How To Stop Stressing Out

• How To Stop Stressing Out (60.6 KB)

We’ve all had days when a sudden onslaught of clients has caused us to become stressed out and anxious. these “feast or famine” periods are the nature of practice life, but you can deal with them in a productive way so they don’t burn you out or cause chronic aggravation.

Job Stress or Job Challenge?
According to a current report on work stress by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, people often confuse the concept of job stress with job challenge. Physiologically, the symptoms of stress are almost identical to those your body experiences when challenged. A heightened heart rate, clammy hands, and hollow feeling in the pit of your stomach are symptoms of either one.

What you may not know is that your response to these symptoms, rather than the symptoms themselves, determines whether you perceive them as negative (stressful) or positive (challenging). That is, the intense times at your practice can be healthy energizers or disastrous drains, depending on how you respond. 

If you decide to react to heightened indicators with frustration (Great, another emergency–this stinks!), you will feel stressed in a negative way. If you respond positively (Wow, I wonder how quickly I can get everyone into rooms. Let’s get things started!), you will feel energized and primed for action.

In the second case, you took on the challenge of a client rush in a positive way. Your physiology sent you a cue, but you chose to react with a productive response.

How Can I Choose Happy?
While you can’t control the chaos of practice life, you can control your response to events. The trick is to perceive a client rush as a stimulating challenge rather than a calamity. Analyze your reactions to a work rush by considering the following:

1. Reflection: How do you normally respond when you experience a rush? What do you find yourself thinking and feeling?

2. Self Awareness: Do you view rush times as catastrophes or challenges? What makes you respond this way?

3. Planning: A positive response to work challenges, means staying on top of your reactions as they happen. Next time you get a client rush, immediately check your first reaction and adjust it if it isn’t helpful.

4. Monitoring: Next, check yourself “in the moment” to be sure you are reacting with competence and com-passion. Periodically, take a moment to breathe, and practice mind-clearing each time you leave an exam room. As you shut the door, let that patient and situation remain on the other side of the threshold, then go on to your next task with a clean slate.

5. Flexibility: Recognize that in the midst of a client surge, nothing will go as planned.  Imagine you’re working your way through an obstacle course—smile each time you clear a hurdle.

6. Self Appraisal: As you head to your car after a tough day, evaluate how you got through it. Celebrate your success at consciously managing your way through the rush. Also, think about how to fine-tune your efforts the next time.

Reducing stress in the workplace keeps your worry and anxiety from seeping into the rest of your life. If you’re stressed at work, you will be unhappy during the evenings and weekends, too. Determine how to manage your way through the urgent times at work so they don't steal the energy and enthusiasm you need to enjoy the important moments in the rest of your life.