March 17, 2022
Without question, when you work in the healthcare field, facing stress is a given. No matter how much you love your job, time spent taking care of the needs of others will bring you face to face with some emotionally challenging, anxiety-inducing, stressful situations.
Unfortunately, the stress you deal with at work doesn't just disappear when you exit the building. In fact, it can get so overwhelming at times that your burdens on the job follow you home, get in the way of personal and family time, and even interfere with your quality of life. So, how do you find a little stress release and leave work at work? Let's take a closer look at why a work-life balance matters for stress reduction, and some of the best ways to relieve stress once you get home.
The Value of a Work-Life Balance
A good work-life balance has a few contributing factors, such as hours worked, personal perceptions, and even the number of priorities one person has at home or work compared to someone else. However, when the work/life balance is disrupted, the main consequence is mental stress. When you don't know how to release stress after work, this can further lead to being unsatisfied with your career, feeling burned out, and even developing a negative attitude while at work or home or affecting personal relationships.
Research conducted by Mental Health America in 2020 found that 93% of healthcare workers were dealing with stress, 86% reported anxiety, and 76% were dealing with burnout. Even more concerning, over half reported they sometimes questioned their career path.
Stress on the job may be imminent, but when you take that stress home, you are essentially bringing work with you. This disrupts the work-life balance, bringing about even more stress and creating a neverending cycle of feeling emotionally exhausted. With that being said, learning how to leave work at work grows even more important.
How to Leave Work at Work - Stress Release Tactics After Work
Stress is a really hard thing to negate, especially when you have a career that involves so many variables, unknowns, and ramifications when something goes wrong. However, a few stress-release tactics may help you walk away from work stress at the end of the day.
1. Create Psychological Barriers Between You and Work
The human brain is hardwired to hang onto information perceived to be important. When you experience something stress-inducing at work, you truly can't help the fact that it is difficult to let it go.
Two things could be happening when you can't turn off work when you leave. One, you could be dealing with attention residue, which is not being able to focus fully on one thing when something else feels unresolved. Two, you can be dealing with anticipatory stress, which is worrying about what is to come because of something that happened at work.
The key may be to create a psychological barrier between you and work. How? As simple as it sounds, disconnect. Don't check work emails, skip looking at work-related communications, and even avoid chatting with co-workers if you need to. The goal should be to have work-related thoughts while at work and home-related thoughts outside of work if possible. The more you can differentiate the two, the more your brain will grow accustomed to switching gears when you clock out at the end of the workday.
2. Etch Out a Buffer Zone in Your Workday Schedule
Switching gears takes a little time, especially if your day has been especially challenging. Give yourself a short buffer zone at the end of your day. This means that you may leave work and make it home to your family in five minutes, but all those residual worries and feelings will linger. Use this time to clear your thoughts, whether it's 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or an entire hour.
Take a walk, sing your favorite lyrics on your commute home, cry, scream, or meditate. Make a point to stop and get yourself your favorite cup of coffee, peer at a nice view, or even call a friend. The most important thing is you get a little time for your mind to make the transition.
3. Build a Skill Beyond Your Career
Research has shown that learning something new may actually be a good stress release at work. As counterintuitive as it may sound to tackle some new objective, doing so may help you step a little more lightly when you have a rough day at work.
When you are learning a new skill, your mind is inclined to allocate more of its attention span to that specific task. In theory, this could mean less of your attention span available to be utilized by stressful thoughts. So, whether it is taking a cooking class, learning how to paint pottery, or otherwise, this can be rewarding.
4. Focus on Something Positive After Every Workday
Gratitude is incredibly valuable to the human psyche. When you find something to be positive about at work, it may lessen your anxiety and can be the best way to relieve stress.
At the end of the day, step away from the things that took place, things that went wrong, and what could happen, and pull out at least one thing you are grateful for. Maybe some days all you can find to be grateful for will be a co-worker that makes you smile or just the fact that the snack machine had your favorite chips.
Leaving Stress at Work
While Scrubs & Beyond may not be able to lighten your stress load at work, what we can do is make shopping for workwear as simple as possible. And being comfortable can be helpful when it comes getting through the day. Take a look at our collection of healthcare apparel designed with the caregiver in mind.
Without question, when you work in the healthcare field, facing stress is a given. No matter how much you love your job, time spent taking care of the needs of others will bring you face to face with some emotionally challenging, anxiety-inducing, stressful situations.
Unfortunately, the stress you deal with at work doesn't just disappear when you exit the building. In fact, it can get so overwhelming at times that your burdens on the job follow you home, get in the way of personal and family time, and even interfere with your quality of life. So, how do you find a little stress release and leave work at work? Let's take a closer look at why a work-life balance matters for stress reduction, and some of the best ways to relieve stress once you get home.
The Value of a Work-Life Balance
A good work-life balance has a few contributing factors, such as hours worked, personal perceptions, and even the number of priorities one person has at home or work compared to someone else. However, when the work/life balance is disrupted, the main consequence is mental stress. When you don't know how to release stress after work, this can further lead to being unsatisfied with your career, feeling burned out, and even developing a negative attitude while at work or home or affecting personal relationships.
Research conducted by Mental Health America in 2020 found that 93% of healthcare workers were dealing with stress, 86% reported anxiety, and 76% were dealing with burnout. Even more concerning, over half reported they sometimes questioned their career path.
Stress on the job may be imminent, but when you take that stress home, you are essentially bringing work with you. This disrupts the work-life balance, bringing about even more stress and creating a neverending cycle of feeling emotionally exhausted. With that being said, learning how to leave work at work grows even more important.
How to Leave Work at Work - Stress Release Tactics After Work
Stress is a really hard thing to negate, especially when you have a career that involves so many variables, unknowns, and ramifications when something goes wrong. However, a few stress-release tactics may help you walk away from work stress at the end of the day.
1. Create Psychological Barriers Between You and Work
The human brain is hardwired to hang onto information perceived to be important. When you experience something stress-inducing at work, you truly can't help the fact that it is difficult to let it go.
Two things could be happening when you can't turn off work when you leave. One, you could be dealing with attention residue, which is not being able to focus fully on one thing when something else feels unresolved. Two, you can be dealing with anticipatory stress, which is worrying about what is to come because of something that happened at work.
The key may be to create a psychological barrier between you and work. How? As simple as it sounds, disconnect. Don't check work emails, skip looking at work-related communications, and even avoid chatting with co-workers if you need to. The goal should be to have work-related thoughts while at work and home-related thoughts outside of work if possible. The more you can differentiate the two, the more your brain will grow accustomed to switching gears when you clock out at the end of the workday.
2. Etch Out a Buffer Zone in Your Workday Schedule
Switching gears takes a little time, especially if your day has been especially challenging. Give yourself a short buffer zone at the end of your day. This means that you may leave work and make it home to your family in five minutes, but all those residual worries and feelings will linger. Use this time to clear your thoughts, whether it's 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or an entire hour.
Take a walk, sing your favorite lyrics on your commute home, cry, scream, or meditate. Make a point to stop and get yourself your favorite cup of coffee, peer at a nice view, or even call a friend. The most important thing is you get a little time for your mind to make the transition.
3. Build a Skill Beyond Your Career
Research has shown that learning something new may actually be a good stress release at work. As counterintuitive as it may sound to tackle some new objective, doing so may help you step a little more lightly when you have a rough day at work.
When you are learning a new skill, your mind is inclined to allocate more of its attention span to that specific task. In theory, this could mean less of your attention span available to be utilized by stressful thoughts. So, whether it is taking a cooking class, learning how to paint pottery, or otherwise, this can be rewarding.
4. Focus on Something Positive After Every Workday
Gratitude is incredibly valuable to the human psyche. When you find something to be positive about at work, it may lessen your anxiety and can be the best way to relieve stress.
At the end of the day, step away from the things that took place, things that went wrong, and what could happen, and pull out at least one thing you are grateful for. Maybe some days all you can find to be grateful for will be a co-worker that makes you smile or just the fact that the snack machine had your favorite chips.
Leaving Stress at Work
While Scrubs & Beyond may not be able to lighten your stress load at work, what we can do is make shopping for workwear as simple as possible. And being comfortable can be helpful when it comes getting through the day. Take a look at our collection of healthcare apparel designed with the caregiver in mind.