Harmony: Is it Your Best Path Through Work Stress?
On this episode, the podcast wraps up our in-depth exploration of one of the biggest stressors for women: work stress. This focus on work stress concludes with a journey down the final path through work stress, the Harmony Path. Women on the Harmony Path can experience any combination of struggles from the first three paths. The essence of stress relief on the Harmony Path is about joining stress management approaches from two or all three of the other paths. For this reason, the Mind, Body, and Spirit Paths are also summarized on this episode.
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Keep scrolling for the full transcript in case you want to dive into the details!
Hey there! It’s episode 33. You’re catching the podcast at the tail end of our in-depth exploration of one of the biggest stressors for women and that’s work stress. We’ve been exploring different ways, what I like to call paths, that can be used to navigate work stress. Over the last 3 episodes, we’ve explored the Mind, Body, and Spirit Paths. Today we’re going to journey down the final path through work stress and that’s the Harmony Path.
If you’re curious which path is your best path through work stress, then I want to tell you about a new resource I made to help you do just that. I created a quiz, called the Your Path Through Work Stress Quiz. It involves answering 10 introspective questions. Your results will not only reveal your path, but will elaborate on the unique way you experience work stress and provide you with some beginning stress relief tips designed specifically for your path. To take the quiz, just head on over to psychope.com/yourpath. The quiz will also be linked in the show notes for you.
So, today’s episode is dedicated to the Harmony Path through work stress. Women walking the Harmony Path experience work stress in multiple negative ways. Their work stress can involve any combination of the struggles and symptoms from the Mind, Body, and Spirit Paths. And, while it’s true women on the Harmony Path are challenged with experiencing work stress in numerous unhelpful ways, it’s also true that there’s a myriad of stress relief approaches that come from joining together techniques from the Mind, Body, and Spirit Paths.
I’m going to provide a brief summary of the paths discussed on the recent, previous episodes. This is so we can highlight how stress symptoms and stress relief tools are combined on the Harmony Path. These summaries are just that, summaries. There are distinctions for each path that would make going back and listening to those previous episodes worthwhile. Plus, on episode 30, I not only reviewed the Mind Path for you, but also went into the design of quiz. For example, I discussed psychological research on symptoms of stress and stress management techniques and shared details on the mind, body, spirit framework used for the quiz. So, even though I’m about to summarize the paths discussed on the last 3 episodes to help us better understand the Harmony Path, there’s still value in listening to those earlier episodes, too.
Alright, let’s start with a high-level view of the 3 paths that feed into the Harmony Path. The struggles experienced on the Mind Path were informed by well-established mental and cognitive symptoms of stress. Some common challenges on the mind path are worrying about work, beating yourself up mentally about work, and having trouble being in the present moment because your mind is back at work in some unhelpful way.
The Body Path focused on physical symptoms of stress that are documented in the scientific literature. Examples of Body Path struggles are muscle tension; restlessness like feeling on edge; and experiencing disruptions to our usual healthy routines, like the amount of sleep we’re getting or how frequently we’re exercising.
The Spirit Path struggles were informed by emotional and behavioral symptoms of stress. The Spirit Path includes symptoms like irritability, interpersonal problems, and disengaging from self-care activities. I also took some liberties here with the Spirit Path and incorporated more subjective struggles of work stress that can negatively impact one’s overall well-being. For example, that feeling of disconnection that’s often associated when living a life that’s out of alignment with your core values.
Now that we have our high-level view, let’s consider how symptoms of the Mind, Body, and Spirit Paths combine in unique ways for those on the Harmony Path. Women walking the Harmony Path often feel like work stress is seeping into every area of their lives.
Let’s start with some ways the Mind and Body Paths combine for women on the Harmony Path. It could be that worries about work are associated with an upset stomach. This combination of mental and physical symptoms of stress is a perfect example of the role the body’s threat defense system plays in the experience of work stress. When we perceive a threat – which many women do related to work, maybe about an email from the boss or an upcoming public speaking responsibility – our bodies can kick into fight or flight mode. Abdominal distress or loss of appetite are a couple of the many changes experienced in our bodies when our automatic threat defense system is activated. In this example, there’s a connection between the Mind Path symptom of worrying and the Body Path symptom of an upset stomach. That worry involves something about work that is perceived as a threat. That upset stomach can be understood as a product of the fight or flight mode. Definitely check out the Body Path episode, that’s episode 31, if you want to hear more about the role of the fight or flight response system and stress symptoms.
I do want to mention, there’s not always a clear association between the symptoms of different Paths experienced simultaneously though. For example, difficulty with concentration (a Mind Path struggle) and muscle tension (a Body Path struggle) can co-occur without any obvious connection between the two stress symptoms.
Now let’s consider some of ways the Mind and Spirit Paths combine for women walking the Harmony Path. A frequent way these two paths show up together has to do with our presence in the current moment, or more accurately, a lack of that presence. The Mind Path influence here is that there’s trouble being in the present moment because our minds are back at work in some unconstructive way. An ongoing pattern of not being fully present in the current moment can lead to a feeling of disconnection, which is the hallmark of the Spirit Path. Not being able to leave work at work and truly enjoy yourself during your free time can really have a negative impact on your mood.
Next, let’s turn our attention to how struggles of the Body and Spirit Paths may interact for women on the Harmony Path. Working at a job that feels out of alignment with our personal values is frequently felt by those on the Spirit Path. This might involve how you just can’t get behind the latest policies in your workplace. It could also be that the chain of command does not take employee concerns seriously and they’re always trying to sweep matters under the rug. This incongruency with who you are at your core and what you’re being asked to do or who you have to answer to in your workplace can sometimes feel like it’s getting under your skin. This is where restlessness or that on edge feeling of the Body Path comes in.
Now I want to give you an example of how struggles of all 3 Paths, the Mind, Body, and Spirit Paths, might be experienced for a woman on the Harmony Path. Let’s say there’s a big project coming up at work and you just can’t stop worrying about it. You’re also saying unkind things to yourself about your ability to nail the project successfully. You end up having trouble sleeping because you’re up at night staring at the ceiling while your mind runs through all these worries and self-critical thoughts. The impact on your quantity and quality of sleep then contributes to you feeling irritable the next day. This makes you vulnerable to that argument you got into with your significant other. Let’s break this down and connect the sequence of events to its corresponding Path. The Mind Path struggles are the worries and being critical of your work performance. The Body Path connects with the disruption to your sleep. And, the Spirit Path is showing up as irritability and interpersonal conflict.
When sharing information about the Harmony Path, it's always at this point when I want to validate that it’s totally understandable if nothing about this is sounding harmonious! I mean, these struggles and stress symptoms are just miserable. I hope that by the time we’re done exploring stress relief approaches for this Path though, it will become clear why I chose the name Harmony Path.
So, shifting to stress management now, the essence of stress relief on the Harmony Path is about joining two or more approaches. Keeping with the format of giving a high-level summary of the Paths that pour into the Harmony Path, I’m going to give you a few examples of stress relief tools from each of the other 3 paths.
The Mind Path is all about approaches that harness the healing power of the mind to find relief from work stress. Mindfulness, reframing unhelpful thoughts, and self-compassion are among some of the techniques most likely to help reduce work stress for those on the Mind Path.
Using the power of your body to comfort and soothe the enormous toll work stress has been taking inform the stress relief tools on the Body Path. Examples of stress management techniques for physical symptoms of stress include deep calm breathing and progressive muscle relaxation.
Women on the Spirit Path benefit from harnessing the power of connection with stress relief techniques like visualizations and practicing gratitude.
Let’s return now to those examples I gave of how the struggles of each Path can combine on the Harmony Path so I can share some stress management techniques that might help with those simultaneously experienced symptoms of stress. First, we had worries about work that were associated with an upset stomach. What might be helpful here is to bring in the Body Path approach of deep calm breathing to help us shift from the fight or flight response into the relaxation response. Once we’re feeling more centered, we could then give the Mind Path approach of reframing our unhelpful thoughts a try.
Next, we had the ongoing pattern of not being fully present in the current moment because mentally we’re back at work, which leads to a feeling of disconnection. This Mind/Spirit struggle can be eased through the practice of mindfulness. A creative way to blend the Mind Path and the Spirit Path is to take a slightly different approach to mindfulness than practicing meditation, which a lot of people associate with mindfulness. Intentionally listening to music is a different path that can also bring us fully into the current moment. And, depending on the music we select, can also help to elevate our mood.
We then had the combined struggle of the Body and Spirit Paths. This example was the one when we felt deeply incongruent with our place of employment’s policies or leadership. So deeply that we could feel the disconnect in our bodies. A stress relief idea to consider for this problem is taking a mindful walk through one of your favorite places in nature. The walk gets your body moving and can help you let off steam. The time in nature can help you reconnect to the world around you. Where you walk is going to depend on what you value most. For those who highly value nature, it might be a walk through the park or the beach. For others, it might involve a walk that allows you to appreciate the artistic side of life. Like, strolling through an art museum or touring a neighborhood near you where you really appreciate the architecture.
Alright, now on to the final struggle that involved all 3 paths. And, as a reminder, that final example had a sequence of events: worries and self-criticism that kept you up at night, leading to increased irritability the next day, and that verbal fight you got into with your significant other. Here we could use the Mind Path approach of mindfulness, with a few additions. To incorporate the Body Path and hopefully set us up for a better night’s rest, we could bring our mindful attention to our bodies with Progressive Muscle Relaxation. That’s when we tense and then release different muscle groups. The Spirit Path can be integrated through hopefully helpful affirmations with a focus on reducing self-criticism and increasing self-compassion.
Winding down here, I want to share my most pure hearted wishes for those of you walking the Harmony Path. First, I want you to know, you’re not alone. So many women are also experiencing work stress in multiple challenging ways. I also hope that these ideas of how to combine stress relief tools from the Mind, Body, and Spirit Paths will help to unburden you from the enormous toll work stress has been taking.
Whether or not you’re walking the Harmony Path, we can all can benefit from the synergistic effect of combining stress relief tools from different paths. If you haven’t taken the Your Path Through Work Stress Quiz yet, then you may be wondering which path is your best path through work stress: The Mind, Body, Spirit, or Harmony Path. To find out which path you’re walking, just head on over to psychope.com/yourpath or just click the link in the show notes.
Before wrapping up our exploration of the four paths through work stress, I want to clarify a comment I made last time near the end of the Spirit Path episode. You may have heard me mention that for people who are already religious or spiritual, that scientific research would support attending your religious services or engaging in other sacred practices as a way to help with work stress. This idea I shared with you comes from research in the area of Positive Psychology that has found there is indeed a relationship between religious beliefs and happiness. Specifically, numerous psychological research studies have found a positive association between religiosity and subjective well-being.
It's important to note though that the relationship between religiosity and well-being is complex. And, individual experiences vary. Not everyone who identifies as religious necessarily reports higher levels of happiness. This association could be explained by the sense of community and social support often found in religious groups. Being part of a religious community can provide individuals with a supportive social network, a sense of belonging, and a shared set of values, all of which can contribute to overall life satisfaction.
Some other explanations for these findings are that religious practices often emphasize positive virtues such as gratitude, compassion, and forgiveness, all of which are linked to enhanced well-being. Earlier this year, the podcast dedicated 2 episodes to the topic of compassion. And, I’m pleased to share with you that our next episode is going to focus on the psychological benefits of having a gratitude practice. And, as a quick reminder, gratitude is a stress relief tool that is likely to help women on the Spirit Path.
I can’t wait to highlight some key findings from the volumes of research on gratitude with you on the next episode. Plus, share some beginning ideas of how to integrate the practice of gratitude into your daily life.
Well, that’s going to wrap it up for today. Much peace till next time!
Show Notes
Episode 33, originally published on November 13, 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
