No matter your age, occupation, or lifestyle, stressful work weeks happen.
And though stress may not discriminate against specific groups, it does share the same remedy options.
Don’t let a bad work week ruin your weekend! Follow these tips to recover after a stressful work week instead.
1. Find the Root Cause of Your Stress
While you definitely do not want to dwell on a lousy work week once Friday night hits, it is propitious to identify what went wrong.
As in: what made this week worse than others?
If you’re reeling from a stressful work week, odds are a specific incident (or, eek, incidents!) befell you. Instead of letting that play over and over again in your head all weekend long, deal with it as soon as you clock out Friday.
Did your boss praise a colleague and not you for the superb work you submitted?
Did the payroll department deposit your paycheck in someone else’s account?
Did you stumble on your words during a crucial client presentation?
Don’t push the occurrence and your feelings associated with it aside. Think about what went wrong and how you’ll try to make next week better.
As soon as you manage this, move on. It’s time to get your weekend started, after all!
2. Get Out of the House
Now that you’ve dealt with the causes of your not-so-stellar work week, you can start to recover from it.
One of the best natural stress busters is to get outside. Mow the lawn, take a jog around the block, or meditate in the park.
No matter what you choose to do outdoors, it all amounts to the same thing. You get to breathe fresh air, bask in the sunshine, and clear your head of stress-induced clamor.
3. Celebrate With Friends and Family
Gather your crew and celebrate – it’s the weekend (cue the klaxons)!
One of the best and most effective stress recovery methods is to surround yourself with loved ones and enjoy their company. These are the people who know you best and love you for who you are. And best of all, they are not a part of your work life.
How you celebrate your workaday freedom is completely up to you.
You can host a dinner party at your home or meet up at a local watering hole for cocktails and fancy small plates.
You may even opt to go the more chill route and indulge in some relaxing cannabis with friends. Just be sure you have the right strain on hand.
Just remember to leave your work baggage behind and focus on the present good times.
4. Treat Yourself to a Comedy
This may be more of a Sunday afternoon idea. Park yourself in front of your TV or other streaming device and chuckle along with your favorite comedy.
Whether a TV show or movie, an oldy or a new release, watching something funny will make you laugh and recover from stress. When you’re laughing and having fun, your body releases serotonin, which is a natural stress reliever.
You’ll enjoy yourself and feel wonderful!
5. Manage Your Expectations
Come Sunday night, you will no doubt start to feel a natural amount of stress with a new workweek looming.
But you can mitigate these feelings by managing your expectations.
For example, you can remind yourself that work isn’t everything. You work to pay your bills, and you shouldn’t expect it to be carefree all the time.
You will have good days and bad days. In the end, as long as you do your job to the best of your ability, the rest of it really doesn’t matter.
By managing your expectations in such a way, it can help you prevent future stress, no matter what your workweek holds.
Conclusion
It’s never easy to recover from stress, especially where our work lives are involved. You likely take pride in your career and don’t take work stressors lightly.
But by keeping these stressful work week recovery tips in mind, you can change your entire perspective, make the most of your free time, and reduce the number of stressful workweeks in your future.