How HR Professionals Can Counter the Unspoken Consequences of COVID-19 Stress

Why do you do the things you do? Let’s explore the motives at the heart of your career choice.

You, like many human resources professionals, probably chose to work in the field for one or more of the following reasons:

• To be a positive influence on others,
• To realize personal satisfaction from changing lives, or
• To invest in professionally developing the people around you.

HR professionals foster relationships and seek out ways to partner with organizational leaders to improve processes and move the organization toward reaching its objectives. They also love helping employees reach their fullest potential, and they step up to advocate for diversity, inclusion and employees’ rights.

HR practitioners tend have an innate thirst to help others, to think in terms of making progress and to thrive in ever-changing environments. Those traits align with the day-to-day functions of an organization’s business unit tasked with making things better—human resources.

Feeling the satisfaction of implementing a new strategy to help employees develop as team members or of introducing a new benefits package to boost employee recruitment and retention generates renewable energy and enthusiasm for HR professionals. Simply stated, there is a natural high that comes from working with people to achieve goals, which is what HR professionals do best.

Powered by such intentions and outcomes, the HR business unit functioned like a fine-tuned engine for decades. Then March 2020 arrived to present U.S. employers with uncharted challenges. For nearly two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has tested HR professionals by straining values, beliefs and resilience.

If you are reading this, you likely endured hardships such as losing loved ones, juggling multiple stressors of daily life, and feeling uncertain about your safety at work and the health of the employees you serve.

Stressful events or conditions automatically trigger a fight, flee or freeze response. The process happens so naturally, people do not even notice it.

When external and internal stressors never abate, individuals’ minds, bodies and spirits deteriorate, leaving people feeling unhealthy and disjointed. The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unending stressor, targeting the most basic human needs for safety, physical well-being and mental and emotional security.

HR professionals have been especially prone to suffering the negative consequences of pandemic stress. We entered this field because we like helping others, but we are not so good at helping ourselves.

Now, imagine you are on a plane and listening to the flight attendant going through the preflight safety briefing. “In the event of an emergency,” you hear, “an oxygen mask will drop from the panel above your head.”

You tune out the flight attendant and miss the instruction, “If you are traveling with small children or others who may need assistance, put on your own mask first before assisting your child or companion.”

Those mere seconds of inattention set the stage for a calamity. Nothing could be more important than remembering you will not be of much assistance to anyone else if you neglect your own fundamental need to breathe.

So, as you continue aiding employees, grab an oxygen mask and put it on! Literally, how is your breathing at this moment? Take a minute to perform a quick self-check. During times of stress, worry and fear, people tend to hold their breath.

Now, what about your body? Notice any tension in your neck and shoulders? How is your posture?

What thoughts are currently lingering in your mind? How do you feel overall?

Taking time to make note of your sensations, emotions and thoughts builds your self-awareness. As your self-awareness grows, so does your conscious knowledge of your character, motives and desires.

As you work on achieving full self-awareness, experiment with the following exercises designed to reduce stress.

Practice Conscious Breathing

On average, a person breathes in and out 20,000 times a day. Conscious breathing, or becoming aware of one’s breath, can aid with stress reduction and self-regulation. More broadly, the goal of improving breathing is to build mindfulness.

Start practicing conscious breathing by finding a position of ease and comfort. Unfocus or close your eyes and think about how you are taking in and expelling air. Slow your breathing and transition to taking breaths that are a little longer and slower than you might normally take.

Shift to inhaling and exhaling through your nose for counts of 4 or 6 until you find a natural rhythm that works for you. When you are ready, return your awareness to your surroundings and welcome the new moment. This exercise can be repeated multiple times a day.

Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the basic human ability to connect with one’s thoughts, physical sensations and emotions to become fully aware of where one is and what one is doing in the present moment. Everyone possesses this ability, and cultivating it helps people respond skillfully to stressful situations without overreacting or becoming overwhelmed.

Formal mediation techniques can increase mindfulness. Informally, mindfulness can come into play as one listens, eats or walks.

Mindfulness can be practiced at any moment throughout any day. Pausing and concentrating on one’s breathing is a good way to enter a state of mindfulness and to live life intentionally and authentically.

Laugh

Laughing is our built-in mechanism for handling stress. Stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system, which also controls rest and digestion, triggers laughter. Engage your laugh triggers by watching a comedy show or funny movie, calling a friend or streaming humorous videos on social media. Make time to laugh daily.

Connect With Loved Ones

Humans are social creatures who need to feel connected to one another. Unfortunately, losing connections with the people in our communities can be easy during challenging and uncertain times. Especially during a pandemic that fundamentally changed the ways we interact, maintaining family ties and friendships requires conscious effort.

In a work context, best-selling author Brené Brown recommends conducting emotionally intelligent meetings by starting with a quick two-word feelings check-in. This is a masterful way to ask the question so people give honest answers. The benefits are a sense of inner well-being, authenticity and a sense of connection. Have you checked in with your teammates to ask how they are doing?

Practice Gratitude

Expressing gratitude and appreciation renews the spirit and contributes to a wealth of health benefits. Choose a set time each day to pause and think of something or someone you appreciate. First thing in the morning or just before going to bed at night can be good times for completing this mental and emotional exercise.

Spend the time reflecting on small or big things that make you feel appreciation. Start with just one thing and see what comes up naturally as you commit to exploring what makes you grateful.

During the day, sharing a smile is a simple way to show gratitude. When you smile, you feel good because the act releases dopamine and endorphins, which are natural stress reducers. The person on the receiving end of the smile will also feel good.

To further boost your physical health and clear your mind, take a walk and give yourself mini breaks throughout each workday.

Repeat

Do the exercises outlined above daily until doing them becomes a habit. James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, explains in an online article that it takes two to eight months to seamlessly incorporate a new behavior into your life.

I encourage you to practice self-care by developing habits that help you regulate your conscious and unconscious responses to chronic stress. The care you give yourself today will leverage your longevity tomorrow. You have the power to create your personal path of resilience to meet the needs of your holistic well-being.