The Mind: Is it Your Best Path Through Work Stress?
On this episode, the podcast gives some background on the latest self-help resource created by Dr. Jennifer McManus: The Your Path Through Work Stress online quiz. Dr. McManus explains how this quiz is based on psychological research on stress symptoms and stress management techniques. The Mind, Body, Spirit framework that was used to conceptualize the experience of work stress is also discussed. The episode then journeys down the Mind Path by highlighting key struggles of this path. The journey concludes by reviewing two stress relief tools that harness the healing power of the mind.
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Keep scrolling for the full transcript in case you want to dive into the details!
Hey everyone, it’s episode 30! So grateful to be back in your ears again.
On our last episode, we revisited that stress scale that rank orders 43 of the most stressful life events we can go through. We’ve discussed that Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory before, but for the last episode we really honed in on all the ways work stress showed up on that list. As I shared last time, work stress shows up 7 times, with two appearances in the top ten. If you’re curious about what each of those 7 stressful life events related to work were, then I invite you to go back and have a listen to the last episode.
The amount of times work stress shows up on that stress scale really drives home a point that so many working women know to be true. Work is a major source of stress and has a way of seeping into other areas of life. For example, it can be hard to break free from the pull work has on us over the weekends. For those who keep a traditional Monday through Friday work schedule, they might find they’re still worrying about work on a Saturday. And, just when they’re starting to enjoy their Sunday, the day can quickly get ruined as the reality of returning to work the next day starts to hit them.
And you know, it’s interesting timing here because it will be a 3-day weekend when this episode goes live. It often takes a full 3 days to feel like you were really able to cut that tie back to work and truly feel like yourself again.
So, let me connect all this focus on work stress with the plan for today’s episode and the next few episodes. The PsycHope Self-Help podcast is one of the ways I’m answering a calling I’ve been hearing for quite some time now: to bring psychology-based resources to the self-help space. On past episodes, I’ve also shared some of the self-help videos I’ve created, like the guided mindfulness meditations you can find on the PsycHope YouTube channel.
On the last episode, I was so excited to share the latest self-help resource I’ve made for you: an online quiz to help you find your best path through work stress. As promised, on this episode, I’m going to described more about the design of the quiz. Plus, provide some details on one of the results, which I’m calling paths. If you’re curious about which path is your best path through work stress, you can take the quiz whenever you like. You can find it at psychope.com/yourpath. And, if you want to go into the quiz totally blind, without any influence of the background I’ll be providing on today’s episode, then it is probably a good idea to pause this episode and take the quiz right now. There is a link in the show notes for you.
The path we’ll be exploring today is, the Mind Path. Before journeying down that path though, I want to give you some cautions and big picture details on the design of the quiz.
First, I want to acknowledge that there are some women out there who have the flexibility or perhaps a privilege of some sort where they don’t have to stay in a place of employment that’s super stressful for them. If that’s the case for you, then the goal behind the quiz – to find our way through the stress of a job when we don’t want to, or more likely can’t quit– probably won’t be relevant to you. There are so many women out there though who don’t have the option of joining what’s called the great resignation. This may be for geographical reasons or pay or some amazing benefits they just wouldn’t find working somewhere else. If you identify more with the latter that you’re stuck in a job you just can’t quit, then this quiz is absolutely for you.
Next, a little disclaimer about the quiz. On earlier episodes of this podcast, you may have heard me describe psychological tests and measures. For example, back on episode 18, I discussed psychological research and how it is different from other ways of knowing. On that episode, I shared with you how psychological research involves very specific measurement of whatever topic is being studied. I discussed how surveys and questionnaires involved in psychological research must have established psychometric properties. What that term means is that the test or survey is valid. In other words, it measures what it says it does. And it measures the topic reliably. This sort of reliability and validity must be verified with advanced statistical tests.
Now, while this quiz I created is not at the level of a psychological test with established psychometric properties, I can say that it has a type of validity called face validity. That’s because I was so lucky to have some colleagues, fellow psychologists, take a look at the quiz and give their feedback on it. What I heard is the quiz does look like it’s capturing unique experiences of work stress and what would be helpful strategies to cope with that type of work stress. That being said, face validity is not a technical type of validity because it’s based on qualitative data, not quantitative data. And, quantitative data is the level of data needed to run statistical analyses to truly establish psychometric properties.
So, with the disclaimer about how this quiz differs from the types of tests used in psychological research in place, I want to share my opinion, biased as it may be, that this carefully designed resource has value for what we’re all trying to achieve here in our self-help space. I can tell you, with confidence, that the Your Path Through Work Stress Quiz is based on psychological research about stress and stress management techniques. I can also tell you this quiz is informed by my decade of professional experience in the practice of clinical psychology. And, this is perfect for our purposes of gaining a better understanding of how to start finding some relief from the negative impact of work stress with self-help approaches.
Now if you were zoning out when I was talking about psychometric properties and quantitative data, no worries, I totally get it. Even though psychological research serves the valuable purpose of helping us better understand human behavior, like the experience of stress, and in determining the effectiveness of coping skills, like stress relief tools, it can get really dry at times. It’s for this very reason that I decided to use a Mind/Body/Spirit framework in conceptualizing the experience of work stress and how to lessen its negative impact on us with self-help approaches.
Alright, I have one more “big picture” concept to share with you before diving into the more focused Mind Path discussion. And, spoiler alert, I’m about to reveal all of the paths and some basic details about each one. So, if you only want to hear about the Mind Path right now, and not the other 3 paths just yet, you can fast forward about 2 minutes.
Drawing on that Mind/Body/Spirit framework I used in the design of the quiz, I can share with you that three of the paths are indeed the Mind Path, the Body Path, and the Spirit Path. I want to connect this familiar Mind/Body/Spirit framework back to psychological research for each path. Again, just high level right now as we’ll have full episodes dedicated to each path. For the Mind Path, which we’ll explore in much more detail in just a moment, I drew on what are traditionally referred to as mental or cognitive symptoms of stress and stress management techniques aimed at reducing those particular symptoms.
For the Body Path, I focused on well-established physical symptoms of stress and stress coping skills that help alleviate the negative impact stress can have on the body.
The design of the Spirit Path part of this framework was mostly about emotional and behavioral symptoms of stress and how to cope with them. I did take the liberty, however, based on my years of practical experience in the field of psychology, to weave in some more subjective struggles of stress that negatively impact one’s overall well-being. A quick note here that will get much more attention on the episode dedicated exclusively to the Spirit Path, for this particular conceptualization of the Mind, Body, Spirit framework, spirit can mean a lot more than solely religious or spiritual beliefs.
Now, I know I said the quiz results will give you 1 of 4 paths as your best path through work stress. It might seem like if we’re using the Mind, Body, Spirit framework, then there would only be 3 possible paths. There is a 4th path, which I named the Harmony Path because this particular path is all about experiencing 2 of the other paths, and sometimes all 3 of the paths as one navigates work stress. Again, we’ll review the Harmony Path in much more detail in a few more episodes.
Alright, so now that I’ve shared with you what the quiz is and what it’s not, and provided a quick overview of the Mind, Body, Spirit framework used to develop the quiz, let’s finally start our stroll down the Mind Path.
As just mentioned in the introduction to the Mind, Body, Spirit framework for the quiz, the Mind Path is comprised of mental or cognitive symptoms of stress. So, what are some examples of these types of symptoms when it comes to work stress?
Let’s start with mental exhaustion. We can feel mentally tired after a long day at work, even if our bodies feel just fine. Even if we got enough sleep the night before.
Worrying about work is quite common for women on the Mind Path. These worries might happen while on the job. For example, worrying if you’ll hit a certain target or deadline. Worrying about an upcoming meeting with the boss. If you find yourself in a leadership or management role you might worry about some difficult feedback you need to give to one of the employees you supervise. The types of worries women on the Mind Path experience will of course depend on the responsibilities associated with their particular job.
At this point in time, I’m my own boss, but that wasn’t always the case. When I used to work in the area of hospital psychology, I was really prone to worrying whenever my boss would schedule an unexpected meeting with me. Even though I was a hardworking and dependable employee, I would almost always worry that the meeting was because I had done something wrong. The reality is, the meetings were usually about being tagged for an important project. You know, the good ole voluntold scenario.
Worries about work are not limited to our normal working hours. As I commented on earlier this episode, Sundays often get ruined because we start worrying about what the next day at work will hold. The Sunday scaries as they’re often called. Worries about work while we’re at home or otherwise trying to enjoy ourselves outside of work can occur regularly for women on the Mind Path.
Work stress for women walking the Mind Path can also involve negative thinking patterns, like increasingly pessimistic thoughts pertaining to work. It’s also quite common to have self-critical thoughts about one’s work performance. Women are often really hard on themselves and don’t think they’re doing a good enough job, even when performance reviews from their boss would say otherwise.
When we’re having constant and unhelpful thoughts about work, it makes it hard to be in the present moment. Even when we’re physically away from the workspace, our minds are frequently back at work.
Mental symptoms of stress can also involve racing thoughts, especially when we’re under heightened pressure at work. Difficulty with concentration and memory are also examples of cognitive symptoms of stress.
Now that we’re reviewed some of the most common symptoms with stress for women on the Mind Path, let’s highlight a couple stress management strategies that are most likely to help with these sorts of struggles. On the Mind Path, we turn to approaches that harness the healing power of the mind to find relief from work stress.
Mindfulness, a practice rooted in ancient spiritual traditions with volumes of research on its effectiveness for stress reduction is a favorite here at PsycHope and it’s also an excellent stress relief tool for those walking the Mind Path. With mindfulness, we’re bringing our attention to the present moment. We strive to fully and wholeheartedly experience that moment without judgment.
When it comes to work stress, practicing mindfulness and being in the present moment means we’re not dwelling on mistakes we think we made at work and we’re not worrying about all those problems that may be waiting for us when we return to work. We might even be able to find moments during the workday to practice mindfulness. Like, during our lunch breaks or even just a 5-minute pause for mindfulness during our workday.
Now, a lot of times people will immediately think that mindfulness is only about meditating. While meditating is a well-known and wonderful way to practice mindfulness, it is not the only way. Any activity that brings our attention to the current moment can help with mindfulness. We can take walks with the intention of being mindful. We can eat with the intention of being mindful. We can experience art or music with the intention of being mindful.
I’m happy to share, as I often get to do here on the podcast, that we’re not starting from scratch here when it comes to the topic of mindfulness. If you go back to episode 20, you’ll find an entire episode dedicated to the Psychological Benefits of Mindfulness for Stress and Anxiety. This episode went live back on January 30th earlier this year, 2023. On that episode, I reviewed key findings from the scientific research on mindfulness and shared some ideas of how to use mindfulness as a self-help intervention for stress and anxiety. That episode has ideas of self-help approaches that are definitely relevant to women on the Mind Path through work stress.
Another stress relief approach that I want to encourage women on the Mind Path to consider is reframing those negative thoughts related to work. We may find ourselves engaging in thoughts about work that are not even true, not accurate, and certainly not helpful. Now, that being said, I do want to acknowledge that there’s no shortage of unfair and unrealistic expectations set on women by their employers. So, reframing our thoughts is not about minimizing or sugar coating these sorts of experiences.
One area where we may find opportunities to transform our thoughts are those overly harsh and critical thoughts we have about ourselves and how we’re performing on the job. Just a moment ago I mentioned our employers may have unrealistic expectations of us, but it’s important to point out that sometimes we’re the ones having unrealistic expectations of ourselves. And then, when we don’t hit these standards that were unreasonable in the first place, we beat ourselves up mentally with the things we think and say to ourselves.
We all make mistakes. That’s part of being human. So, of course mistakes will happen in the course of doing our jobs, but we often treat ourselves as if mistakes are unacceptable and unforgiveable. These sorts of punitive thoughts can make a stressful situation at work even worse.
Notice I’m not saying to replace all negative thoughts with positive thoughts or to think positive thoughts only. That would also be unrealistic because life has its ups and downs, and this is especially true in the work-related experiences of life. What we can do though is to look for opportunities to transform our thoughts into those that are more true, more accurate, and more self-compassionate.
If you’re interested in learning more about transforming your thoughts in these ways, there are a few earlier episodes that you can check out. In fact, earlier this year, 2023, the entire month of February was devoted to episodes on using self-compassion and thought work as self-help approaches. These are episodes 21, 22, and 23. The research and theories behind these approaches along with some practical beginning ideas of how to incorporate self-compassion and thought work into our lives as self-help interventions are discussed.
So, if you took the quiz and got the Mind Path as your result, does it seem to reflect what you’ve been going through with work stress? Please know that while your experience with work stress is of course unique, you’re not alone. It’s hard showing up day after day to an environment that’s so stressful. I hope these beginning ideas of stress relief tools for women walking the Mind Path inspired you and reminded you that there are many factors under your control when it comes to managing work stress.
If you haven’t taken the Your Path Through Work Stress Quiz yet, then you may be wondering if your results will be the Mind 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 30, originally published on October 8, 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
