Reduce high workload with hypnosis

Feeling tired even after a good night’s sleep, headaches, poor concentration, tension, and trouble eating—these are all signs you might experience if you’re dealing with excessive work stress. It’s very inconvenient, because it makes it seem like you’re sick. It’s not pleasant, so it’s time to do something about it before you actually get sick.

In this blog, read more about high workload and how to deal with it and how to help people cope with high workload.

What are the effects of high work pressure?

Having a continuously high workload has all kinds of consequences, as it causes you to have to "do your best" all the time.

There are all kinds of consequences you can suffer from a high workload, and they apply to yourself as well as to people you work with. In healthcare, for example, a high workload can cause patients to stay in the hospital longer than if there were a normal workload.

In the process, the work itself doesn't get any better. For there comes a time when "working harder" is not going to help you cope with the high workload. Then it is just too high[1].

In addition, in your body and brain, you have a kind of manager that determines where all the energy goes. So if you have a high workload then, more energy goes to work and reducing stress, but less energy goes to good behavior and feeling good psychologically[2].

So a high workload can cause you to feel worse and be less kind than usual. So are you suddenly short-tempered? Then you can also look at your workload. In fact, reducing that workload can make you feel good and behave nicely again (source 2).

Stress should also be limited, because when you have a high workload, your performance will be especially worse if the high workload stresses you out. So if you're just comfortable in the flow, without stress, then your performance need not suffer because of a high workload[3].

In addition, it has personal consequences such as your blood pressure getting higher. You have a lower sense of daily well-being. It can cause you to become more anxious and develop depressive symptoms[4]. It can also eventually lead to burnout[5].

How to deal with work pressure

You might say that social support helps you cope with a high workload, and that's true and false. For example, did you just get more work on your plate? Then social support is actually something that works in the opposite direction and something that can cause you even more stress. Have you had a high workload for a long time? Then social support actually does help you cope (source 3).

In addition, you may think that planning your next day ahead of time the night before can help you be more efficient, but that's not true. Anticipating your work a night before you get to work often only creates more worry and then when you wake up, you are not rested[6].

So it is much more convenient to apply mindfulness in your spare time. You then stay with your thoughts in the here-and-now, and instead try to think about future work as little as possible.

This brings you right to other ways for dealing with a high workload. In fact, changing your mind about your work is also a way to cope with a high workload[7].

Rethinking Workload

One such way to change your mind about your high workload is to apply reverse thinking[8]. How can you transform what you are going through now into something positive?

For example, for reversal thinking, you can ask yourself what you are learning from this situation and/or what are the positives of the situation.

If you are very busy, you can start thinking about the following things, for example.

"At least I am learning how to work super-efficiently," he says.

"At least now I know where my limit is and when to declare my limit in the future."

"I do help a lot of people now."

These are just a few examples. A hypnotherapist can help you change your way of thinking—a process also known as reframing. In therapy, this can involve much more than simply changing a few thoughts.

You can interpret the whole situation in a different way if a therapist helps you with this properly.

Increase control of your workload?

Another way people try to reduce high work stress is by gaining more control over their workload. For example, by viewing rules as something that can be broken—or at least modified (source 7).

Checking what the rules are at your work can also help you see if there is room for you to maneuver.

So scheduling the night before work is not helpful, but scheduling your work is a way to reduce your workload, and this is something that people in healthcare with high confidence also apply[9]. You can, for example, plan your next day's work as the last chore of the day. Above all, don't take planning home with you. Planning your work is a good way to increase your sense of control, though.

Reduce work pressure

If you've reframed, rearranged your work, are mindful at home to not think about your work, and even use your social circle to cope with your workload and the work all not. Then (and maybe actually before) it's time to reduce your workload.

• Like going to your boss and indicating that you can no longer work overtime.

• Such as by indicating that you can no longer work full-time, but prefer to work only four days because the work is a bit hard for you anyway.

This is really about setting your boundaries, and sometimes reducing your work stress involves taking practical steps, such as working fewer hours. Yes, this might mean a little less money in your account each month, but what’s more important? Money or your health? Because too much work can lead to burnout —and neither you nor your employer wants that.

You can also mention this to your manager.

Helping people who suffer from an excessive workload

If it's difficult to take these steps, you can always seek help from a professional so you can gain the confidence to do so.

Sometimes people may also cope with excessive work stress in the wrong way. For example, research shows that nurses with low self-confidence may come up with ineffective ways to cope with high work stress. Such as denying that the workload is high, feeling disengaged from their work, and/or blaming themselves for the high workload (source 9).

This is difficult to solve on your own and for this you can seek help from a professional.

As a professional, you then have multiple tasks. Namely, improving self-confidence and teaching people techniques to deal with a high workload in a healthy way. This can include, for example, thinking around or reframing the workload, increasing control and supporting people with indicating their limits.

Hypnosis can be used very well for boosting one's self-confidence, reframing problems and visualizing how to deal with problems as a kind of exercise to do it "for real" later.

This can be useful if you’re a career professional, an executive coach, or even if you’re responsible for coaching employees in the HR department.

In addition, knowledge of hypnosis can help people recharge during breaks during periods when the workload is temporarily a little higher. A break with self-hypnosis (something you can teach people if you have knowledge of hypnosis), can be very helpful for recharging for the rest of the work day[10]. In doing so, it also helps to keep calm when you have problems to solve[11].

Researchers also indicate that knowledge of hypnosis by people in the hr department can be important in being able to eliminate and resolve causes of stress in staff[12]. This is because with hypnosis you can apply techniques such as reframing and rethinking, you can also give people a greater sense of control without therefore having to directly change the work.

Ideal right?

Would you like to learn more about hypnosis? Then join the free online masterclass for an introduction.

Would you like to learn hypnosis right away to help yourself or others? Then sign up for one of our seminars or training courses. The training is delivered live online from a professional studio and includes ample one-on-one assistance so you can master all the techniques.

Staff have never been happier, rested and more productive after you apply hypnosis to reduce stress.

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