In a world where stress is part of everyday life, understanding how we process that stress matters—not just for personal health but also from a workplace safety perspective. According to the Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act, workplaces have a responsibility to ensure both physical and mental well-being, recognising that stress impacts us on many levels.
Why use processing?
Processing helps the brain make sense of stress by allowing us to release, reframe, or understand the experiences that triggered it. It also helps the body to release it. Emotional stress needs emotional processing. Cognitive stress (lots of thinking, readying, talking) needs cognitive processing.
Without processing, stress can build up, leading to mental and physical exhaustion, while effective processing promotes resilience and recovery.
After a challenging day, here are seven ways to process stress effectively, each offering a different pathway to release, reflect, and reset:
1. Emotional Processing: Allow yourself to feel and acknowledge the emotions of the day—anger, frustration, or even relief. Labeling emotions is the first step toward processing them healthily.
The enemy of emotional processing is endless scrolling on your phone.
2. Cognitive Processing: Review the day mentally. Were there specific situations that triggered stress? Identifying these can help create strategies to address similar moments in the future. Also allow your busy brain a rest. Retreat to your quiet cave for a while.
The enemy of Cognitive processing decompression is bright lights, loud noises and reading lots of articles and data and a big day of reading.
3. Physical Processing: Stress can build up in the body. Exercise, stretch, or practice deep breathing to release physical tension. Physical processing helps with emotional processing! It not only improves mood but also reduces cortisol levels.
Enemy of physical processing is too much sitting.
4. Social Processing: Time for you is important if you have been on all day. Instead of listening to others, try listening to yourself.
The enemy of this is saying Yes to everyone and not to yourself. If you say Yes to them, who are you saying No to.
5. Creative Processing: Expressing yourself creatively—through art, writing, or music—can be a powerful way to release stress and maybe even to explore solutions to problems. This allows you to explore and express emotions in a non-linear way.
The enemy of this creative processing is being serious. One of my favourite authors Stuart Wilde would call serious people grimaholics. I am inclined to agree.
6. Reflective Processing: Take a moment to think about what went well, despite the stress. Practicing gratitude and reflecting on positives helps counterbalance the brain’s natural tendency to focus on the negative. Ask yourself what went well, where are you pleased about what you did. If you had your time again, and you will, what will you do differently.
The enemy of reflective processing is the feeling of always being compressed and stressed and not feeling you have the time to do it. That is when you need to double the time you reflect.
7. Mindful Processing: Use mindfulness or meditation to focus on the present moment. Mindful practices reduce stress by lowering the body’s stress response and helping you let go of worry. Curiosity cures everything I am sure of it!
The enemy of mindful processing is being a know it all and rigidity. Be a beginner and you will always learn.
Mental well-being is a critical part of workplace health.
I am conducting a Wellbeing NOvember sprint with 24 people. A group of learning, coaching and accountability around creating the habits you want to create. On day one, one participant said already if it wasn’t for the sprint they would not have gone to the gym.
You get to decide what wellbeing is to you. One lady is decluttering her house.
If you want in for next time. Let me know and I’ll pop you on the waitlist.
Warmly,
Michelle
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