The lockdown has been quite a peculiar period in human history. The whole world has been collectively affected by this pandemic. As individuals who have jobs, COVID-19 has certainly changed how we handle our work. Working from a distance has pros and cons.
Among its pros, for people who are a little bit introverted, is that you don’t have to deal with lots of people. Returning to work with lots of people and coworkers around can be quite stressful. And if you’re in a full-time job, that stress might be even more negative for you.
But don’t worry! There are some things that you can do to reduce the stress in the workplace after COVID-19. Here are some tips on how to be better equipped against stress in the workplace.
Take it easy and do socialize step by step!
You might’ve got used to working from home with your cozy pajamas while playing with your pet and listening to loud Rock Music. That’s totally understandable. But now that the pandemic is not as serious as it was. Returning to work with the collective is inevitable.
You probably heard about Exposure Therapy before. If you don’t, it’s basically the sort of therapy that some psychiatrists use to treat patients with problems like agoraphobia and PTSD. Basically, the doctor exposes the patient to the thing they fear step by step until they no longer feel threatened by it.
Of course, your case is not as serious as the health problems above. But you can certainly learn a lesson from it. If you don’t get the idea, let me explain. You’re basically going to familiarize yourself with socializing with people step by step. You guard the safety measures and only interact with small groups of people who don’t make you feel so anxious.
Keep the safety measures
Prevention is better than cure. This is one of the strongest maxims for promoting good health. If only more people take it seriously, we wouldn’t have had the COVID-19 pandemic.
Feeling anxious around people, fearing they might infect you with COVID-19 (or vice versa) is totally natural in our times. To reduce this anxiety, one must respect the safety measures that everyone knows.
That way, you won’t feel anxious around people because you know how to protect yourself from the infection with a virus.
Keep your mask on your face, wash your hands at any given chance, don’t shake hands unless necessary, and you’ll be quite alright!
Take care of yourself
Self-care is quite the tricky thing sometimes. Sometimes, you want to take care of yourself, you just don’t know how to do it efficiently.
Returning to work like the old days before COVID-19 comes with its usual stress that you’re quite familiar with. The stress of work can be quite overwhelming because you took a long vacation. Getting used to that stress can take some time.
However, there are some things that you can do like, self-care, that mitigate that stress and make life a lot easier.
Sleep is the first self-care recommendation. You should have adequate sleep. Take your time to have a good night of sleep every day. Stay away from your PC screen and Smartphone 2 hours prior to your sleeping time. And sleep for 7 hours at least.
Stress is quite harmful to your body and makes you age faster. To reduce those negative effects, you should consider exercising or at least YOGA.
Those are two self-care suggestions that you can start with. You should also consider mediation.
Have Fun Doing Things that Make You Happy
Play your favorite Rock songs as loud as they can on your drive to work. Sing along to the lyrics and have fun while driving. Doing such as easy thing as listening to music, will boost your emotional state and give you more motivation to meet people and do work.
If you feel tension, grab a book that you like, or watch your favorite stuff on YouTube. Perhaps, you can take a walk with your pet.
Doing the things we love is has many positive effects on our emotional state, which helps us tolerate stress a lot better.
Bottom line
I hope that COVID-19 hasn’t impacted you very negatively. And if it did, I hope you’re recovering fast. Take care of yourself and stress will be reduced to a point you can tolerate eventually!
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