TITLE

How to Manage Work Stress, According to Psychologists

DESCRIPTION

Even though the article takes the perspective of how to best handle work related stress, “school” can just as easily be substituted in the title.  This is a great self-help article that uses basic therapeutic (and Health Psychology) principles to better handle stress and pressure.  The perspective focuses specifically on three types of negative thinking:   “Personalization, Pervasiveness, Permanence.”  “Nagging thoughts like these are one of the reasons we teamed up and spent the last three years studying the science of emotions — and their intersection with our lives at work — for our new book, No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work.”  The article continues and focuses on how a type of negative thinking can have serious mental health consequences.  “This obsessive kind of negative thinking is called rumination. It happens when our minds wander towards the negative events in the past or the possibility of negative events in the future. Rumination shouldn’t be confused with healthy reflection, during which we analyze specific elements of a problem to better understand it. When we ruminate, we’re not focusing on solutions, we’re fixating on the problems (or potential problems) themselves.”  The article finishes with excellent advice for those who ruminate and have persistent negative thoughts:   “Lastly, remember your thoughts are simply that: thoughts. Acknowledge them, but recognize they are not inevitable truths (even if they feel true). We all have many voices in our heads, but we also get to decide which ones we listen to and how we respond. With practice, we can start to develop a mental immunity to stress by staying in the present and taking care of the things within our control.”

SOURCE

Time, February 5, 2019, by Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy

(authors of “No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work”)

(article includes a short video:  “Here are six ways to become a more positive person.”)

LINK TO RESOURCE

https://time.com/5518721/work-stress-rumination-emotions-hard-feelings/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-share-article&utm-term=ideas

(Tiny URL)  https://tinyurl.com/azw2f5ev

CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

•The article takes the perspective of how three types of negative thoughts can have deleterious consequences and make work (substitute school) more difficult.  What are the three type of negative thinking?

•Further, the article focuses on a type of thinking called “rumination.”  What is “rumination” and how does it trigger negative emotions?

•In the article, the authors discuss ways to manage stress and the negative thinking that lead to difficult emotions:  what is the advice?