How Successful Recruiters Cultivate Calm In Their Working Day
If you can keep your head when all around are losing theirs…
Yours is the earth and everything that’s in it,
And-which is more-you’ll be a man, my son.’
Those lines from Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem If still ring true today- and it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or woman, a CEO or a brand-new office intern. Knowing how to keep calm in stressful situations is one of the great hallmarks of maturity and success.
Stress is a funny thing. In short bursts it’s a good thing- causing our brains to grow new cells to deal with a challenge. However, prolonged stress is catastrophic to our performance as it causes our brain to shrink- as well as delivering a host of associated health problems.
At work, stress can blind us to issues, make us over-react to relatively minor stimulus, or lead to poor decision-making. For recruiters working in a fast-paced and highly competitive environment, learning to cultivate calm in your working day is imperative to success.
It’s time to get off the stress rollercoaster.
How you can beat stress
Get in control of your breathing.
When you’re stressed, your breathing tends to become shallow, which actually heightens the stress response in your body. By giving yourself time and space to concentrate on your breathing, you will reduce the body’s stress response, which should restore some welcome clarity to your brain. Whether you can only catch one deep, calming breath before answering a stressful phone call, or you have time to sit at your desk and take 20 deep, calming breaths, you will feel less stressed if you just remember to breathe!
Exercise.
Exercise is the ultimate stress-buster, and now we know why. A Princeton study done on mice shows that exercise causes calming ‘nanny neurons’ to build up in the brain. When mice were exposed to stressors, the mice who had not been allowed to exercise for several weeks took a lot longer to calm down, while the fit and healthy mice recovered very quickly from the ordeal. The same thing is understood to happen in humans, where exercise builds up a bank of calming neurons which are released when we encounter a stressor. Amazing!
Practice positive redirection.
When feeling like you’re straying down a fruitless path of negativity or worry, you can cultivate calm by replacing the negative thought with a positive one. This can be as simple as thinking of an upcoming holiday, looking at a picture of your gorgeous niece, watching puppy videos on YouTube, or reliving a happy memory. Whatever works for you! It only takes a couple of minutes for the brain to be tricked into releasing the negative thoughts in favour of positive ones.
Avoid ‘what-ifs’.
It’s definitely helpful to look at any action you’re taking and analyse it for possible weaknesses, and perhaps build in a Plan B (or C) in case things don’t go your way. That’s staying in control, and a clever strategy. However, when your brain runs away from your control, careening down pathways where you fruitlessly imagine and fear the worst- you need to be able to get a grip of yourself and snap out of it. Ask yourself: is this worry actually leading me towards a useful solution? Could I be using my time better to either come up with a solution, or move onto something else productive?
Write down what is bothering you.
The simple act of writing down your worries reduces stress levels. It organises your thoughts and gives a sense of release and distance that is hard to achieve when stress is just bubbling away in your head confusing matters. Writing your stressors down also offers clarity- sometimes you’ll realise things aren’t so bad after all, or a solution might come to you.
Write down what is pleasing you.
There’s a lot of fascinating research afoot about how acknowledging all the things that are good in your life has a dramatic effect on happiness, and with that, reduces stress levels. ‘Gratitude journals’ are all the rage for this reason- and even if you don’t want to call it that, just give it a go and try and write down a few things every day that you are appreciative of. They don’t have to be big things, and they don’t have to be at all related to the aspects of your life that are stressing you (they could be that you are happy your partner loves cooking!)Consciously seek out the good in your life, and your brain will soon start to automatically do so.
Eat and drink well.
Like exercise, diet is another relatively simple lifestyle change that can put you in greater control of your stress levels by avoiding certain common foods and drinks. Coffee raises your blood pressure, while alcohol actually feeds stress by causing your body to release the stress hormone cortisol. Sugary drinks and snacks cause irritation and energy crashes, while salty foods. While it can be so tempting to eat junk food and head to the pub after work when you’re stressed, you’ll feel real benefits from taking control of your diet and avoiding stress-triggering foods.
You don’t have to try all of these- (although what a stress-busting powerhouse you would be if you could master all of them!) Why not experiment and see what works for you?
Until next time,
Cheryl