Mental health is important for every human being in any setting. Stress may affect individuals’ working abilities because they cannot concentrate on their routine activities. Work stress may be caused by long hours, heavy workloads, tight deadlines, and boring work. Therefore, effective stress reduction methods should ensure that employees are not psychologically affected. People with type A personalities are more likely to be affected by stressful conditions because they are more impatient, competitive, hostile, and achievement-oriented. Therefore, type A people feel that they are racing against the clock and are easily angered when unable to achieve their goals. Workplace stress can be managed through meditation, diaphragmatic breathing, and physical exercise to maintain healthy mental conditions.
Frank Taylor’s automobile dealership is an organization with salespersons with extreme type A personalities. Most of the sales persons are experiencing stress-related physical problems such as migraine headaches and high cholesterol. Therefore, salespersons must undergo a stress reduction program incorporating physical exercise and relaxation techniques. The program is likely to take several weeks that are subdivided for various purposes. The first weeks are designed for increased self-awareness to help the sales persons realize their psychological and physiological reactions to stress, depression, and anxiety in their mind and physical experiences. Therefore, the salespersons would be able to understand their sources of stress and how they react to it. Individuals who realize that their actions are caused by stress can easily have control because their minds become conscious of any decision made. Workplace stress is related to the working environment and can be associated with other places, such as home conditions. More so, workplace stress can be extended to family conflicts that may affect the general mental stability of an individual. Work stressors such as aggression can be associated with work-family conflict in that the pressure from home and that from the workplace are not compatible ((Lacerda et al., 2018)). Workers develop a negative attitude and are likely to reduce their performance. Therefore, realizing the kind of stress and its effects is essential for any person because people can have self-control and adhere to effective ways of reducing stress. The practice weeks would be essential because the salespersons would be able to learn how to cope with their stress. Workers who have effective ways of coping with their stress are not likely to reduce their performance because they can normally work even under stress. The program would be used to help the salespersons develop constructive and empathetic relationships with themselves and other people. The program is cyclic, and the participants can continue practicing after the end of every program.
Meditation
Meditation is a technique that makes helps a person to stop focusing on stressful situations. Meditation is effective because it helps lower blood pressure and reduces stress levels. People with type A personalities often tend to experience high levels of anxiety and other negative emotions, yet they also experience the most intense physical and mental feelings of arousal. Meditation involves sitting quietly, focusing attention on respiration, and accepting thoughts without judging them. Meditation is not a soothing therapy that simply makes the person feel better. However, mental exercise helps to generate positive attributes within a person. Meditation is a practice that can be used to treat a wide range of symptoms that are stress-related such as panic and anxiety (Meditation, 2008). The technique is not just a boring activity that people do while waiting for their next appointment in their psychologist’s office but something that can be done in everyday life without even planning. Meditation is best for people with type A personalities because it helps them focus on one thing or activity, strengthening their mindfulness muscles (Tashman, 2020). The technique becomes an important tool in daily life because when people meditate daily, they become more aware and develop compassion, leading to being a better listener and understanding another person’s perspective. Meditation helps people to understand their sources of stress by being able to identify stressors. A stressor is a stimulus that causes a stress response comprising a series of emotional, biological, and behavioral changes (Anisman, 2014). The type of stressor that affects one person would not be the same that affects another person. Ensuring that every salesperson can state their sources of stress can help them cope with their situations because they become more aware of their reactions. Therefore, salespersons who practice meditation would help reduce their stress-related disorders.
Diaphragmatic Breathing
Diaphragmatic breathing is effective because it allows the body to relax, which helps reduce anxiety. People often feel stressed by deadlines or expectations from others. Still, when they physically feel panic in their chest muscles or tense up in their shoulders, the feelings are quickly alleviated by taking deep breaths into the lower abdomen. Taking a deep breath lowers the heart rate, helps expel carbon dioxide, and relaxes the body. When the symptoms are gone, people feel better. The technique involves teaching a person to breathe sufficient air to help fill the blood vessels with oxygen (Anxiety Reduction Techniques, 2008). Most of the time, when people take deep breaths, they do not even realize it. Individuals just know that it makes them feel better afterward. However, another reason why taking deep breaths is so effective: it allows the brain to let go of unnecessary thoughts and emotions causing stress in the first place. People with type A personalities have a high tendency to develop anger within a short time. Research shows deep breathing can help reduce anger and improve focus and emotional control (Hailey, 2022). People with type A personalities often have a hard time trusting other people. The character can make them work too hard to prove themselves and make others think they are capable, reducing the brain’s capacity to control their emotions and behaviors. Deep breathing increases cognitive function in the brain’s frontal cortex, which controls decision-making and behavior. Therefore, diaphragmatic breathing can be a solution for the salesperson; if they practice it every time, they feel stressed.
Physical exercise
Exercising breaks the heart rate during stressful times by providing oxygenated blood. When people exercise regularly, the resistance increases so that when adrenaline surges in response to stress or emotional triggers, the heart has a harder time beating faster than its normal pace. Therefore, regular exercise slows the heart rate in response to stressful situations. For example, yoga is effective for people with type A personalities because its calming effects provide a mental and physical reprieve from stressful situations. Practicing yoga effectively reduces stress because it incorporates some meditation features, such as breathing, while creating a calming and quiet feeling (Scott, 2020). Concentrating on the body signals is essential in ensuring a person feels relaxed. The salespersons would participate in progressive muscle relaxation and continue practicing meditation and breathing. Muscle relaxation is a technique used to diminish the effects of stressors and reduce the effect of anxiety (University of Maryland Global Campus, 2022). People with type A personalities are more aggressive and are success-oriented; hence, practicing muscle relaxation would help reduce their anxious moods. Therefore, the salespersons would be trained in relaxation to help connect the body with the mind. Physical exercise keeps the brain focused, reducing the anxiety and stress that may be developing. As a result, people feel relaxed and able to make decisions without anger. Aerobic exercise, increasing weight-bearing activity, or lifting heavy objects throughout the day can help improve the heart’s functioning. The activities increase the blood flow that can reach the heart, thus giving it much-needed oxygen. Therefore, the salespersons can create times within the week and engage in physical exercise activities to ensure that they relax their minds and boost their decision-making processes.
In conclusion, the stress reduction program would be accompanied by identifying the best activities to incorporate in the workplace to ensure that people work in a stress-free environment. Therefore, all the salespersons would practice stress reduction techniques, including meditation, physical exercise, and diaphragmatic breathing, and apply them to real situations. The participants would also be free to report their experiences through the program and achievements. The salespersons are successfully oriented, and learning stress reduction techniques is an advantage because they would be able to deal with anxiety, impatience, and anger, among others. The salespersons would have time to think about the events throughout the program and continue practicing daily. The program would continue because every practice would be a source of solution to the problems that the sales persons would face even in future reference. The management in the automobile dealership would also acquire new ways to ensure that salespersons are not stressed for effective functioning.
References
Anisman, H. (2014). The Nature of Stressors. In An introduction to stress & health. Essay, SAGE Publications Ltd.
Anxiety Reduction Techniques. (2008). In L. J. Fundukian & J. Wilson (Eds.), The Gale
Encyclopedia of Mental Health (2nd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 78-82). Gale.
Hailey, L. (2022, June 17). What is a Type A Personality? The Type A Survival Guide. Science of People. https://www.scienceofpeople.com/type-a-personality/
Lacerda, S. S., Little, S. W., & Kozasa, E. H. (2018). A Stress Reduction Program Adapted for the Work Environment: A Randomized Controlled Trial with a Follow-Up. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00668
Meditation. (2008). In L. J. Fundukian & J. Wilson (Eds.), The Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Health (2nd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 706-710).
Scott. “Stress Relief Tips for Type A Personalities.” Verywell Mind, 25 Feb. 2020, www.verywellmind.com/type-a-stress-relief-3145058.
Tashman, M. (2020, April 7). How Type A Personalities Can Practice Mindfulness – Mind Cafe – Medium. Medium; Mind Cafe. https://medium.com/mind-cafe/how-type-a-personalities-can-practice-mindfulness-bc92a87e27c
University of Maryland Global Campus. (2022). Stress Busting: Treatment Strategies.
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