Mandye: Setting boundaries is an important part of not taking on other people's ress. If we can't actually change the situation, then we have to think about how we engage in coping with it. There are some individual strategies that we can engage in that has been shown and proven to reduce our stress. We tend put too much emphasis on these individual strategies.
Stress affects everyone, but we all express and experience it differently. Hearing how a nurse practitioner responds to the various stressors of her job reveals how stress works at a fundamental level. Workplace well-being researcher Mandy O’Neill says that we’re more likely to feel stressed when there is an imbalance between the threat we’re facing and the resources we have to prevent damage or danger. When the current threat feels greater than our available resources, we become — understandably — mentally and emotionally strained.
The two of them join Amy B to discuss the constant challenge of managing stress, as well as actions that help control tension and anxiety — or, even better, the stressors themselves.
Guests:
Sarah Rose Lamport is a nurse practitioner.
Olivia (Mandy) O’Neill is an associate professor of management in the George Mason University School of Business and a senior scientist at the university’s Center for the Advancement of Well-Being.
Resources:
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