Ways to Deal With the Stress of Running a Business

Tara Foulkes is a guest writer for Forbes Burton. In her first article she explains how stress can affect business owners and provides a free 5 minute meditation audio download to help you unwind.

The signs of stress

Have you ever shouted at the kids as you are trying to leave the house in the morning, because they only have one pace – slow, or gesticulated wildly because of some strangers bad driving, or indeed ranted at your partner because of not doing something they were supposed to do?

I imagine that we can all recognise these, or similar effects, which you will find are exacerbated by stress.  The stress of getting to work on time, the stress of completing all the tasks in one day, the stress at things going wrong just when you need them to go right.

In a recent survey conducted by Xero 2018, 83% of those surveyed reported that they were stressed, with 49% reporting they were more stressed than normal and 17% of that reporting they were highly stressed.

Stress affects everyone

Stress affects us all, some stress is good and keeps us focused, on our toes, whereas longer term stress starts to layer on and on.  In these instances, we are liable to react irrationally to the smallest of irritations, which can then further add to our stress, because we feel guilty, frustrated and out of control.

Stress affects us on several levels, it affects our body due to the release of stress hormones, such as cortisol and adrenaline overloading our bodies, which over the long term can cause heart disease, high blood pressure, depression, anxiety, problems with our libido and a whole host of other concerns.

You may have noticed an effect when you take annual leave and suddenly become ill, this is due to the stress hormones in your body dissipating and because you have run your body above and beyond capacity, you become susceptible to illness.

Stress also effects productivity, as workers lose their focus, are less inclined to give great customer service, have increased sick days, which have the potential to become long term sick days, if nothing is done about this.

Ways to deal with stress

However, when we give ourselves the opportunity to step outside of our minds and our stress, we allow the hormones to reduce, and our minds to become calm, this reduces the risk.

I have written this 5-minute audio download as an introduction to taking your attention out of your head and into the body, into you, to allow you to reconnect with who you really are away from the noise of the stress.

Download/listen to the 5 minute meditation audio

It is about breaking the thought pattern, the stress pattern, taking 5 minutes of your time to disconnect from your mind, your stress, then reconnecting with you.  This will allow you and your staff to be more productive, be more creative, treat others with greater respect, be more efficient and give the nasty stress hormones the opportunity to reduce.

So please give yourself a break, plug in your headphones and listen to this for 5 minutes and notice how much better you feel.

Tara Foulkes Msc.

Developmental Psychologist

Clinical Hypnotherapist and Mindfulness Coach