The summer holidays have started and so we take a break to recover from all the pressure and stress. We take time to reflect on our progress, our challenges, and our to-do list. Haven’t you found yourself reimagining the outcome of certain situations if we had reacted differently? Our emotions influence our performance.
To achieve positive results, keep a positive attitude. It will help you to be more resilient. It’s a challenge to remain emotionally balanced in stressful situations and even more so when you’re psychologically tired. You have gone down this road before.
In our previous article, Be well Work Well Part 1 we shared with you our “Habit Bank”, a set of everyday behaviours and habits that fuel the four dimensions of energy. We started with the Physical dimension, the source of your energy, and a few tricks to guarantee success.
This time we look at the Emotional dimension, your internal climate which enables you to act and react. We’ve filtered a list of individual and team habits for you to deal with stressful situations differently and boost your reservoir of positive energy while having fun in the process.
We bet you’ll put at least one or two suggestions into practice right after coming back from that special corner in the world you chose to spend your holidays. You are up for it, aren’t you?
What we mean by emotional balance: The Emotional Habits
The emotional dimension, as we mentioned before, is our internal climate, the way we act and react. From interactions with our teammates to our own level of stress, our emotional stability is a base for everything we do, including professional outcomes. We have selected five habits to make the most of your work relationships and face every day challenges with stress-free battery.
Habit 1: Show your appreciation
Did you know that people who practice gratitude feel better both physically and emotionally? How can you put this into practice? Start saying “thank you”, it’s that simple. Start the habit of thanking your team members for their help throughout the day and encourage the “Vice versa mood”, so they do the same in and outside the team. You could even send a “thank you” note, a tweet, a LinkedIn post or a text to people that contributed positively to your day and your tasks inside and outside the work place. Tell them how they made an impact. It will brighten up your day and theirs.
Habit 2: Share a laugh
Have you ever had moments when you struggle to stay focused, especially when you’re in front of a screen? Re-centre yourself with laugher. Share a funny fact and/or video with your team and rotate the task. If you have time, invite your colleagues to play a small trivia game on non-work related topics. You would be surprised how a short moment of laughter can break stress levels and improve your performance.
Habit 3: Be more optimistic
The way you choose to interiorise situations and events around you might lead to stress. In particular occasions it’s challenging to foresee positive outcomes, but it’s not impossible. The trick is to be more realistically optimistic. In fact, we have the tendency to ask the “what if” question when thinking of a difficult situation, sometimes coming up with non-existent problems. Try to think of a positive outcome instead of a negative one. Ask yourself “What is the best that can happen? What’s the worst-case scenario? What can I learn from this situation?” Share your positive experiences after putting this habit into practice and motivate your teammates to do the same. A positive attitude can make the difference. When you’re stuck in the middle of intense emotions due to stress, you aren’t able to see situations with a clear mind. When you notice you’re losing your emotional centre, take a break and change locations. Taking emotional distance will help you remain objective and see the situation differently.
Habit 4: Be curious
Getting to know your colleagues is a great way to establish a solid relationship at the office and motivate you to take a break. Encourage participation in discussions about people’s backgrounds, interests, and experiences by, for example, implementing Cultural Mondays or Team Tuesdays where a different team member shares fun facts about himself/herself. It will build a great sense of community and trust among your team in an authentic way.
Habit 5: Celebrate wins
If we already show appreciation towards others, we’re half way there. However, nothing beats celebrating your success as a team. Celebrating can be as simple as pausing for a moment at the beginning of a meeting and giving a round of high fives. It could also be as robust as a team dinner after the successful completion of a project. Regardless of what you are celebrating, taking time to honour the hard work will help you appreciate the achievement, recognise the team effort, and each person’s contribution to the end result.
Don’t worry, de-stress
The summer period is the time to recover and re-charge batteries. If you’re next to the sea looking at the horizon or in the mountains admiring the clouds from above, close your eyes and record that view and feeling. Make it your mental paradise.
Here are three other relevant habits that you should consider in order to succeed in having a perfect emotional balance when you are back:
- Staying all day inside your office or the office building doesn’t help fight stress. Take a walk outside or play some sports like we do at Crystal Park at least once a day. Find the time between meetings or even during lunch time. Breaking the monotony helps you organise the information in your head and, at the same time, release stress. Some fresh air is always good, right?
- Breath! Do you watch your breathing throughout the day? Do you notice yourself holding your breath, yawning, breathing erratically or sighing often? Stop and catch your breath. Find a quiet place to retreat to or focus in creating a mental paradise. Take a few deep breaths counting backwords, focusing on just that.
- Prioritise! We’re constantly being bombarded by phone calls, emails, requests with urgent deadlines throughout the day. While you don’t have any control over them, you can control your response to them. You have three options: deal immediately with the request, cut it off or analyse its importance and make a priority list. You will find that some requests are recurrent and some can be solved easily if discussed in person.
What will you do after reading this article? You could methodically put into practice the 5+3 habits, one by one, or you could forget them all and that’s okay. Just remember that stress is a physical response, not a state of mind or a style of life. In the meantime… enjoy your well-deserved holidays.