How To Maintain Your Mental Health When You Have A Stressful Job

Do you know that feeling, when your work seems like a nightmare that you cannot escape from even when you come home? Do you sometimes feel like everything is getting too much and you are slipping into the abyss? It’s stress doing these awful things to you, and to keep your sanity in these circumstances you’ll need to develop habits that will keep it at bay.

The impact of stress on your career, and on your health in general, is tremendous and not good in any way. Unsurprisingly, the impact of a stressful job on your mental health can be just as bad. The best solutions for relieving that stress and protecting your mind are going on vacation or finding a less stressful job but, let’s be honest, few of us have the luxury of being able to just do this. But this doesn’t mean that there is nothing you can do. The following ideas will help you to achieve a balance in your life and relieve the tension caused by work-related stress. Most importantly, each of these methods will help you to preserve your sanity and find happiness through simple everyday things.

1. Start a weight loss program (even if you don’t need it)

Do you know what you absolutely cannot afford to suffer when you have a stressful job? You can’t have any more unnecessary stress in your life, so you need to reevaluate your lifestyle and eliminate any stress factors that are within your power to remove.

Considering the obesity epidemic today and the detrimental effects being overweight has on your mental health, resolving any weight issues should be your first priority. If you are one of the millions of overweight people on this planet, you need to introduce an efficient weight loss program into your life right now.

As you need to avoid adding stress, you should use a well-balanced plan that doesn’t include any extreme dieting or athlete-level exercise routines. Instead, focus on planning healthy nutritious meals, counting your calories and getting a moderate workout at home. This plan won’t provide rapid results, but the weight loss you achieve in this way will be permanent. It’s also the healthiest possible way to shed some extra pounds.

And do you want to know what the best thing about adopting a healthy weight loss program is?

Not only does it help you lose weight, thus eliminating a major stressor and giving you a boost of self-confidence. It also makes you switch to a healthy diet, which benefits your mental health on another level. Plus it pushes you to exercise regularly which, according to research, reduces the risk of mental disorders and helps treat both depression and anxiety. Workouts are even used as a form of therapy for managing complex conditions, such as schizophrenia and dementia.

All in all, starting a well-balanced weight loss program benefits your mental health in so many ways that you should consider doing this even if you don’t actually need to lose weight. In this case, you will simply need to keep your calorie intake at a reasonable level. When you lead this kind of lifestyle, you’ll build up enough strength to create some natural defences against the stress that comes with your job.

2. Turn on the music

Leading a healthy lifestyle (also known as following a balanced weight loss program) is good for building up your mental defences, but those are long-term benefits. If you need to deal with stress right now, right there in the office that is the source of all your suffering, you need only to switch on the music. It is known that listening to music provides a plethora of psychological benefits, both immediate and long-term. Stress relief is just one of them, so you should always have your playlist and a pair of earphones to hand. A calming tune or three will help you to relax immediately after dealing with a particularly problematic client or boss or that courier who seems to be lost on the road of life when you are facing a deadline.

It doesn’t matter what kind of music you listen to as long as you enjoy it. But there are some specific benefits associated with different types of melodies. For example, classical music helps with focus, thus you can use it when you are working on some difficult task. Lullabies literally help you to relax and listening to hard rock is the best when you need to release some aggression in a non-violent way.

3. Decorate your workspace

If you can’t take the stress out of your job, you should at least try to surround yourself with things which provide you with comfort. Pictures of loved ones, silly plushies and figurines, potted plants and cool stationery can help you turn your workspace into a tiny haven in the middle of an unrelenting storm.

Alas, not all of us have a desk that we can decorate in whatever way we like at work. If you aren’t that fortunate, just work with what you have. If you have a workstation with some tools, can you put decals and stickers on your personal toolbox? Can you put pins on your uniform? Do you at least have a locker to decorate so that you can escape to it when you are feeling particularly overwhelmed? If none of these options is possible, fall back to taking a short break and listening to your favourite tune to lift your spirits.

Having a stressful job is hard and it may seem like there is no escape for you. However, you should never give in to the pressure. Seek out a therapist if the stress is getting too much or at least talk to someone you trust. Never underestimate the therapeutic power of venting your frustrations!

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