Get mentally ready: Practice a minimum of 12 minutes of Mindfulness Breath Awareness Meditation as soon as you wake up. This will help you to be more focused, assertive, and drama-free for most of your day.
With all that’s going on in our country, in our economy, in the world, and on social media, it feels like so many of us are under a great deal of stress. We know that chronic stress can be as unhealthy as smoking a quarter of a pack a day. For many of us, our work, our livelihood, is a particular cause of stress. Of course, a bit of stress is just fine, but what are stress management strategies that leaders use to become “Stress-Proof” at work? What are some great tweaks, hacks, and tips that help to reduce or even eliminate stress from work? As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Ivanna Casado.
Ivanna Casado is a certified Executive Coach, Keynote Speaker, and Corporate Wellness Facilitator who coaches and trains corporate leaders and Fortune 500 companies (including HBO, New York Life, and HSBC) with her expertise in personal and organizational effectiveness and employee wellness and mindfulness.
Ivanna’s experience with burnout in high-performance roles, along with her enthusiasm and extensive background in neuroscience and human behavior, has shaped her mission to minimize stress, create sustained workplace success, and align leaders with their authenticity, humanity, and business goals.
A partner with CHIEF, regular article contributor to Insight Timer, and passionate content creator, Ivanna embraces opportunities where she can educate on and facilitate the minimization of burnout and maximization of happiness, well-being, and performance in the workplace.
What lessons would you share with yourself if you had the opportunity to meet your younger self?
I would tell my younger self that she deserves more kindness and grace.
I used to be –and maybe still am– “a work in progress” when it comes to treating myself with gentleness in the face of the scary imperfect nature of oneself.
When I was younger, I was hard on myself. My inner critic was far from kind.
But now I recognize that this self-attack strategy was a defense mechanism against setbacks and challenges at the cost of my self-worth and self-respect.
Choosing to treat myself with unconditional love and respect when faced with my imperfect nature has helped me to become more resilient and has motivated me to aim for excellency without the hurt and toxicity in the process.
None of us are able to experience success without support along the way. Is there a particular person for whom you are grateful because of the support they gave you to grow you from “there to here?” Can you share that story and why you are grateful for them?
This is probably not the answer you were looking for, but honestly, my best teachers are in the books.
Books are my go-to source for inspiration and guidance. I’m most grateful for David Rock and Rick Hanson, who, through their books, helped me understand a lot of my behaviors and inspired me to change.
Sarah Mclean taught me how to befriend my experiences in life through mindfulness practices, and Kristen Neff taught me how self-compassion could be my greatest superpower.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think it might help people?
I’m so excited about my work with CHIEF: a private network that helps women enter positions of power and sustain success.
I know first-hand how challenging this can be for women, and my partnership as an executive coach and facilitator with CHIEF gives me the opportunity to help them find a safe space to thrive.
CHIEF allows women to be raw and real and collectively establish new practices to overcome challenges and be the best leaders and contributors they can be.
A more recent partnership with Insight Timer has introduced me to their B2B Mindfulness at Work Marketplace.
The last few years of my career have been dedicated to developing Mindfulness-Based Burnout Prevention Programs. Now, I have the opportunity to bring those programs to my work with Insight Timer and educate organizations, leaders, and executives on practices to increase their wellbeing at work.
And my executive coaching and consulting private practice is fully geared towards helping organizations, executives, and leaders re-think and re-design the employee experience. I’m supporting them to maximize performance, wellbeing, belonging, and engagement through proprietary corporate wellness programs.
Ok, thank you for sharing your inspired life. Let’s now talk about stress. How would you define stress?
Stress is a natural response from our nervous system that is signaling attention and possible action.
In the Western world, humans typically have their shelter, food, and survival needs met. So what has led to this chronic stress? Why are so many of us always stressed out?
Stress is inevitable and also necessary for survival.
However, the human brain has not evolved at the pace required to deal with, manage and process a lot of the information and stimulus we’re bombarded with on a daily basis.
The access to and integration of technology combined with the belief that we must respond to every stimulus, notification or request can certainly trigger a stress response within us.
I continue to believe that the focus and expectation shouldn’t be mainly on how to control stressors from the outside world.
While there’s certainly space for that, focusing on external stressors has become our frequent go-to strategy to deal with stress. This often leads to disappointment and adds more stress to an already stressful situation.
Controlling outside stressors is hardly ever the answer.
In my experience, the focus should be on redirecting our efforts inward and learning how to manage, respond to, and reframe the stressors that are present in our lives.
Most of the time, stress itself isn’t the problem, but how we perceive and process it is.
What are some of the physical manifestations of being under a lot of stress? How does the human body react to stress?
Great question. I think it’s important to know that the stress response begins in our brains.
When the brain registers possible risks or dangers, it activates the amygdala–the part of the brain in charge of getting you ready to fight, flee or freeze.
This part of the brain is responsible for processing fear, triggering anger, and motivating us to act.
Frequent activation of the amygdala comes at a cost to your mind and body.
Every time your brain picks up the signal of a possible threat or risk, your cortisol (the stress hormone) levels increase in your bloodstream.
Persistently high levels of cortisol have a negative impact on your health:
Your immune system declines, your cognition declines, and your emotional resilience declines.
The bottom line is that our general health is affected when we don’t know how to manage our relationship with our stressors.
Is stress necessarily a bad thing? Can stress ever be good for us?
Stress is inevitable, unavoidable, and also necessary, but not all stress is created equal.
We can experience good stress that can help drive attention, motivation, and action to things that matter or are valuable to us.
Think of an important task or project you’ve been procrastinating when you suddenly get a notification that the deadline for this project is tomorrow. That feeling of urgency (stress) can push you to focus and drive you to complete your task.
Now, if the concept of “Working Under Pressure” is your preferred working method, then you’re automatically creating and activating an internal environment of hyper-vigilance and high stress on a daily basis.
This amount of high and frequent stress can have a negative impact on your overall health (mentally, physically, and emotionally), motivation, and performance at work.
In your opinion, is this something that we should be raising more awareness about, or is it a relatively small issue? Please explain what you mean.
Again, stress is unavoidable and centric to our survival.
However, how we respond to stress is what, in my personal opinion, needs more awareness and revision.
How we internalize, frame, and regulate stress can make all the difference to our overall health and experience in life.
Human beings assign meaning and interpretation to our experiences in life. How we perceive stress can change the way we internalize and process it. Nowadays, it has become almost a trend to say that we are “stressed out” or “stressed.”
We’re generalizing all of our difficult emotions under the umbrella of “stress.”
Properly identifying our emotions can actually help us process them more effectively.
Saying, “I’m stressed out,” and acting like it feels much different than saying, “I’m feeling a bit pressed for time, but I know I can figure this out.”
Not all difficult emotions and challenges have to be stressful. Identifying and labeling our emotions can help us discern, challenge, reframe and regulate perceived “stress.”
Let’s talk about stress at work. Numerous studies show that job stress is the major source of stress for American adults and that it has escalated progressively over the past few decades. For you personally, if you are feeling that overall, work is going well, do you feel calm and peaceful, or is there always an underlying feeling of stress? Can you explain what you mean?
One of the most interesting discoveries is that stress is contagious.
Secondhand stress is real!
Developing personal stress management techniques is critical to avoid raising levels of cortisol in our working environments. We harm ourselves and our health without stress management skills, but we could also be contributing to creating toxic workplaces without even realizing it.
The way people feel around us can have a positive and negative impact on our success in our workplace. If people feel stressed by being around us, they’re more likely to subconsciously try to distance themselves from us.
This is a very primitive response wired to our self-preservation or survival mechanism.
We move toward things that give us gratification and move away from those that cause us pain, suffering, or discomfort.
Research shows again and again that the quality of our relationships is in direct line with our levels of happiness.
So, if you spend the majority of your time at work, you best dedicate time to building meaningful, gratifying, and stress-free relationships. Workaholism can lead to social isolation, and this can be very stressful to our well-being and existence.
Okay, fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview: Can you share with our readers your “5 stress management strategies that busy leaders can use to become “Stress-Proof” at Work?” Please share a story or example for each.
How you start your morning can influence how you finish your day.
A good morning routine can help you create the right conditions for mental, emotional, and physical resilience.
Try to wake up at least an hour earlier than usual and use the following techniques:
1. Get mentally ready: Practice a minimum of 12 minutes of Mindfulness Breath Awareness Meditation as soon as you wake up. This will help you to be more focused, assertive, and drama-free for most of your day.
2. Hydrate first: Drink at least 8 oz of water before drinking coffee or tea. Water consumption first thing in the morning can help you boost your mood and mental performance during the first hours of your day. When you don’t replenish your body with the fluids it needs after sleeping, you’re already putting stress on it. Even mild dehydration is linked with some short-term memory loss, poor mood, and decreased concentration. So if you want to put in your best performance during your day, aim to replenish your body with water first thing in the morning.
3. Go for a 20-minute walk: Walking promotes the release of brain chemicals called endorphins that stimulate relaxation and improve our mood. Walking does not have to be done at a fast pace to have stress-relieving benefits. Generating endorphins first thing in the morning can help you create the conditions to combat and better manage stressors during your day.
4. Plan, prepare, and anticipate: Create intentions and directions by writing down how you plan to face and manage stressful moments during your day. The clearer you are about your stress regulation go-to plan, the more likely you will be able to activate your stress management skills. For example, your plan may be: “I’ll remind myself to use humor when reality does not match my plans and expectations.”
5. Budget Stress: Identify the difference between a “Controlled-stress Zone” and an “Uncontrolled-stress zone.” Plan and budget stress for the task and priorities that require your full attention and resources. Identify situations and tasks that could trigger unnecessary, unresourceful, and uncontrolled stress ahead of time.
Do you have any favorite books, podcasts, or resources that have inspired you to live with more joy in life?
Absolutely!
My favorite book recommendation is Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, by Emily Nagoski, Ph.D., and Amelia Nagoski, D.M.A.
And these podcasts are my go-tos:
1. Reinvent Yourself with Tara Swart Bieber
2. Being Well Podcast with Dr. Rick Hanson and Forrest Hanson
3. Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would create better conditions for female professionals and working mothers in the workplace.
Women have overtaken men and now account for more than half of the college-educated labor force in the United States. They represented 59.2% of the workforce before the pandemic.
Women at work, particularly working moms, were resigning at a rapid pace from the workforce due to unsupportive systems that set them up for failure.
We need to redesign the workplace and create new legislations and policies that are created with women in mind. We are educated, driven, talented, and equipped to succeed, but we get burned out in the process of managing parental, household, and work responsibilities because the systems are so adverse. The motherhood penalty and age discrimination are real, and it affects retirement savings and planning for many women who have worked really hard to build their careers.
Something must be done to change the employee experience for many working mothers but also to help sustain the economy and birth rate in the United States.
We are the only industrialized country in the world with no paid leave, and childcare access can be unaffordable for many working families.
We need to work towards a new shift in favor of working mothers in the US.
Women are not the same as men–the reality is that we need more considerations in the workplace so we can thrive, not dive.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.