The Serious Work of Navigating Emotional Ups and Downs

Proactive Approaches to Keep Your Mental Health on Track

Good news: Folks are feeling a bit better these days! According to a recent Gallup poll, negative emotions are on a positive turn. But just because things are looking up doesn’t mean we should ignore our emotional well-being. It’s still crucial to take proactive steps to manage our emotions and maintain a healthy balance.

In this edition of TL;dr, we’re sharing key insights on taking care of our mental health and why it’s more important than ever. Here are three articles that offer valuable perspectives on how to handle anger, reduce burnout, and use creativity to combat anxiety.

Burnout among government workers is decreasing but still high, according to new pulse survey data

Route Fifty reports on recent survey data indicating that while burnout among government workers is decreasing, it remains a significant issue. The article discusses factors contributing to burnout and highlights the importance of ongoing support and interventions to sustain workforce well-being.

1. Current Burnout Rates: The survey shows a persistent high level of burnout, underscoring the need for continuous efforts to address it. “Forty-one percent of government workers surveyed in a February poll said they felt burnt out, which is a 24% decrease from roughly two years ago. Similarly, the poll found that 45% of U.S. employees in general reported feeling burnt out at work the same month.” 

2. Contributing Factors: Many government employees cite excessive demands and insufficient support as key reasons for their stress and exhaustion. “For government workers — which includes those at the federal, state and local levels — 48% of those experiencing burnout said a main cause is workload. This was followed by staff shortages and managing personal and professional life, both at 44%.”

3. Importance of Interventions: Programs aimed at workload management, mental health support, and resource allocation can make a significant difference in mitigating burnout. “The majority of public employee respondents reported that increased flexibility, a four-day work week, decreased workload, better health and wellness benefits and working from home would alleviate their stress.”

Melissa Jezior, CEO of Arlington-based firm Eagle Hill Consulting, which sponsors the twice annual pulse survey, stresses the need to get to root causes. “I think that when government workers, in particular, are burnt out, they’re less productive, less engaged and less innovative, and they’re also more likely to leave their jobs, especially given that the opportunities in the private sector typically offer more pay.” 

Anger does more damage to your body than you realize

This article from the Wall Street Journal details the harmful effects of anger on both physical and mental health. Chronic anger can lead to serious health problems like heart disease, compromised immune function, and increased risk of stroke. The piece also offers practical advice on managing anger to maintain overall well-being.

1. Impact on Physical Health: Anger triggers a cascade of stress hormones, raising blood pressure and heart rate, which can damage arteries over time and lead to cardiovascular issues. “We speculate over time if you’re getting these chronic insults to your arteries because you get angry a lot, that will leave you at risk for having heart disease,” says Dr. Daichi Shimbo, a professor of medicine at Columbia University. Additionally, prolonged anger can weaken the immune system, making you more susceptible to infections and illnesses.

2. Impact on Mental Health: The emotional toll of anger can deepen existing mental health problems, creating a vicious cycle of negative emotions and mental strain. High levels of stress hormones can damage nerve cells in the brain’s prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus, says Joyce Tam, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Damage in the prefrontal cortex can affect decision-making, attention and executive function, she adds.

3. Managing Anger: Practical strategies for anger management, such as mindfulness, physical activity, and professional counseling, can help reduce the frequency and intensity of anger episodes. Don’t stuff it. Instead of yelling at a family member when you’re angry or slamming something down, say, “I am angry because X, Y and Z, and therefore I don’t feel like eating with you or I need a hug or support,” suggests Stephen Lupe, director of behavioral medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. “Slow the process down.”

The Tchaikovsky Cure for Worry: If you have anxiety, or simply want a greater sense of well-being, getting creative is just about the best thing you can do.

In this article from The Atlantic, Arthur C. Brooks gets right to the point:

The 19th-century Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky—still popular today for such works as The Nutcracker and the 1812 Overture—was not a happy man. In his 5,365 extant letters to friends and family, we find constant references to his sadness and unremitting anxiety. Over and over, he wrote versions of the line: “I suffered incredibly from depression and hatred for the human race.”

Brooks shares how engaging in creative activities can alleviate anxiety and enhance well-being. The piece illustrates how creativity can serve as a powerful tool for managing stress and promoting mental health. “At a time when mood disorders are exploding and less than a third of U.S. adults believe that they are living up to their creative potential, this might be the simplest, easiest, and most natural way for anyone to improve their life.”

1. Creativity as a Stress Reliever: Engaging in artistic activities helps divert focus from worries, providing a therapeutic outlet for emotions. Not an artist or creative type? No worries. “Creativity is not about being artistically accomplished or professional. On the contrary, the benefits may be greatest if you are a beginner … Don’t know how to paint? All the better.”

2. Modern Evidence: Scientific research supports the idea that artistic expression can boost mood, reduce stress, and improve overall mental health. “In specific experiments, psychologists have found that among people experiencing anxiety and depression, painting lowers symptoms—hence art therapy. Similarly, researchers have shown that poetry therapy, which involves writing and reading poems, can reduce anxiety and post-traumatic-stress symptoms in patients. Other studies have found that simply working on creative solutions to common problems can relieve psychological burdens.”

3. How It Works: Brooks cites a 2015 study by neuroscientists who observed people as they wrote poetry. “The researchers found that during the idea-generation phase of writing, the medial prefrontal cortex (which is associated with mind-wandering) is especially active. This is the same part of the brain that is activated during meditation, which suggests that creative activity might have some of the same analgesic effects on stress as contemplative exercises do—thus why some anxious people routinely use it to treat themselves.”

In Other’s Words

From productivity author James Clear.

You don’t need to worry about progressing slowly. You need to worry about climbing the wrong mountain.

Washington Post columnist George Will on the power of optimism (from a June 7 podcast interview with Andrew Sullivan).

When people are cheerful, good things happen. They stay in school, they get married, they have children, they invest. They impart energy because they are interested in and more or less confident about the future.

Author, journalist and podcaster Walter Kirn posted about one of our generation’s enduring mysteries.

I’ve spent over a year studying “ufo culture” and concluded that it is largely the product of a long, elaborate disinformation program hiding heaven only knows what. (Possibly something quite prosaic.) The swirling theories that energize this culture likely were launched, promoted, and monitored by folks with selfish interests in the matter who specialize in protecting prized secrets by weaponizing our desire to seek the truth and playing to our egotistical craving to know more than others. I’m confident these same techniques are used to camouflage other secrets and that the likelihood of defeating them is, at least in the short and medium terms, vanishingly low. It seems to me that as a practical matter we must learn to live in relative ignorance on all sorts of very important topics involving powerful institutional actors. We also must, I think, resist engaging in heated conflicts over solutions to these mysteries, in which we can have little or no confidence. (It might even be that an air of general uncertainty and the behaviors which result from it are useful in themselves as ways of attempting to manage the masses.) These conclusions bother me — I too am an egotistical puzzle-solver — but, for the moment, I see no way around them.

  Onward and Upward.