Thank you to the 400+ team members who completed our employee survey a few weeks ago. One of the top responses was the importance of health, fitness and wellness support. We’re taking that feedback to heart and will be sharing more resources, tips and programming in the coming weeks.
I know the holiday season can bring stress even in the best of times, let alone during a pandemic. I came across an article from Johns Hopkins Medicine with six steps for relieving stress and wanted to share:
1. Identify your triggers - once you know where your stress is coming from — a relationship, kids, workload, a health problem — you can sometimes reduce or prevent the stress.
2. Stay connected - Many find that connections with a faith family, neighbors and even pets, help them feel positive and energetic, even if children and grandchildren aren’t close at hand.
3. Stay active - Physical activity releases feel-good endorphins. Taking short walking breaks several times a day is a powerful tool for channeling stress. Exercising or joining yoga, dance, or tai chi online classes with friends also helps achieve steps 2 — staying connected.
4. Find your “pause” button - Consider spending quiet time daily: contemplation, reflection and breathing fosters resilience and calm.
5. Plan your fun - To prevent the daily rush from consuming your life, plan your fun for the day, week, month or year.
6. Reframe your thinking about stress itself - Reminding yourself of stress’s evolutionary value may improve your performance and paradoxically reduce feelings of stress, in that you’re not adding “stress about stress” to stress the original trigger aroused.
What do you do to relieve stress? Email us your suggestions and photos at communications@carlsbadca.gov.