,

Then we can start uncovering the things that might cause your stress at work to flare up more than they need to.

We're going to welcome a deeper,

Slower breath together now.

I'll prompt you.

Together we'll inhale,

And together we'll open mouth,

Sigh it out.

One more.

Inhale,

Exhale,

Exhale,

Sigh it out.

And continue on your own.

Experiment with these sighs.

Sighing is a wonderful way to get some of that tension moving.

And sighing comes in many different varieties.

As long as the mouth is open,

You're making some type of sound if that feels right.

You can play around with different mouth shapes.

When you breathe out,

Maybe pressing the lips,

See how that feels.

That's going to be different from a open,

Open mouth exhale.

Maybe you want to blow that air out in a flat way like this,

Through the teeth.

There are many,

Many combinations.

So take this time right now to just start to sigh whatever it is that you're stressed about.

We don't even have to know or identify it.

All we know is that you feel tight,

Tense,

And uncomfortable.

So just allow that breath to take it out.

And when you feel like you've reached a nice place,

Go ahead and return to that slow,

Deep,

Conscious breath.

Check in here,

Check in here.

See what feels different.

You might notice physical sensations,

That chest area feels more open.

You might feel like you can sit up more easily.

Emotionally,

You might feel lighter or emptier.

Whatever it is,

Just take note of it.

And we'll breathe in here together.

Inhale,

Exhale.

One more in,

Out,

Smooth,

Deep,

And easy.

And now we'll just go through our body and massage out that tension.

So just like we've been doing with the breath,

We're physically helping it along by the sighing.

We'll go ahead and do that using our hands to move some of that tension out of other body parts,

Starting with the head.

We'll breathe in,

Start to massage the head in whatever way feels good.

Noticing if a lighter pressure or a heavier pressure feels good today.

I like to focus on the midline of our scalp.

So if you drew a line from the tip of your nose,

In the middle,

Up your nose,

Up your forehead,

And then into your head,

Your scalp.

There's a wonderful line there.

Many,

Many acupressure points that have to do with feeling awake,

Feeling alive,

Feeling smooth.

Go ahead and press down on those points right there.

It might feel tender.

And starting from where your hair begins,

Back,

Back,

Back,

To the back of your head.

If that feels nice,

All the while breathing here.

And for those of us that get stress headaches,

This is a great time to incorporate some of that sighing.

If it feels particularly sore,

Sigh it out.

Good.

On the next breath,

We will move to our neck,

Our upper shoulders,

And just whatever comes naturally to you.

Whatever your body is calling out for,

Go ahead and give it that.

And we'll breathe in here.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Good.

One more.

In and out.

I know the neck can be really intense and quite tender,

So go ahead and use that sigh to help you move through those tender spots.

Almost like you're releasing that pain with each exhale.

And as you do this,

See if you can invite a tenderness or softness or a slowness to the way you're massaging yourself,

Letting your body know it's alright to slow down.

One more breath here.

On the next breath,

Let your hands fall to wherever they want to go.

And just take a couple moments to sit back and enjoy this state of being that we've welcomed in with our massage,

With our sighing,

Our breathing.

There's that wonderful feeling of release and pleasure right after we massage a spot.

See if you can linger in that feeling.

Notice the words I'm using,

Linger,

Slow,

Soft.

These are all the opposite of a stress response,

Something that's tight,

Tense,

Quick.

By lingering,

Enjoying,

These are very clear signs to ourselves that,

Look,

We're not in danger.

We're taking it easy.

And doesn't this feel so nice?

Breathing in here with me,

Inhale,

Exhale.

On these inhales and exhales,

I want you,

If it feels good,

To experiment with really enjoying the deliciousness,

The fullness of each breath.

When we started this practice about 10 minutes ago,

We were probably tense and stressed,

And that is reflected in the breath,

Right?

The breath is more shallow,

The breath is quicker.

Now we can easily breathe slowly,

Deeply.

How wonderful is that?

If you want to tap into that feeling of enjoying how nice this all is,

You can invite a soft smile and see how that influences the feeling of this meditation.

And if you'd like,

Now is a nice time to place your hands on your body where it feels nice,

Maybe the stomach,

The thighs.

And with the next breath,

Just pressing your hands into your body,

Reminding ourselves we're here,

Our bodies are here.

Feeling that warmth,

Feeling that unmistakable sign of life.

And over the next couple moments,

I will just share a little bit about stress spiraling at work,

And all you have to do is sit back and relax,

Enjoy the state that we've cultivated together.

And as I share about potential reasons why we stress spiral at work,

Just know that if something resonates,

Notice how that feels in your body,

And if something doesn't,

You can let that go.

Stress is expressed,

It's a part of you,

It's a part of your body.

Differently for all of us,

Stress is held differently for all of us,

Right?

We're all unique.

Making sure that you're continuing to breathe nice and slowly.

So this is a topic which I'd like to zoom out and take a look at.

So I'll be speaking in very general terms,

Okay?

The nature of stress,

Biologically,

Is that of flight or fight,

Or a state in which in which our body,

Our mind,

Ourselves,

We believe or we're feeling that something's dangerous,

Something's out to get us.

We need to survive,

We need to prioritize survival because there is imminent danger,

Right?

So that fight or flight response where the heartbeat quickens,

The breath becomes shallow,

We get all tense,

The blood flows to our muscles ready to fight or flight,

Run,

Right?

All of these physiological responses in our body are due to stress.

And as we know,

Stress doesn't come all of a sudden.

Well,

It could,

The more imminent the danger is,

But we're talking about work.

So most of the time,

That stress ramps up,

Right?

Before we know it,

We're watching that stress spiral out of control.

We're having a meltdown or we feel burnt out or there's an explosion of emotion or we shut down.

There are many different ways that we will be like when our stress spirals out of control and we're just trying to deal with it.

Now,

Let's go back to the very,

Very beginning when,

Let's pretend we're at a baseline.

Imagine yourself at work,

You're at a baseline of neutral,

You're at zero.

You have,

Just imagine you have basically zero stress,

Okay?

And then as the day goes by,

Things happen,

Maybe an unexpected call,

Maybe a bad performance review,

Maybe a unruly colleague,

Maybe a tense discussion,

Whatever it may be,

We start to get more and more stressed.

So I want to ask you,

First of all,

And I hope you don't take this the wrong way,

I hope you're still breathing,

I hope you're still relaxed,

But why?

Why are you stressed at work?

Why are you allowing this to happen?

Because if you think about it,

You are actively not an imminent life-threatening danger and in fact,

You are actually cultivating resources,

Right?

You're cultivating money,

Which is amazing for survival.

In fact,

It is one of the main things that secures your survival and thriving.

Other resources include fulfillment,

Growth,

Right?

Work is a place that you're cultivating sustenance.

You're cultivating the very thing that brings about your survival and thriving.

So does it make sense for us to be stressed out and acting like work is out to get us when we're literally cultivating sustenance,

Right?

So take a moment and think about that.

It doesn't make sense,

Right?

Why are you allowing yourself to be in flight or fight while you are cultivating sustenance?

Does that make sense to you?

Does it feel right to you?

Work is not a tiger that is hunting you down in the forest.

Work is not another person that is challenging you to a fight till the death.

And I know these examples are quite dramatic,

But it illustrates my point.

A spiral of stress or like a maximum maximum like level of stress where it's all the way up,

Which then leads us to crashing,

A meltdown,

Burnout,

Et cetera.

That is,

There is no place at work for something like that.

It simply doesn't make sense.

So now my question to you is,

Where did this idea come from?

Work is out to get me.

Work is the greatest cause of stress in my life.

Where did this idea come from?

Is it true for you,

Right?

Does it have to be true for you?

Are there things that you can do to change your mindset around work so that you're not going to work every day acting like it's out to hunt you down and kill you,

Right?

So I want you to,

If this speaks to you,

Think about this.

Explore the root of where you got this type of thinking,

Right?

Work is out to get me.

It is the greatest source of my stress because remember work is the greatest form of sustenance or one of the greatest forms of sustenance in your life.

It brings about resources which in turn ensure your survival and hopefully help you live a thriving life.

For many of us listening,

When we think about where we got this idea that work is out to get us,

It may have been a belief or an idea instilled in us from very early on,

Whether from our family or friends or society at large.

If it helps you,

You can explore that origin.

But I'm here to tell you that if you don't want to explore that origin,

If you already know that,

Yeah,

Why am I feeling this way about work?

I would not like to feel this way about work.

Then start going to work and experimenting with not feeling like that.

So how would you do that?

Think about what we did at the beginning of this meditation.

We helped move things along physically.

You can do that at work easily.

You can do deeper breathing.

You can sigh,

Right?

You can let that steam out literally by sighing.

You can give yourself those massages,

Right?

All these things help you rebalance yourself,

Go back to a more neutral place.

And as you increase your awareness of your stress levels at work,

You'll start to notice when the stress creeps up,

Right?

The more you're aware of when the stress is creeping up,

The less likely it'll build upon itself or it'll snowball and it'll spiral,

Okay?

So that's all I wanted to say about this topic today.

If you're still meditating and breathing,

We'll go ahead and take a couple breaths together.

Inhale.

Exhale.

One more.

In and out.

Last breath together.

Inhale.

And all the way out.

Good.

Wonderful.

And let your breath return to a more normal pace.

If this session has gotten you thinking about work and stress,

I welcome you to journal upon it.

Maybe meditate a little more on it on your own.

Just start questioning,

Why am I so stressed out about something that is giving me life?

Not taking away from me,

But giving me life.

And does it make sense?

And do I want that?

Thank you so much for meditating with me.

I hope you have a wonderful,

Stress-free,

Easy rest of the day.

Reviews

Very calming and helpful.