The Body: Is it Your Best Path Through Work Stress?
On this episode, Dr. McManus guides your journey down the Body Path by highlighting key struggles of work stress for this path. The journey concludes by reviewing two stress relief tools that use abilities already within our bodies to comfort and soothe the negative impact work stress can have on us.
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Hey there! It’s episode 31. Thanks for tuning in to the show.
At the time this episode is going live, we’ll be well into fall season here in the northern hemisphere. While this is a beautiful time of year savored by many, it’s also a time of year when we can feel like we’re trapped in the daily grind of work. The lazy days of summer vacations are long gone and the winter holidays are off in the distance. Of course, this will vary depending on your line of work, but many people tend to take vacation time over the summer and during the holidays at the end of the year.
Before my uncle retired, he used to refer to the federal holidays of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years as the golden triangle. It was not until I entered the workforce that I could truly appreciate just how precious paid holidays are and how much we look forward to them. We’re right in the middle of that time though when those holidays and the time off that typically comes with them are still out of reach.
For the last couple episodes, the podcast has been focusing on the pressure of the work grind on our mental health and overall well-being. I’ve shared just how common and serious work stress is. Plus, I introduced a new resource I made to help working women navigate the negative impact of work stress. This free resource is an online quiz called “Your Path Through Work Stress.” By answering the 10 introspective questions that make up the quiz, you’ll learn more about your unique experience of work stress and which science-backed stress relief tools are most likely to help you reclaim your peace.
Last week, we explored the Mind Path through work stress. And, this week we’re going to journey down the Body Path. If you’d like to find out your results before listening to the rest of this episode, then just head on over to psychope.com/yourpath. The quiz will also be linked in the show notes for you.
On the last episode, I discussed the design of the quiz and how it’s based on psychological research on symptoms of stress and stress management techniques. I also shared how I used a mind, body, spirit framework to give us a shared language for understanding and relieving work stress. If you’d like to hear more about the design of the quiz, what it is, what it isn’t, and learn about the Mind Path, then feel free to check out last week’s episode.
So, I refer to the quiz results as paths and today’s episode is all about the Body Path. While the Mind Path discussed last week was informed by well-established mental and cognitive symptoms of stress, the Body Path is informed by physical symptoms of stress. A little caution here before starting our journey down the Body Path, there can be overlap of physical symptoms of stress with symptoms of other health conditions. So, it’s important to get your own personalized professional advice in case what you’re experiencing involves other health matters in addition to stress.
When it comes to the miserable effects work stress can have on our bodies though, no part seems to be off limits. Take muscle tension for example. Women often experience this symptom of stress in their neck and shoulders. Body positioning while spending long hours in front of a computer screen is sometimes the culprit for this type of tension, but women can experience muscle tension in the neck and shoulder area even if their jobs do not involve desk work. Physical aches and pains like back pain are also common with work stress. Many women get headaches or even migraines when experiencing work stress. Some women notice that just thinking about work when away from work can bring on problems for those parts of their bodies where they tend to experience tension.
Work stress also leaves women on the Body Path feeling restless. It’s like the stress gets under your skin and you just can’t sit still. This might mean feeling on edge at work. Also, just like reminders of work can trigger muscle tension during our time off, the thought of work can bring on this all too familiar and edgy feeling for women on the Body Path.
Women walking the Body Path through work stress often feel tired. Sometimes this struggle can reach the level of exhaustion or fatigue.
Sleep problems are a common experience for women on the Body Path. Our sleep can be disrupted in different ways by work. It might be that we’re staring at the ceiling worrying about something on our to do list at work. Other times we end up sacrificing sleep in an attempt to get everything done on that work to do list.
Women on the Body Path may experience disruptions to their usual healthy routines when stressed out from work. For example, during times of heightened stress, we can lose our appetites. Many of us are familiar with “stress eating” as well.
Other times we’re just too tired to work out. We know exercise would help to let off steam. Perhaps we even know our bodies would release some of those feel good hormones for us. So often though, the exhaustion from work stress is too high to even think about showing up at the gym. It really gets a vicious cycle going.
This is a good point to highlight that these disruptions to our healthy routines like sleep, diet, and physical activity are also connected to the fact that there are only so many hours in the day. And, many working women find themselves trying to meet unreasonable demands from their employers. Some women also have children or aging parents for whom they’re caring. All too often, it’s the working woman’s healthy habits that get compromised to meet these constant demands.
It sure doesn’t help having work cultures that glamorize stress either. Sometimes it’s not only our employers with unreasonable expectations, but our colleagues, too. We have to wear stress like a badge of honor or our coworkers think we’re just not dedicated to the job. A great deal of suffering comes with that sign of prestige though.
Now, I also want to briefly touch upon the role that the fight or flight response can play when it comes to stress symptoms associated with the Body Path. Back on episode 25 when discussing how to know if what we’re experiencing is stress or anxiety, I went into a lot of detail on the fight or flight mode. So, if you’re looking for a more in-depth review of the link between stress and the fight or flight response, that episode has you covered.
For our purposes today, it’s helpful to know that many of the ways stress shows up in our bodies can be understood as products of the fight or flight response. I already shared a couple with you today, muscle tension and losing our appetites. A few other symptoms of stress for which we can thank the fight or flight response are increased heart rate, increased breathing rate, and sweating.
We evolved as humans to have these sorts of bodily responses to help us fight or flee from a threat in our physical environment, like a wild predatory animal. The thing is, the instinctive part of our brains responsible for signaling us into fight or flight mode, doesn’t know the difference between the threat of an actual wild animal intending to harm us or the perceived threat of giving a presentation at work. It just perceives there is a threat and sets of the fight or flight response. What is perceived as a threat varies from person to person.
Women on the Body Path deeply feel the negative impact of work stress. And, I realize it might seem impossible to experience the peace you truly desire when you can literally feel the stress from work hurting your body. I’m here to let you know though, there are many ways to use the power of your body to comfort and soothe the enormous toll that stress has been taking.
As I just described, a lot of the ways stress shows up in our bodies – whether that’s muscle tension, increased breathing rate, or an upset stomach – can be understood as automatic responses of our threat defense system. Some good news here, not only did we evolve to have the fight or flight response, but we also evolved to have what’s called the relaxation response or the rest and digest response. This is the state the body shifts into when we no longer perceive a threat and sense it’s finally safe to relax. Stress relief tools for women on the Body Path involve shifting from our threat response over to the relaxation response.
One way women walking the Body Path can bring on the relaxation response is by intentionally controlling their breathing, specifically by taking slower and deeper breaths. When trying deep calm breathing exercises, what matters the most is to bring your breathing to a rate that is lower for you. And, to bring the depth to a level that is deeper for you. It may be helpful to know that the average breathing rate is between 10 to 14 breaths per minute. Also, I also want to give a little caution here, that some people may experience a little lightheadedness due to the decrease in blood pressure that often comes with practicing deep breathing. So, always rise slowly and carefully after engaging in this stress relief tool. You can find guided deep calm breathing exercises on my YouTube channel (@Psyc_Hope), which is also linked in the show notes.
Another stress relief tool for women walking the Body Path that I’d like to share with you is Progressive Muscle Relaxation. This is a stress relief technique that directly targets those tense muscles often experienced with work stress. Women using this approach learn to tense and then release different muscle groups in a step-by-step fashion. Some women describe feeling like they’ve just had a massage after trying this stress relief tool. I realize I haven’t done much exploration of Progressive Muscle Relaxation on the podcast. So, I’m planning on dedicating an entire episode to this tried-and-true stress relief tool in the near future.
So, winding down now, if you took the quiz and got the Body Path as your result, does it seem to reflect what you’ve been going through with work stress? I must say, I have deep empathy for women walking the Body Path. As I mentioned earlier, we can literally feel aches and pain with this unique experience of work stress. I hope these beginning ideas of stress relief tools for women walking the Body Path encouraged you to find your way through work stress by using the abilities already within your body to comfort and soothe the negative impact work stress has been having on you.
If you haven’t taken the Your Path Through Work Stress Quiz yet, then you may be wondering if your results will be the Body Path or one of the other 3 paths. To find out, head on over to psychope.com/yourpath .
Be sure to tune in to the next episode when we journey down the next path through work stress. Much peace till next time!
Show Notes
Episode 31, originally published on October 16, 2023
Your Path Through Work Stress Quiz
Ready to find your best path through work stress? You can find the quiz right here: psychope.com/yourpath
Disclaimer
The information shared on the PsycHope Self-Help podcast does not constitute professional help nor is it a substitute for professional help. If you think you might benefit from more than self-help, here are some helpful resources:
Find a therapist:
Psychology Today, directory for locating a psychotherapist. More details here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/
Mental health crisis resources:
Suicide Prevention Hotline: call or text 988
Crisis text line: text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor for any emotional crisis
