How You Can Have More Emotional Wellness at Work

Raise your hand if your job gives you stress. Sadly, it’s a common problem. Why are so many people stressed out by their jobs? One big reason is that many people don’t understand how to build emotional wellness in the workplace. October is Emotional Wellness Month, so this is a good time to learn how you can improve your emotional wellness on the job, whether you’re working in person or working from home.

If you want to become more emotionally well at work, you need to increase your emotional intelligence. No, “emotional intelligence” doesn’t mean studying a bunch of books about emotion and writing a thesis. It means that you know how to “recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others.” Having a high amount of emotional intelligence will allow you to get along better with others and feel more confident in yourself and your work.

Difficult bosses, unfriendly coworkers, complicated tasks, and long hours are all things that can mess up your emotional wellness. But if you have emotional intelligence, you’ll be able to better handle these kinds of situations. There are many ways to increase your emotional intelligence, and it all comes down to five categories: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.

Self-awareness - Self-awareness means that you pay attention to your own feelings instead of ignoring them. Remember, your are important and your feelings matter. If you’re unhappy, don’t try to sweep it under the rug and pretend everything’s fine. Take some time to ask yourself: How am I feeling? Is something bothering me? What exactly is making me so upset? Consider regularly expressing your feelings in a journal. Looking at past journal entries will increase your self-awareness because you’ll come face-to-face with your own feelings.

Self-regulation - Self-regulation is about controlling your actions so that if something stressful happens, you react in a level-headed way. Self-regulation is difficult when you’re angry at a coworker or you’re under pressure to finish a big task in a small amount of time. In those moments, it’s easy to lash out or make an impulsive decision. Instead, use self-awareness to recognize that you’re stressed and you need to calm down before making any decisions. Then, use self-regulation to relieve the pressure you’re feeling. You can do this by using breathing techniques, thinking about positive affirmations, stepping outside for a few minutes of fresh air, or whatever technique you prefer for managing your emotions in stressful moments.

Motivation - When you’re motivated at work, you feel a need to do the work for reasons other than earning money. Of course, we all like to make money. But you can increase your emotional wellness at work if you focus on another reason your work is important to you. Think about how the tasks you do are helpful to others. Even if you think what you do doesn’t have a big impact, you have a bigger impact than you know! Next time you go to work, remember that you’re there for a reason and your talents are truly helping people.

Empathy - Empathy is about being aware of other people’s feelings and putting yourself in their shoes. Empathy helps people get along and resolve conflicts. If you want to have more empathy, pay extra attention when you’re communicating with others at work. Don’t just pay attention to their words, but also their tone and body language. When you talk to others, remember that they may be facing challenges you aren’t aware of -- in fact, they may be more stressed out than you are. So be sure to speak to them with kindness and grace.

Social skills - To increase your emotional intelligence, social skills are important. No, you don’t have to be a social butterfly who’s the life of the party. But here are two things you can do: give people praise and ask people how they’re doing. Recognize the good things others do, big and small, and send some kind words their way. You will make someone’s day! Go out of your way to ask people how they’re doing and if there’s anything you can do to help them. This helps you build social skills, meaning you’ll get along with others more and have less office drama.

Everyone gets stressed out by work sometimes. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do about it. The more you concentrate on these areas, the more emotional intelligence you’ll have, and the less likely your job will give you stress. You are a hard worker with amazing talents and skills. You have the power to make a positive impact on your company without burning yourself out. That’s what emotional wellness at work looks like.

PS: Tune in to my podcast episode featuring Cathy Norris, an emotional wellbeing expert and corporate trainer. In this episode, we talk about how professionals can avoid work-related burnout and build emotional resilience. You’ll learn a lot from this fascinating episode!