The history of Progressive Relaxation
The Progressive Relaxation Exercise is one of the most well-known relaxation exercises in existence. The American doctor Edmund Jacobson developed this exercise in the 1920s. This doctor discovered that restlessness, excitement, stress and anxiety are all associated with increased muscle tension. If the muscle tension that arose in, for example, a stressed person could be reduced, the stress was subsequently reduced as well.
The meaning of progressive
Jacobson’s method stimulates progressive development. This means that you start by focusing your attention completely on one muscle, performing the exercise, and then shifting your attention to a completely different muscle group. This builds up with increasing difficulty. For example, you start with your hands and arms, and finish with the organs associated with speech and breathing.
Our body and mind are closely connected with each other. Therefore, physical relaxation can lead to mental relaxation and a decrease in negative thoughts and feelings. A good way to acquire physical relaxation is to do a relaxation exercise. With this Jacobson Progressive Relaxation exercise, you will, one by one, tighten and then relax each muscle group of the body. Using this method, you will learn how it feels to have tension in your muscles and also how the absence of tension feels. The purpose of this exercise is to learn to let go of the tension.
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(Work) Stress can lead to various stress related complaints. Someone suffering from these stress complaints is usually still able to do his or her work, but it can be difficult for them to perform at the same level. Short-term stress is not necessarily unhealthy; it is quite normal to be tired after a hard day’s work. After such a day, you can easily recover from the stress, but as soon as there are too many of those days, recovering starts to become more difficult. There is not enough time to recover and the stress can start to build up. It is therefore important that you rest sufficiently after busy days and that you do not take on too much for a long period of time.
What is chronic stress?
Chronic stress is the inability to relax after a period of work stress. Your body does not get enough rest and can no longer adapt. Complaints such as restlessness, headaches, difficulty concentrating, forgetfulness, low mood and irritability may arise. Some people can no longer work because of these complaints. Chronic stress has a relatively short lead time, is temporary and has a favourable outlook. An average of 80% of overworked employees will be back at work within six to twelve weeks.
What is burnout?
Burnout is exhaustion of body and mind after years of high-pressure work or stressful working conditions, such as a requirement to continually work at a high standard, insufficient coordination between the person and the workplace, and on-going tension at work. People who are perfectionist or ambitious are at relatively higher risk than others. Similar complaints can also arise in other consistently stressful situations that have nothing to do with work, when you are experiencing long-term relationship or family problems, for example.
Biological process of burnout
Mental overload leading to exhaustion is not solely a psychological issue, it is also influenced by biological processes. When biological processes (that regulate alertness in our body) are constantly triggered, this has repercussions on the brain. The brain will adapt itself over the course of months and years. As a result, people are less able to deal with stress and feel increasingly more resistance to mental exertion. People experience this increasing resistance to mental exertion as fatigue.
How can chronic stress or burnout occur?
There are various factors that can influence the development of chronic stress:
- Stressful work characteristics: time pressure, work that’s too hard, little autonomy, structural overtime, being stuck in traffic for a long time, being bullied, or receiving too little support from a manager or from colleagues.
- Personal characteristics: perfectionism, great ambitions, fear of failure, great sense of responsibility, being too nice, or not being assertive enough.
- External influences: relationship problems, financial problems, arguments, or major life events such as a death.
Which complaints are related to stress and chronic stress?
Stress can cause all kinds of different complaints:
- Physical complaints: fatigue, insomnia, pain (muscle, head, back), heart palpitations, increased blood pressure, increased cholesterol.
- Psychological complaints: mental exhaustion, insecurity, worrying, anxiety, stubbornness, difficulty concentrating, forgetfulness, irritability, and low mood.
- Behavioural complaints: underperforming, smoking more, eating or drinking more alcohol, avoiding social contact.
What can you do about it?
It is important to reduce your complaints to an acceptable level. There are specific skills you can learn to help you with this. For example, a good sleeping routine is important; various hormones (communication regulators) in our body influence our sleep. The production of these hormones is influenced by daylight and exercise. Therefore, ensure you spend a sufficient amount of time in daylight and exercise during the day to promote sleep. Your physical fitness also has an important influence on the stress system, so it is twice as important to maintain or improve your fitness. Tips on how to deal with work stress can be found on this page.
How can your coach support you?
Your coach can discuss and tackle certain things with you. Together, you can look for certain characteristics (such as perfectionism) and explore your ambitions and things that you think are important in life. In addition, you can learn how to effectively communicate your boundaries and limits, both in your private life and at work. You will learn this by performing a number of exercises, which will teach you to be more assertive. You can discuss specific events in which certain intentions were successful or when things didn’t go as well with your coach. By analysing and talking about the situation, you can determine what is already going well and what you might want to change.
Assertive behaviour focuses on standing up for yourself, with respect to your own goals as well as those of the other person. There are three stages of assertive action:
Passive ——— Assertive —— Aggressive
Passive behaviour means that you consider others before yourself too often, while aggressive behaviour is about when you only think of yourself and of not others. Assertiveness is the middle ground between these two extremes.
How can I be assertive?
Below are eight points that you can follow to be(come) more assertive.
1. Saying ‘no’ is enough
Saying ‘no’ is difficult for many people. We tend to feel the need to explain a rejection, for example: “You can’t borrow that book, because…” In most cases, an explanation is not necessary, a simple ‘no’ should suffice. But if people do ask why, answering “I prefer not to” is also a perfectly good explanation.
2. Confront
If you find it difficult to be assertive, you can use these techniques when practising, as practice makes perfect! The first step to becoming assertive is usually the most difficult. This is because you have to do something you would rather not do. Confrontation is important, it teaches you to be more assertive. Try saying ‘no’ to something small or to someone you know well and trust.
3. Relax
Being assertive can be scary, and you might feel tense. Try to relax in these moments, then the anxiety will automatically begin to decrease. You can do this by, for example, tensing your muscles first and then relaxing them again, or by taking a few deep breaths.
4. Use ‘I’ statements
If you want to indicate that you do not like another person’s behaviour, it is best to start a sentence with ‘I’. For example, “I can’t concentrate if you make all that noise.” Avoid phrases that start with ‘you’, such as, “You are always so loud”. If you do so, people tend to feel attacked more quickly.
5. Act assertively
Being assertive involves more than just the message you are trying to convey. The words you use are important, but the body language and tone of voice you use also play a role. Adopt an open and interested posture. You can do this by relaxing; try to relax your arms and legs as much as possible. Speak loudly and clearly and add variety to your voice, this will make you sound less monotone.
6. Prepare
In many cases, you can prepare for situations in which you need to be assertive. When it comes to situations during which you have trouble being assertive, such as when your colleague asks you to do something at work when you don’t actually have the time, for example. In these cases, you can practice your response and reaction at home beforehand. At least then you know you are prepared to react in the way that you want, making you feel stronger.
7. Observe
Are there people around you who are assertive? Look at the way they move and the words they use. Not only can you learn from them, but, more importantly, you will realise that it is possible to be successfully assertive. Observe the response of the person receiving the assertive message. How does that person react?
8. Don’t be too assertive
Some people learning to become more assertive tend to overstep a little in the beginning. Being assertive is only effective if you take your own interests and the interests of the other person into account. Try to express your opinion in a calm but clear manner. Show that you also understand where the other person is coming from.
Time management is a way to experience more control over your time. This sense of control reduces stress, improves your health and improves performance. Therefore, a win-win!
Important components for time management are determining your work content and planning and prioritizing tasks.
Below, you will find 4 exercises that can help you to do so.
Exercise 1: Time spent
Because it can be quite difficult to know how much time you spend on each task during a (work) day, it can help to keep track of which activities you spend time on and how important and urgent those activities are. You can use an Eisenhower Matrix to determine what you should prioritize. You can divide tasks according to urgency and importance.
You can use the following matrix for work:
Importance + | Importance – | |
Urgency + | First task on to do list | Don’t do the task or pass it on to someone else |
Urgency – | Plan in a time for the task | Don’t do the task at all and return it |
Keep track of what you spend time on during the week. Indicate how many minutes an activity took, what the activity entailed, and evaluate how important and urgent the activity was. You can also add an extra column in which you indicate whether the activity gave you energy (+) or cost you energy (-).
You can find an example of such an overview below:
Time | Activity | Important? | Urgent? | Energy |
08:00-08:15 | Check emails | + | – | – |
08:15-08:45 | Catch up with colleagues | – | – | +++ |
09:00-11:00 | Emergency meeting | ++ | +++ | – |
20:30-21:00 | Called a colleague about a forgotten email | + | + |
Based on your weekly overview, you can investigate whether you want to make changes to your planning. For example, by doing more tasks that give instead of cost you energy, or by using your time differently. You can also compare the total amount of time spent on an activity to the total amount of working time of the entire week. In this way, you can calculate how much time you spend on each activity and whether you think that’s appropriate.
Exercise 2: Estimating Time
Research has shown that people have a ‘planning fallacy’; we are optimistic planners, which means we underestimate the time required. By practicing planning your time, you will learn to make better estimates. You can do that in the following way.
Perform exercise 1 (again) and record the time spent on each activity, but, this time, start by estimating how much time you think you will need for each activity separately. Write down how much time you actually needed afterwards. Then, write down the possible reasons for needing more time than you expected, as well.
Was your estimate wrong?
- Did you not have the energy to carry out the activity according to your schedule?
- Did you miss information that prevented you from carrying out the activity according to plan?
- Were there people who kept you from the activity?
Afterwards, you can draw a conclusion about the planned time and the associated process. Maybe you needed more time, were distracted or maybe your colleagues, for example, did not provide the correct documents.
Exercise 3: Job position content
It is also important that the activities you do are appropriate for your position at work. Study an up-to-date description of your job position or look up specific work agreements and see if your current work matches this. There may be several options that you can then discuss with your manager:
- There is no current job description: You work according to informal agreements. It is wise to draw up a realistic job description yourself. Define the tasks you are expected to do and make a time estimate for them.
- The tasks performed correspond to your job description, but you are still short of time: Take note of which points of the description are unfeasible or unrealistic.
- The tasks performed do not match the job description: You do more than is asked of you. Consider why you are performing these tasks. Is that because of others or are you doing this on your own initiative?
- The tasks performed do not match the job description: You do less than is asked of you and do not perform certain tasks. Find out why this is the case.
Exercise 4: Planning
An important strategy for time management is systematic planning. You can do this as follows:
- Plan important things far in advance. Make a global plan for the coming year in which you include, for example, recurring milestones and/or important or busy periods. Then, make a monthly plan.
- Make a to-do list. This is where you list all tasks that need to be done soon or in the near future, including any deadlines.
- Make a weekly schedule. Every Friday afternoon, take time to create a weekly schedule for the upcoming week in which you determine which activities you want to do on which day.
- Determine whether tasks are urgent or important.
- Divide larger tasks into subtasks and schedule them.
- Try to schedule no more than 60% of your tasks, leaving room for spontaneous tasks.
- Allow time for delays/setbacks. Keep 15 minutes free between each appointment, for example.
- Take your personal preferences into account. Some people want to start off calmly, while others are bursting with energy in the morning.
- Reserve the last 15 minutes of your working day to review tomorrow’s schedule.
These exercises may require some time investment; however, they will give you a lot of insight and probably save you time and energy in the long run.
Source:
Keijsers, G. P. J., Van Minnen, A., Verbraak, M., Hoogduin, C. A. L. & Emmelkamp, P., (2017). Protocollaire behandelingen voor volwassenen met psychische klachten.
In order to be happy at work, it is important that the working conditions and tasks match your motivations, preferences and skills. A good fit will result in more energy, pleasure and satisfaction. Therefore, it is useful to investigate to what extent your work energizes you. The following exercises can help you to do so.
Exercise 1: Energy balance
Create a table with two columns in which you rate each work task on how much energy it gives (energy gain) or costs (energy loss) you. You can do this on a scale from -10 to +10 and use ‘0’ to indicate a neutral effect. This will give you more insight into which tasks give you energy and which cost you energy. Below, you can find an example of such a table.
Task | Energy loss or gain |
Answering emails | -3 |
Supervising interns | +6 |
Making plans | 0 |
Exercise 2: Obstacles
There are many factors, other than work-related tasks, that can influence your energy, such as working conditions, personal characteristics or private circumstances. Make another table for these obstacles. You can find an example below.
Obstacle | Energy loss |
Annoying discussions with a colleague | -7 |
Wanting to do everything perfectly | -3 |
Combining work with raising children | -4 |
Exercise 3: Helpful resources
Opposite to obstacles are helpful resources. These have a positive effect on your energy. Make another table for helpful resources. You can find an example below.
Helpful resources | Energy gain |
Short commuting time | +3 |
Friendly colleagues | +6 |
Possibility to work from home | +4 |
Now, spread out all the tables next to each other. Is there anything that stands out or surprises you? What gives you the most energy? And what costs you the most energy? Is your energy balance in equilibrium? If not, what is causing the imbalance? Can you make a change? Below, you can find an explanation on how to tackle this.
Job crafting
Job crafting refers to making changes to align your work with your motivations, preferences and skills. There are a number of different strategies you can try. These are shown in the table below:
Adjusting tasks | Adjusting relationships | Adjusting thoughts | Adjusting environment | |
Add | Additional task: Adding a task that gives you energy. |
Working together: Collaborate on the task with others. |
Take a positive perspective:
Put more focus on the positive effects of the task for other people. |
Decorate:
Brighten up your work environment with decorations. |
Adjust |
Adjust the task:
Spend more time on (part of) a task that gives you energy. |
Different people:
Perform the same task with different people. |
Reinterpret:
Pay more attention to the positive aspects of the task. |
Re-locate:
Carry out your work in a different location or at a different time. |
Remove |
Remove the task: Spend less time on (part of) a task that costs you a lot of energy. |
Avoid: Avoid the people who cost you a lot of energy more often. |
Ignore Stop thinking about the unpleasant aspects of a task. |
Remodel:
Remove disturbing environmental factors. |
Solve |
Self-improvement Improve your skills through training and practice, making the task more enjoyable. |
Learning to cope with the situation: Learn to manage conflict. Improve social skills. |
Acceptance:
Accept that the task is part of the work and adjust your expectations. |
Alleviate:
Reduce discomfort in your workspace with the right equipment. |
Exercise 4: Adjustments at work
Pick a few of the energy-consuming tasks and difficult obstacles from the tables in exercise 1 and exercise 2. Write these down in the first column of a new table. In the second column, write down which job crafting strategy you want to apply. In the third column, specify how you are going to apply this strategy to the situation and write down the helpful resources you noted earlier in exercise 3 in the last column. An example of what this table might look like can be found below.
Task/obstacle | Strategy | Plan | Helpful resource |
Answering emails | Remove a task | Starting next week spend no longer than half an hour on emails in the morning | Come to an agreement with my supervisor on priorities |
Meetings | Acceptance: Accept that meetings are part of the job |
No longer complain about the length of the meetings | |
Annoying discussions with a colleague | Learn to cope or avoid | Improve social skills and engage in conversation with them. Or approach the colleague less often. | Talk to other colleagues about how they deal with this |
Wanting to do everything perfectly | Remove | Lower expectations | Compare myself to colleagues who are less careful. |
Source:
Keijsers, G.P.J., Van Minnen, A., Verbraak, M., Hoogduin, C.A.L. & Emmelkamp, P. (2017). Protocollaire behandelingen voor volwassenen met psychische klachten.
Stress, depression and anxiety disorders often lead to longer absences from work than other types of health problems. Therefore, it is important to discuss these problems.
Self-stigma
Research shows that two-thirds of employees do not discuss their mental health with their employer and are often reluctant to ask for time off or leave from their employer. This is because of self-stigma: people are ashamed of their mental health issues. As a result, employees continue to work despite their complaints. As a result, they will feel even worse, and the risk of long-term absenteeism will increase.
What are the downsides if I don’t talk about it?
Many people remain silent about their problems, partly because of the self-stigma and the taboo, which – unfortunately – still surrounds the topic of mental health. However, being silent ensures that the complaints continue to increase and the taboo surrounding mental health issues continues to persevere. The longer you avoid the subject without talking about it, the heavier the burden will become.
What are the benefits if I do talk about it?
Fortunately, there is another way to do it: openness and honesty about your mental health can be very rewarding. Sometimes, the smallest adjustments to your environment can provide mental relief. And if you feel better mentally, you will be more resilient to stress, experience more job satisfaction and your work performance will improve. Many people who have been through the same experience indicate that the anxiety of exposing their problems ultimately did not outweigh the social support and positive reactions they received after being open about it.
What’s the best way to talk openly about your mental health?
It is important to establish the extent to which you are limited in your day-to-day functioning. Not everyone with psychological problems is equally burdened and limited in their daily functioning. Make an overview of who you would like to inform. Think about a manager/supervisor, for example. You don’t have to tell them everything and you certainly don’t have to inform the entire company. Try writing down:
- What exactly am I struggling with at work?
- What do I think would help, what are my needs?
- What can I do to improve my situation?
- How would I want my colleagues and supervisor to deal with it? What do I possibly need from them?
- What are my strengths?
Not only is it important to tell them what your problems are, it is also important to provide possible solutions and indicate what you think you are going to need from them. Emphasize what you can do and indicate what your limitations are.
Last and most important tip: don’t wait too long to tell someone what’s on your mind
Mental health problems are more common than you might initially think; more than 4 in 10 people have had one or more mental illnesses in their lifetime. By talking about our problems and making them an open topic of conversation, we can all break the taboo and work on appropriate solutions.
Sources:
College voor de Rechten van de Mens, De juiste persoon op de juiste plaats, 2013
L. B. Gates e.a., Mental health problems in the workplace: changes in employers knowledge, attitudes and practice in England 2006-2010, 2013 /
A. Smit, Psychische diversiteit op het werk en de rol van de werkgever, 2014
J. van Weeghel e.a., Handboek destigmatisering bij psychische aandoeningen, 2016
C. Dewa, Worker attitudes towards mental health problems and disclosure, 2014
S. de Vries, (red.), Diversiteit: hoofd, hart en buik. De inclusieve aanpak, Assen: Van Gorcum, 2010
Research has shown that having access to basic facilities is the most important factor for a proper workplace. With the help of the questions below, you can make a summary of your workplace experience. Writing about your experiences can help clarify your workplace expectations and find any areas that might need improvement.
As an exercise, you can write down the answers to the questions below:
- Where would you like to work (location)? Example: at a fixed workplace, at home or a combination of the two.
- What are important factors for your workplace? Example: commuting distance, Wi-Fi speed, noise levels, location, multiple toilets and/or plants & daylight.
- What could be better about your workplace? Example: cleanliness of your workplace, a quiet place to do your work, temperature, lighting, air quality, odour and/or safety.
- What would you like to change most about your current workplace? Example: work culture, distance to work (travel time), private workspace, workplace design, location, colleagues and/or manager.
- If your current workplace was more like your ideal workplace, how would that affect your productivity? Example: no influence, a small influence or a lot of influence.
- Where do you have lunch during work? Would you like this to be different? Example: outside the building, behind my desk, in a locked room or in the cafeteria.
What can you conclude from your answers? Are you satisfied with your workplace or are you missing something? If you’re missing something, try to make changes if possible or communicate your needs to your employer. Think about what the goal of your conversation will be in advance: do you want to solve something together? Do you just want to express how you feel about your workplace? Or do you want to hear the opinion of your colleagues? If the goal is clear, you can work towards a solution together.
Tip for employers: Talking about your workplace with your employees contributes to happiness, job satisfaction and productivity.
Source:
https://research.euro.savills.co.uk/netherlands-pdfs/2020-what-workers-want-covid-19.pdf
https://pdf.euro.savills.co.uk/european/whatworkerswanteurope2019.pdf
Stress is a physical reaction to a threatening or scary situation. Everyone reacts to stress differently, which makes certain situations (e.g., giving a presentation to a large group of people) scarier for some than for others.
What happens in our bodies when we experience stress?
Stressful situations activate different systems in your brain. The hormones noradrenaline and adrenaline are released, and your body is primed for action. This creates the ‘fight or flight’ response. Your body is then prepared to fight, flee or freeze in a stressful or threatening situation. The ‘fight or flight’ response results in the following physical symptoms:
- Increase in heart rate and blood pressure
- Faster and deeper breathing
- Tightening of muscles
- Blood draining from your face
- Increased sweating
- Decreased blood flow to your gut and brain
- Decreased activity in your immune system
Healthy stress: short-term
The symptoms mentioned above are a natural and healthy response to stress. Your body’s stress response ensures that you are prepared for action in emergency situations (think of our ancestors, who had to flee from predators quickly to stay alive). But stress can also help in your daily life. At work or during sports activities, for example, during which healthy and short-term stress helps you to perform well. It makes you become alert, focused and efficient. Your body will recover once the stressful situation is over; your heart rate and breathing return to normal, your blood pressure stabilizes, your muscle tone decreases, and your digestive system starts up again. Nowadays, however, we no longer react to physical threats only, but also to threats of a psychological nature. Having high expectations of oneself, experiencing feelings of inferiority or having trouble being assertive, for example. Psychological stress is often not just temporary but is a long-term form of stress.
Unhealthy stress: long-term
When stress is present for a long period of time, or when the body reacts too strongly to a stressful situation, this can lead to more problems. In this situation, more time is needed for you and your body to recover, but, often, there is not enough time for recovery during stressful periods. As a result, the stress can accumulate and consequently lead to chronic stress. This is unhealthy stress, which can cause all kinds of complaints. The following longer-lasting complaints are often warning signs of, for example, a burnout:
- Pain in head, neck and back, stiffness when standing up
- Hyperventilation or dizziness
- Insomnia
- Cold hands and feet
- Headache
- Depression
- Irritability, difficulty concentrating or indecisiveness
- Blurred vision, double vision
- High blood pressure, heart problems
- Stomach and intestinal complaints
- Susceptibility to diseases and infections
Stay alert to these symptoms when experiencing stress. Are you struggling with these symptoms on a regular basis? Then it is wise to get into action by making specific adjustments to your daily life. Do you need some extra support or help? You can find information on where to go if you’re suffering from these complaints here.
Source:
https://wijzijnmind.nl/psychische-klachten/psychipedia/burn-out/klachten-burnout
https://wijzijnmind.nl/psychische-klachten/psychipedia/stress
https://www.thuisarts.nl/stress/ik-wil-beter-omgaan-met-stress
Time management is not easy and can take a lot of practice to get good at. Below, you can find some tips to help you with your time management.
- Try to become aware of when you are procrastinating and what your reasons for procrastinating are. Think about which part of the task is stopping you from making a start now. Be especially mindful of putting off difficult, high-priority tasks.
- Try to focus on one task at a time. By always trying to multitask, you constantly have to switch between tasks quickly. This can be very stressful, and tasks will take longer to complete. Do you need to set aside a task for a while because you have something important to do? Then make sure to leave yourself a reminder so you know exactly where you left off when you get back to it.
- Plan enough daily rest breaks. For example, in addition to your lunch break, plan in 10-minute coffee breaks alone or with a colleague.
- Take the time it takes to prepare and finish off the task into account. A work meeting can require a lot of preparation or extra tasks that have to be completed afterwards.
- Set boundaries for yourself. Determine your number of working hours per day and, for example, limit yourself to only working 30 minutes over time if necessary. Avoid working in the evenings or on weekends, as this will make it harder for you to get out of ‘work mode’. It might seem easy to quickly go through your emails, but it will keep your mind occupied with work for the rest of the evening. Take into consideration whether it is necessary to always be available.
- Find solutions for time-consuming daily tasks. See if there are possibilities to reduce or delegate daily administration, for example.
- Structure your work. This will reduce the time you spend looking for things. Ensure that your workplace is organized, store information in a structured way (in subfolders, for example), tidy up everything regularly by putting old documents in the trash and use a fixed layout for your computer screen.
- Choose to say ‘no’. Practice saying ‘no’ to tasks or explore why you are so prone to saying ‘yes’ to everything. Ask yourself or the other person how important the task is and decide whether you have time for the task, and, if so, when you can perform the task. A phone call may seem urgent, but sometimes it does not need to be resolved immediately. Do you struggle to say ‘no’ sometimes? Read more about assertiveness.
- Prepare for conversations and meetings in advance to make them more efficient. Be strict with the allocated time and set clear boundaries.
- It can be annoying when your work is constantly interrupted. Therefore, try to prevent distractions during tasks. When is it acceptable to be interrupted and when is it not? What can you do to resolve repetitive disruptions? Try turning off your email notifications, for example, or ask someone to come back later or set up fixed office hours. If it is urgent, give someone a maximum of 5 minutes, but be strict with the allocated time.
- It is impossible to properly remember all of your ongoing tasks, projects, instructions and conversations. Therefore, reduce the burden on your memory and ensure that you include important information in, for example, a report, so that you and others are able to quickly understand the information after reading it.
- Learn to delegate. In addition to reducing your own workload, you will learn to trust others or teach someone else how to perform the task. What are your reasons for not delegating something? Think about whether it is a valid reason (is it your favourite task? Maybe you are afraid to ask someone else?). Provide clear instructions and determine the degree of freedom. Do you want to be able to supervise someone closely, do you want an update now and then or would you like them to contact you if there are any problems?
- Organize your email efficiently. Use filters and special mailboxes to automatically organize all incoming e-mail traffic. This ensures that you can read the important and urgent emails first and the unimportant messages remain out of sight. You could also, for example, set fixed times with your colleagues in which they can and cannot email you.
Which tips are important for you to keep in mind? You can write down these tips for yourself.
Source:
Keijsers, G. P. J., Van Minnen, A., Verbraak, M., Hoogduin, C. A. L. & Emmelkamp, P., (2017). Protocollaire behandelingen voor volwassenen met psychische klachten.
Avoidance behaviour
When you are struggling with trauma, chances are you will avoid certain things to avoid being reminded of the traumatic event. These can be places, people, smells, objects, sounds and/or activities. It is useful to be aware of this avoidance behaviour, so that you can work on it during the treatment.
The list below can help you map out your avoidance behaviour:
- Smells: beer, perfume, forest, rain, fire, blood.
- Places: location of the trauma, darkness, being home alone, a specific location.
- People: men, women, the perpetrator, acquaintances of the perpetrator, groups.
- Sounds: music, sirens, noise, panting, fireworks, loud bangs.
- Objects: weapons, car, ashtray.
- Activities: physical contact (shaking hands, kissing, hugging, standing in a busy queue), sex, driving, cycling, eating.
- Images: certain films or TV programs, photos, pictures.
- Other: talking about yourself, talking about the trauma, certain feelings, food
As an exercise, you can write down the things you do to avoid thinking about the traumatic event.
Safety behaviour
In addition to avoidance behaviour, often, there is safety behaviour. This is behaviour you perform to feel safer.
A few examples of safety behaviour:
- Always double checking when locking the door
- Making sure you can see the whole room
- Not getting on a train alone
- Always having medication with you
- Always having your phone with you
- Bringing a bottle of water
- Analysing your surroundings
- Installing an alarm
- Always having important phone numbers with you
- Holding your phone in your hand when walking down the street
- Entering 112 on your mobile in preparation
- Doing relaxation exercises during anxious moments
- Always leaving the light on
As an exercise, you can write down the things you do to feel as safe as possible.
Source:
Keijsers, G. P. J., Van Minnen, A., Verbraak, M., Hoogduin, C. A. L. & Emmelkamp, P., (2017). Protocollaire behandelingen voor volwassenen met psychische klachten.