Talk With A Doc

Talk with a Doc: Wellness Brief: Minimizing Stress

Jennifer Semenza
Hello everyone and welcome to talk with the Docs Wellness Brief, a podcast offering a quick dose of healthcare information on a wide range of topics in under 10 minutes. I'm Jennifer Semenza and I'm here with Doctor Robin Henderson, chief executive behavioral health for profits. Today, we want to talk about the stress brought on by having a long To Do List that feels overwhelming and how to prioritize to minimize your stress and anxiety. So welcome, Doctor Robin, and thanks so much for joining us. Can you briefly start by telling us about you and the work you do for Providence?

Dr. Robin Henderson
Absolutely. So in my work with Providence, I basically am in charge of behavioral health here in Oregon. I'm the chief executive of behavioral health for the Oregon region. And I'm also the chief clinical officer for work to be, well, work to be well is our youth mental health prevention and education arm. And about that later. But that's where I get a lot of my. Ideas about today's topic from?

Jennifer Semenza
Thanks so much. That must be really great work that you get to do. Thanks so much for what you're doing there. So it really seems like we're all being tasked with more to do in less time and our workloads at the office have increased. We're managing a household and all that comes with that from cooking, cleaning, paying bills, shopping, helping the kids with homework, managing the kids's activity schedule and everything else you need to get done in a day. It's a lot. So we all feel overwhelmed and experienced. Some amount of stress, but can you tell us how do we recognize when that stress level is too high?

Dr. Robin Henderson
Well, the first thing about recognizing when your stress level is too high is probably the people around you or the people around you treating you a little bit like you're on egg shells. Are you snapping at people? Are you being overwhelmed and overwhelming other people by your own behavior? The first clues to recognizing that you're stressed and overwhelmed. Checking in with people around you. Also checking in with yourself. Are you feeling like wow, I've got too much. I just can't manage. My thoughts are racing. I'm just overwhelmed in that whole feeling of I've got all the balls in my in my hands and I'm juggling everything and I just can't keep up with it. And it's exhausting.

Jennifer Semenza
And what effect does that have on? Not only our. Mental health, but also our physical health.
Dr. Robin Henderson
The thing about long term chronic stress, even when we get the acute stress in the morning, but that long term chronic stress. That we feel. It can interfere with everything. It can interfere with your diet with your sleep, with your relationships, with your work life. All the. Things stress is like that thing that that comes out of nowhere, kind of like a dragon almost. And it kind of overwhelms your life and scorched earths a lot of things. So part of what we need to do and how we manage stress is friends with it. And I know that sounds a little bit crazy, but walk with me here for a minute. When we start to make. Friends with stress, we can start to figure out how we can use that stress and sense of overwhelmed to our advantage. How do we take the adrenaline rush that comes with some of this? And use it to be productive and get things done without feeling overwhelmed in the moment. Part of how that happens is to break things up into smaller. Bites. I am a big, big, big fan of lists. I have a lot of whiteboards. I have a lot of lists and I take tasks and I break them down and I look at what needs to be done right now. Today, what can I do? Maybe in the next week and what can I put off for a little while? I still need to get it done, but it's not something that has to be done today. And when I take just 5 minutes. To break down the situation into lists that can help. Pull off a lot of different people. Of stress. And begin to make things a lot more manageable. It's kind of like taming that dragon we talked about.

Jennifer Semenza
I have never thought about reframing it to make stress my friend, but that is such a great strategy I love. That and I I also love a good To Do List. So yeah, I I I make. Lists of my. List. So let's talk solutions. So when someone's feeling overwhelmed by all the things they need to get done, but it really feels impossible, and they're stressing out. And feeling anxious. What? What's the first step they need to?

Dr. Robin Henderson
Take the first step when you're feeling stressed and anxious and overwhelmed. Is to take a break again. This doesn't sound like the right thing to do, but it is, and this is where work to be welcomes and in handy we have a lot of mindfulness activities such as simple breathing exercises. One of my personal favorites is Foursquare breathing. You breathe in for four counts, hold for four counts. Breathe out for four counts. And hold for four counts. 3 rounds of square breathing can get you centered. It interrupts your racing thoughts. Because here's the thing. If you're concentrating on breathing, you can't think about anything else. It's one of those automatic processes that happens that when I try to control it, like with 711 breathing, where you breathe in for seven counts. And breathe out for 11. I'm interrupting an automatic process and I have to think about that. And I can't think about anything else. So the first thing is to ground yourself with. A mindfulness activity.

Jennifer Semenza
That's fantastic advice. Thank you. That that square breathing is such a great tool. I've used that numerous times and it's such a good way to just kind of like you said, disrupt that thinking and and help you to get reframed and refocused. So are there any effective time management strategies or techniques that you can recommend that help someone manage their tasks and responsibilities since we're talking about prioritization?

Dr. Robin Henderson
Absolutely. Some of the things that we need to think about when we're managing stressful activities, we want to get it all done. We're thinking, oh, I'm just going to go out this and and do it all and the really you need to build in a break, you need to build in a minute where you can stop, regather, look at the situation and go oh OK well, I need to change my approach to this. You know, let's say that my task is to to clean out a room or something like that. Sometimes we get so focused on the task that we miss the easy path. So if we stop, take a 15 minute break, get a cup of coffee. Do something different. Maybe take a break and check our e-mail. Or I know one of the things that stresses me out is my e-mail. So sometimes I need to take a break, something else. Another great way to take a break is to take a walk. That can be a real stress reducer when you could just go even if you just go out in your own backyard and walk around in the backyard. And clear your head and think about something else. You come back with a new approach. It's kind of like reframing it a little bit of a way where you're just kind of looking at the situation and. And going what can I do differently right now, in this moment, these are hard things to do. When you're stressed, they're done with intent and stressed doesn't like intent. Stress wants to go and take control. And what we need to do in our stress management is to act with intent and control the stress.

Jennifer Semenza
That's great. So let's talk about like, how do we approach setting realistic and achievable goals and getting those To Do List lists, all all kind of in one location. You know, how do how do we use that to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

Dr. Robin Henderson
Well, it comes back to that sense of control. One of the things that helps us from feeling overwhelmed is being able to have some idea of what the end looks like. What is this going to look like when I'm done? When I look at a situation and go, I'm never going to be done with this. It's going to be overwhelming. It's going to last forever. I start to get into that hopeless self talk that goes on in my head. And and self talk can be really draining. So how do I change my? How do I say things with positive intent to go? OK, I know that this is gonna end and and at 5:00 today I'm going to be done with work. I'm going to close my computer. I'm going to walk away and I'm going to do something else for an hour. That's just for me before I jump. Into my evening tasks. Another great way is to put your effective remember when we talked a little bit at the start of this about what has to be then today what needs to be done in a week, what can be done a long time later. I sometimes like to phone a friend and go wait a minute here. You know, I'm thinking I need to get this done right now. Am I being realistic or am I awfulizing and creating my own internal stress by putting expectations on myself that something needs to be done today when it really doesn't, and that can be super helpful phoning a friend, talking with your supervisor. Talking with your spouse or or someone else you know in your friend circle to say, help me get some perspective on what I'm feeling right now because I'm I'm kind of losing perspective. Those can be really great ways to help lower your stress.

Jennifer Semenza
Yeah, sometimes I feel like we're just so close to it. We don't have the the perspective. So that's great advice. Yeah. So can you provide us with tips or guidance on breaking down bigger tasks into smaller, more manageable steps? How does someone even start approaching something like that?

Dr. Robin Henderson
Kind of the same way that you eat an elephant, one bite at a time when you're looking at a task that feels overwhelming, start to break down. Even map it out. You know, for visual learners that could be mapping it out by drawing it out on a a piece of paper or a whiteboard for the. It could be talking it through with somebody and saying, OK, I've got to approach this big project. How do I break this down into smaller pieces and see what what can I do today? What has to be done right now and what is it that maybe I can give to someone else to do that can be super helpful. Delegating is great and delegating can be. If you're just delegating something to the stack of things you're gonna do two to three weeks from now. It really helps to just kind of look at things and start to go, OK, all things you can't handle, all the things all the time. We have to be realistic in our approach.

Jennifer Semenza
Thank you. So we know that the the pressure to be perfect is sometimes just overwhelming and there's a saying that perfect is the enemy of good. Can you provide us with some insight into the importance of kind of embracing the concept of good enough and and why it's OK not to strive for perfection and managing stress in our lists?

Dr. Robin Henderson
Yeah, perfect is definitely the enemy of good and off times when you're looking at, Oh my gosh, I can get so wound up and and something has to be especially in cooking something has to be absolutely perfect. Well, the reality is if my plating isn't Michelin star, it's probably because I'm not a Michelin star chef. And I haven't done this 10,000 times, right. When we're thinking about, you know, any of these things that we're not the absolute expert at. We're just somebody who comes into that perfect is the enemy of good, becomes really super important. This happens a lot for athletes and musicians and people in the performing arts where it's like, Oh my gosh, if my performance, if my performance isn't absolute perfection, then it wasn't good enough.

Jennifer Semenza
Really.

Dr. Robin Henderson
Tends to to. Suck energy. It's like an energy Viper that just sucks all the energy out of you. These expectations that we put on ourselves. Because the reality is no one expects us to be perfect except ourselves. And how do we give ourselves a little bit of grace and a little bit of understanding that, you know, maybe dinner doesn't look great, but it tastes fantastic. Maybe my plating isn't on point, but that doesn't really matter, because what really does matter is the love and the care. And all the intention that I put into making something special. We have to be able to give ourselves grace in a lot of different things that we do because often times what we see is. Is us going? Over the top and expecting way too much.

Jennifer Semenza
I wish I didn't identify with that so strongly, but boy, you just nailed everything I feel. So aren't there any relaxation or stress reduction techniques that you recommend for managing stress associated with a long To Do List oh.

Dr. Robin Henderson
So many mindfulness techniques I like to recommend. But some of my personal favorites, aromatherapy is great. Lighting a candle that that or or having some type of an aromatherapy machine. Getting into senses that aren't necessarily part of your To Do List like exercising, like having that great cup of coffee. You know you get your aroma of the coffee, you get the the sensation of drinking the coffee and all those things are automatic stress reducers. So those familiar smells tastes changing up your routine and doing something a little bit different. And building it a reward, one of the biggest things that we forget about when we're in a stressful situation or doing a list is to build in a reward and rewards. You have to surly food based or or monetary. A reward can be hey, I'm going to spend 15 minutes with my dog here. Gonna go out and play fetch for 15 minutes. You get the reward of the exercise and your dog is happy too.

Jennifer Semenza
Doctor Robin before we end. Is there anything we didn't touch that you'd like to address?

Dr. Robin Henderson
I would like to refer everybody to the website for work to be well. That's work. The number two bewell.org where we've got a lot of mindfulness techniques, stress reduction techniques, we have something called Wellness Wednesdays that has 26 different exercises to really get you grounded, get you thinking about doing different. Things thinking can manage your life with a. Little bit more grace and a whole lot more gratitude.

Jennifer Semenza
Thank you so much. For joining us today and thank you to all our listeners for tuning in and learning to prioritize, all you need to get done today and every day to get continued information on other important healthcare topics, please subscribe to talk with the doc on your favorite podcast platform and make sure to listen to all of our shows on lit live radio under.

Dr. Robin Henderson
Thanks for having. Me.

Jennifer Semenza
Future of health. Or your favorite podcast platform. You can follow us on social media, which can be found on X and Facebook at Providence and Instagram under Providence. Health system to learn more about our mission programs and services, go to providence.org and Please remember the information provided during this program is for educational purposes only. You should always consult your healthcare provider if you have any questions regarding a medical condition or treatments. And remember, at Providence we see the life. In you.