Workplace Wellbeing: How to utilise healthy stress to excel at work

Her response when she didn’t hit her targets was to double down and work “harder and longer”, she says.

“I’d push through exhaustion and prioritise work over rest. I was constantly stressed but didn’t realise it was because I was pushing myself so much. I thought it meant something was wrong with me, that I wasn’t resilient enough to cope in a competitive workplace,” she says.

Deane ignored her body’s stress signals for so long that she became ill: “I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia nine years ago, which I see as the culmination of having pushed myself so hard for so long. The American psychologist Dr Stephen Porges and Canadian doctor Gabor Maté both talk about how chronic stress can lead to disease, and I think that’s what happened with me.”

Clinical psychologist Eddie Murphy believes Deane is far from alone in viewing stress as a sign of weakness: “Our society often equates resilience with never showing stress.”

This is a mistake, according to Murphy.

“Stress doesn’t indicate weakness,” he says. “It’s the body’s natural and normal response to a challenge.”

Stress can be a good thing, helping us rise to that challenge.

“When stress activates your fight, flight, or freeze response, hormones like cortisol and adrenaline are released into the body, and they can enhance your focus, motivation, and performance,” says Murphy. “This is the positive side of stress, known as eustress.”

Jan de Vries is an associate professor of psychology at Trinity College Dublin and a specialist in stress management. He compares stress to a turbo booster on a car’s engine: “It’s like a fuel injection for our nervous system that allows us to respond to situations that put us under pressure with more effort, energy, and effectiveness.”

He explains how stress affects the body: It starts when the brain sends a message telling the nervous system to activate our adrenal gland, which initiates the fight, flight, or freeze response.

“That speeds up our heartbeat and breathing rate, which sends more blood to the brain and adrenaline to our muscles to make them stronger,” says de Vries. “It’s a great facility to have. And nothing special has ever been achieved by any human without activating the stress response.”

However, this stress response comes with potential pitfalls. One is overactivation.

“When you’re fighting to survive, you need to put all your energy into it,” says de Vries. “Your body doesn’t moderate your stress response. But this overactivation can affect precision.”

He gives the example of soccer players missing penalty kicks: “Why do they miss such simple shots. We’re more likely to make mistakes when our stress response is over-aroused.”

The second potential pitfall is prolonged activation of stress, as happened in Deane’s situation.

“Stress increases our heart rate and blood pressure and uses up a lot of energy,” says de Vries. “Over time, this can lead to depletion of our body’s resources. That can cause burnout, cardiovascular, digestive, and other problems.”

Harnessing stress

There are ways of managing stress so you don’t get sick. De Vries believes it starts with accepting stress as a part of life and harnessing it to our advantage.

“I know I usually produce better work when I’m under a certain amount of stress,” he says. 

Murphy suggests we interpret what our stress is telling us: “Stress is a feedback mechanism which involves our body telling us that there’s something that requires our attention.
Instead of fearing it or ignoring it, we should try to decode it. Is it telling us that we are overwhelmed, under-supported, or overcommitted? And what can we do to restore a sense of balance?”

Doing this isn’t always easy. Stress, especially when it’s acute, can be so overwhelming that it prevents us from thinking clearly.

If this happens, Murphy advises you to ‘press pause’: “Stop what you are doing and breathe. Then try to name what’s causing you stress. Identifying the root cause can help break that emotional overwhelm.

Small steps like taking a break, breathing deeply, and reprioritising can help shift stress from feeling paralysing to manageable. Then you should be able to decide what to do about whatever is causing you stress.

De Vries encourages people to incorporate a list of stress management techniques into their lives. These include taking breaks throughout the workday and scheduling holidays throughout the year. He also recommends aerobic exercise and good sleep as particularly effective stressbusters.

“I also tell people to sit down with a pen and paper and to write down what’s causing stress in their lives,” he says. “What are the different factors involved? What are you doing about it? Is there anything more you could do? This can help you gain a sense of control in your life which allows you to deal with stress more effectively.”

Murphy’s stress management tips include reframing challenges as opportunities for growth. Another is learning to say no and setting boundaries.

“Seeking support and talking to others about stress helps too,” he says. “And so does regularly checking in with yourself. Ask yourself if stress is pushing you forward or running you into the ground.”

Maintaining balance

The first sign that stress had run Deane into the ground was when she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. But it wasn’t until she had a child and experienced near burnout following her return to the workplace post- maternity leave that there was a turning point in her relationship with stress.

She took time out of work and reflected on her behaviour patterns: “I realised I’d been a people pleasure who struggled to say no. I also realised that my body wasn’t at war with me when it showed signs of stress. It was trying to protect me. I had to learn to understand and recognise its stress signals and do something about them rather than ignoring them. That’s been transformative for me.”

Deane now works with her stress instead of against it: “I still get stressed because stress is part of life. I know that we need stress to motivate us to do well. But we have to be resilient enough to deal with it. That starts with good sleep, good nutrition, and physical movement. 

Social connections and fun are important too, and so is being intentional about rest. And we mustn’t forget our inner voice. I used to berate myself when I felt stressed, but now I try to be kinder to myself and support myself through challenges.

Five years ago, she set up Clear Path Coaching to help others to do the same. It’s a coaching practice that helps organisations create cultures where performance and well-being co-exist:

“I believe there is a shared responsibility when it comes to managing stress. Organisations can do amazing work to support their employees’ well-being, but employees have to recognise how their habits affect them. They have to recognise their own needs and voice them to their employer. Performing to your full potential is only possible if you feel well, and you cannot feel well when you’re under too much stress.”