Don’t Eat at Your Desk

Reduce or eliminate caffeine, sugar and alcohol from your diet; they wreak havoc with the adrenal glands. Eat whole grain products and fresh vegetables, which help stabilize and sustain blood sugar levels during the day. And don’t forget good protein, like wild fish or organic bison, which also moderates sugar absorption. Don’t eat at your desk. When you’re stressed out at work, your blood supply is shunted away from your digestive tract to deal with your “fight or flight” response, so it is not available to help your intestines efficiently absorb nutrients from food.

Stress-busting role model: A “practise what she preaches” instructor from Yoga Santosha

Have a frank discussion with your boss about your future with the company. If the boss says there are going to be more layoffs in January, take specific steps. Update your resumé, alert your networking group to your situation and make a list of work accomplishments to help market yourself if need be. Look for options elsewhere in the company. Be careful about organizational culture and operational parameters, but seek out appropriate ways to find out what might be available on another team or work group. You’ve got to take care of your career; make sure to get those doors open.

Stress-busting role model: Senior executive friend from Toronto for living in the moment

Differentiate between what is real and what is assumption at the workplace. If you hear a layoff rumour, ask yourself, “How do I know that is true?” If you are afraid you will lose your job, check out the notions of possibility and probability. Might you lose your job? Yes. How likely is it that you will lose your job? If there is a 5% likelihood, how much time are you prepared to spend worrying about something that has a 95% chance of not happening? How have you successfully dealt with ambiguity in the past? Make time for well-loved routines that provide pleasure. Find a trusted sounding board; it takes more courage to get what you really need than it does to ignore or avoid.

Stress-busting role model: Her brother, who worries only when necessary

We are in this together, so we can share both the pain and the solutions. Talk to your team about how to manage your expanded work duties. Problem-solving together will help you regain some sense of control and rebuild community at work. “Don’t let your guard down about your own health, fitness and coping mechanisms,” Penner adds. The best defence against stress is to make sure you are taking care of yourself.

Stress-busting role model: Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Full Catastrophe Living

Know what you can’t change. You don’t have control over the stock market, for example, but you can meet with advisers and tinker with your portfolio. In the workplace, de-stress by deciding what you must do today and what can wait until tomorrow. Take a moment to turn the computer off, close the door, reflect on the stressful issue at hand and how you are going to handle it. Actually write “think time” into your Daytimer if necessary. Using a few minutes in this quiet way on a regular basis will rebuild your creativity and reduce stress.

Stress-busting role model: Abbot Phra Acharn Phusit at the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi, Thailand

If you react in anger when stressed at work, determine why you are responding that way and make changes that are more aligned with success. You may not be able to control the physiology of stress (for example, the increased heart rate and adrenalin spike), but you can control your response to it. Taking a deep breath before reacting is a good strategy.

For the employee: Managers are people too and deal with stress in a variety of ways. Find a way to understand what is happening in the boss-worker dynamic and be respectful of the manager’s stress response. Whining to your boss about stress is counterproductive. It doesn’t solve anything. Instead, ask for a meeting to discuss your work situation. This way, you will both be prepared and not subject to an “off the cuff” dynamic which will put you in a reactive light and your supervisor in stress mode. Plan what you want to say and consider creative solutions; if realistic, they may be adopted. Avoid making threats.

For the manager: Supervisors are often stressed because they are balancing that middleman position between top management and staff. You’ll need clear, written messaging from the brass about what to say to staff and time in your workday to identify and deal with issues arising from staff. When delivering the message, supervisors should be confident. Even if the message is less than positive, that clarity and directness will reduce stress levels.

Stress-busting role model: His three-year-old son for his emphasis on play