MINDSET The KBR Link Mental Health Spotlight
Understanding Your Stress and Reconnecting
The stress response is a crucial physiological process in the human body. It readies the body and brain for action in the face of a perceived threat or challenge. However, if the stress response is overactivated we perform poorly, both physically and mentally.
Unhealthy stress can be caused by external factors, like financial or relationship problems, or internal factors such as uncertainty about the future. Due to the recent increase in working from home post COVID-19, the feelings of isolation related to these working conditions can also leave us feeling disconnected and increase our stress. If stress is activated for long periods of time, we call it chronic stress, and it can destroy physical and mental health.
Signs of chronic stress
Some of the signs that you might be experiencing excessive stress include:
- Lack of motivation
- Feeling overwhelmed
- Moodiness
- Memory problems
- Difficulty enjoying work, meeting deadlines or juggling workload
- Physical reactions, such as headaches, fatigue, sleep disturbances or muscle pains
- Getting sick more often due to a weakened immune system
Tips for reducing stress by reconnecting
Reconnect with others
Loneliness is one of the major causes of anxiety and depression. It’s as harmful to overall health as obesity and smoking. And to make matters worse, you don’t really notice it happening.
In our tech-saturated world, it can be harder than ever to make meaningful connections. To help overcome this, try to have at least one (preferably in-person) social interaction with somebody you care about every day. If you can’t meet in person, use video or phone calls instead.
Reconnect with nature
Our modern lifestyles have also resulted in us becoming disconnected from nature. Humans have become so used to our man-made world that we forget we are a part of the natural environment and that we actually need to spend time in nature. Exposure to nature increases happiness, health and well-being. If we neglect spending time in nature, we become anxious, depressed and sick.
Simply spending at least 30 minutes a day in green or outdoor spaces — such as parks, forests, mountains, coastlines or rivers — can help reduce stress. Disconnect from work and technology and soak up the awe of the ”real world.”
Reconnect with yourself
Taking a few minutes to focus your mind each day can reduce stress, pain, depression and more. A state of solitude (which is not the same as isolation) and boredom (yes, really!) is where mental restoration and cognitive insights often happen.
Try to spend at least 10 minutes every day checking in with yourself, meditating or self-reflecting. You can practice mindfulness meditation to train your attention and acceptance, try journalling, or go on a walk. The meQ app — free for KBR employees — is an easy and accessible way to start reconnecting with yourself and building personal resilience.
While taking the time to reconnect can help lower your stress, there are several simple but effective tactics you can use to mitigate unhealthy stress directly. These include:
- Control your breathing: To reduce acute stress in real time (e.g., before an important sales pitch), use breathing techniques to literally slow your heart rate and activate the parasympathetic nervous system.
- Raise your stress threshold: Regularly expose yourself to bouts of acute, voluntary stress (e.g., cold exposure, high-intensity exercise) to make you more resilient to the inevitable stressors that life presents.
- Mitigate chronic stress: Improve your overall physical and mental health by eating better, moving better (or more often), and sleeping better to regulate the stress response and prevent long-term stress. You can also speak to your manager about taking advantage of KBR’s Agile Work Week (AWW) to take the time to recharge and improve your health.
Ask for help
At KBR, our people are at the heart of what we do, and we want every single one of our employees to come to work feeling happy, motivated and confident. If you are ever feeling like work is becoming too much for you and you need a break, please reach out for help. Speak to your manager, your local People and/or Culture team, a KBR Well-being Ambassador, or you can reach out to your local employee support program (ESP) if you need someone to speak to. Visit our global mental health resources page for more information or to access the EAP.
