Our daughter, an ICU Critical Care Nurse at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas, walks through the “red doors” and takes care of Covid patients for 12 hours a day.

This blog on dealing with stress is dedicated to Courtney Elaine Reisman and all front-line healthcare workers.

It’s also applicable to you. If you can manage your stress – you communicate your messages (from meetings to presentations to email) with greater clarity, confidence and traction.

Stress Tip #1: Breathe. “Take a deep breath for five seconds, holding your breath for another five seconds and then releasing your breath for a final five seconds”, says Cynthia Ackrill of the American Institute of Stress.

Stress Tip #2: Compartmentalize. Creating a mental partition can help to prevent emotional overload. For Courtney and all frontline health workers this means trying to establish a metaphorical wall between the hospital and home. For you – separate your challenges into isolated categories. You protect your personal life from work-place stress.

Stress Tip #3: Sleep. Get adequate sleep.

Stress Tip #4: Exercise. You know this already. Move.

Stress Tip #5: Laugh. Can you try to find the humor? Even now it still exists. Train yourself by asking, “What’s the funny stuff that’s happened in the last 24 hours?” It’s there, somewhere. Find it and share it.

Ackrill, the stress expert quoted above, goes on to say, “People who feel like they have the resources, skills and power to meet the day’s challenges actually thrive under stress.”

Breathe, compartmentalize, sleep, exercise and laugh. You’ll communicate with more power and presence.

Source: Dallas Morning News, “Ready to snap at work?” by Elizabeth Hamilton

© 2020 Karen Cortell Reisman, All rights reserved

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Karen Cortell Reisman, MS, Executive Communication Author & Speaker