How to have a great day at work: Learn to control your anxiety

In her regular column, founder of Neom and wellness expert Nicola Elliott looks at one thing we can all do that will make our nine-to-five feel happier and healthier

Free yourself from the tyranny of workplace anxiety (Getty)

Let’s be clear, we’ve all had anxious thoughts before a big presentation and Sunday night blues are definitely real, but entirely normal.

But when this tips over into heart palpitations, nausea, depersonalisation, obsessive thoughts and panic attacks, you know you’re tipping into a more troubled space.

The latest statistics tell us that over 50 per cent of long-term sick leave is due to stress, depression or anxiety and employees are reporting increased workplace intensity and more significant pressure at work so it’s no surprise that some of us (me included) have felt these unpleasant symptoms of anxiety once or twice.

Experience tells me that the first step in conquering anxiety is to understand it, because the fear of the unknown creates excess adrenaline, which can make it worse than it needs to be.

Once a helpful reaction to animals in the wild, the oldest part of your brain has recognised a (possibly minor) threat (said presentation) and is firing itself up to fight or flight, producing adrenaline and cortisol which is now coursing through your body.

While this may have been helpful in the wild, it’s less so in the office. Your nervous system has become overstimulated and the mind has triggered a threat response, so you’re now giving anxious thoughts more attention and changing your behaviour because of them and so the cycle has begun.

You can find some excellent tips on how to keep your nervous system regulated before it becomes problematic in Josh Fletcher’s brilliant book Anxiety: Panicking about Panic and his follow-up Practical about Panic. He’s the one who has helped me most.

The most helpful thing he told me was how to have a word with your rational mind to stop it spiralling. It goes like this… “OK my threat response is going off here – it’s going to make me feel doubtful, overwhelmed, my heart rate higher and stomach flip. That’s the cortisol and yep it’s scary but I’m not going to lose my mind and I do have control over parking this for now.”

You don’t want the threat response to see itself as helpful. Josh also recommends admitting where you are on the scale and working to lower that (10 being worst – one best) instead of getting hung up on eliminating anxiety altogether.

Instead, focus on one core belief above all others and that is simply, “I’m going to be OK – this is just adrenaline”.

Once you’ve really nailed this belief, you can start working on keeping your nervous system soothed so the cup doesn’t overfill. In terms of preventing it from spiking in the first place, you will find what works for you, whether that’s taking time out in nature, exercising, resting or switching off from electronic devices.

Because prevention, where anxiety is concerned, is always better than cure.

‘The Four Ways to Wellbeing: Better Sleep. Less Stress. More Energy. Mood Boost’ by Nicola Elliott is published by Penguin Life at £16.99