13 Ways to Manage Stress
From Workplace Harassment
Everyday life is filled with stressors. Getting harassed at work creates a ripple effect, impacting career, financial stability, and health. And it’s not just a short-term disruption. It can have serious and long-term effects in multiple areas of our life.
Harassment can trigger a trauma response. The fight, freeze, or flight reactions can be provoked at inopportune times. And if you’ve dealt with harassment before, new events can intensify those reactions.
When harassed at work, you not only have your regular job duties, you are burdened with more work and stress. You have to guard against further harassment, take time to research your options, plan next steps, and deal with managing outcomes. Every step is overwhelming and exhausting. Stress can seriously affect your health. Being mindful of how harassment impacts your overall well-being can help you manage and reduce the impacts on your mental, physical and emotional health as you navigate this process.
“Some research has found that sexual harassment early in one’s career, in particular, can cause long-term depressive symptoms.”
The Impact of Sexual Harassment on Depressive Symptoms during the Early Occupational Career – 2011
The Impact of Harassment on Health
Harassment creates many unforeseen, immeasurable damages in our professional and personal life. And buckle up, because the stressors can vary throughout the process, becoming more intense and exhibiting in new ways, as time goes on. Here are just some of the ways harassment impacts our health
Emotional Health Impacts
Mental Health Impacts
Physical Health Impacts
“I don’t think healing follows directions. The truth is I don’t know what we become when we heal. That is the wisdom of the process.”
– Prentis Hemphill
Reduce Your Stress
Taking care of your emotional, mental, and physical health should be a priority, especially when dealing with constant stressors. Below are 13 ways you can take care of yourself while dealing with workplace harassment, or retaliation.
1. Breathing Exercises
A simple and convenient way to manage and sometimes reverse your stress response is by employing breathing exercises. And it can be done anytime and anywhere. Find a breathing exercise that works for you here: How to Reduce Stress With Breathing Exercises
2. Move Your Body
Exercise can decrease stress hormones, like cortisol, while increasing endorphins and boosting your mood. And it doesn’t need to be strenuous or for an extended period of time. Try a 25-minute yoga practice, tai chi, or take a 15-30 minute walk.
3. Get Outside
Studies show that getting outside and into nature for twenty minutes decreases stress hormones and improves heart rates. It’s also a mood booster.
4. Meditation
Meditation has been shown to lower stress hormones, help manage anxiety, improve mental health, and foster a mind-body balance. There are a lot of meditation styles, and if you are new to meditation, try guided meditation, walking meditation, or chanting a mantra. There are a lot of meditation apps and guided meditations on social media.
5. Feel Your Feelings
We are human beings with complex emotions. Yet, we are taught at an early age how to ignore “bad” feelings, like fear, and anger. We know how to use toxic positivity to pretend we are ok, only to find the seeds of anger taking root, causing havoc in our day-to-day lives and putting our mental health at risk.
It is ok to feel angry, upset, frustrated, sad, unsafe, or fearful just as it is ok to feel happy, joyful, content, and safe.
If you find yourself avoiding feelings, consider paying attention to how your body feels with emotion-body mapping. You can learn more about emotion-body mapping here: Where Are Emotions Felt in the Body? This Infographic Will Tell You
6. Keep a Journal
Putting pen to paper to write down your experiences and feelings has been shown to reduce stress, and help improve mental and emotional health. Journaling can help tackle and work through complex problems. When writing in a journal, tension held in the shoulders and neck may be reduced, as thoughts are released and poured onto the page.
There are a lot of different types of journals and journaling, including gratitude journals, stream-of-consciousness journals, single-sentence journals, and more.
We already encourage everyone to document their experiences (DOCUMENT EVERYTHING!), and we encourage everyone to keep a journal as well.
7. Talk Therapy
Talk to a friend that can hold space, listen and be supportive. Not all friends are able to do this all the time. If you don’t want to overtax your friendships with too much emotional work, find a therapist.
Research a therapy style that you feel comfortable with, and find a therapist you feel comfortable opening up to. Not all therapies and therapists will resonate with you, so it may take a bit of time to find the right person. Luckily therapists have become more accessible. You can work with someone, remotely, via apps or zoom calls.
8. Engage in Hobbies, Activities, or Art Therapy
Give your body and brain a break and engage in a hobby, an activity or try some art therapy. Finding a creative space where you access an area of the brain not associated with work, can help you gain a connection with other communities and help you gain perspective on what is important to you.
9. Listen to Music
Music is powerful. Music has been shown to reduce stress hormones and release the feel-good hormone, dopamine. It can help reduce anxiety and stress responses, help you stay in the present, and keep your mind and body moving. You can find a playlist created by researchers studying music and stress reduction on Spotify: SONGS TO BEAT STRESS.
10. Laughter is Medicine
Laughing is a great way to beat stress. It helps reduce pain and anger, boosts our mood, and keeps us grounded. Luckily we can find comedians everywhere: comedy clubs, social platforms, streaming platforms, podcasts, books, and tv.
11. Look for Allies
When we connect with people who are facing similar hardships, it relieves the feeling we are all alone. Sadly, as the #metoo movement has shown, this is far from true. Watch movies (see our film list here: Films Featuring Workplace Harassment) read books, listen to podcasts, find social groups and meetings where you can share your story, find a support group and learn from others’ experiences.
12. Give Yourself a Time Limit
Allow some time to process and acknowledge feelings, but give yourself a time limit. If you find you are spending too much time obsessing or looping back into a narrative about your harassment and treatment by your company, set an alarm, so you have a stopping point. Allow yourself time to process and even spin out, but once that alarm goes off, give yourself a break and write down your thoughts, or engage in any of the above activities.
13. Share Your Story
After your case is resolved, share your story. Write down your experience and share it. Be an ally to others dealing with harassment. This helps take the shame out of reporting and gives others insight into the process, risks and rewards. The more we share, the more we shine a light and expose where problems lie.
