How to Practice Self-Care in Uncertain Times

Self-care is necessary to manage stress and prevent burnout at work. Practice mindfulness and grounding techniques to keep your mind present instead of focusing on anxiety and stress. Employers should create an environment that encourages self-care by providing resources and educating employees on what these resources do.

By Lora Korpar

Caring for your mental health is vital for your personal and professional life. We must know how to care for bodies and minds when the labor market is unpredictable.

Amid increased layoffs, inflation, and a possible recession, stress and burnout are more likely to take over.

Though the COVID-19 pandemic uncovered a need for self-care, it did not stick for everyone. A 2020 survey by OnePoll found that 70% of Americans were more conscious of needing self-care that year. However, a 2022 OnePoll survey of 2,000 Americans found that respondents only felt relaxed for about 40 minutes per day. 

“When we don't take care of ourselves, when we don't manage our stress, the part of our brain that's responsible for thinking, learning, listening, and language — everything that we need to be successful — gets compromised under lots of stress because we go into survival mode,” said Amanda Muhammad, a stress management and psychological safety consultant. “So we want to make sure that we have tools and resources in place to manage our stress.”

Everyone’s mental health journey is different, but a consistent self-care routine is beneficial no matter who you are.

How to Practice Mindfulness Self-Care at Work 

Mindfulness is the practice of finding awareness in your body and brain. Stress can cause you to think about a million things at once. Mindfulness slows thoughts and encourages you to enjoy the moment. 

“I call it ‘power pausing’ because it isn't necessarily about taking a break, but it's about taking a breath and just checking in with ourselves for a moment saying, ‘Hey, how am I doing in there? And how can I use that to think better, to engage better, to make better decisions? How can I use how I feel to inform me rather than continuously dismissing myself?’” said Jeanette Bronée, a keynote speaker and author on self-care.

Find a moment during work to pause and practice whichever mindfulness technique works best for you. Maybe you like to meditate. Or you might need to take a short walk.

“I have a couple of meditation books that I read daily,” said Elena Mnayarji, a mental health advocate and account development representative for the Calm app. “It takes me two minutes. I'll get myself some hot tea, a candle, and then if I have time, I just sit and be for a couple minutes. I can always feel the difference in my brain.” 

Many grounding techniques are available to help you focus on the moment. It can be as simple as naming countries or focusing on random objects in the room. Grounding techniques might seem silly, but they can help break you out of an anxiety or stress spiral.

Muhammad recommends practicing mindful breathing and stretching. Deep breathing is another way to ground you when stress is high.

“I'm always going to recommend breathing exercises and movement because they're so accessible. These are things that you can do right before a meeting [or] in the middle of a meeting. No one even has to know that you're doing it,” Muhammad said. “Ideally, we want to have these tools already being practiced so that when something pops up, we already have something that we can revert back to.

“If you've ever been stressed and somebody's like, ‘You should do a breathing exercise,’ you probably looked at them and asked ‘Are you serious right now? What is breathing going to do for me?’ But when you've already been practicing things like breathing exercises and moving your body to dissolve the tension and the stress that's just sitting in your body, then your brain can actually find it as a resource.” 

What Are Self-Care Techniques for Uncertain Times?

Mindfulness and taking breaks are not the only ways to practice self-care. Taking care of your body is just as essential as caring for the mind, so don’t forget to eat well, sleep well, and exercise.

 Our internal dialogue can also be a form of self-care. Stressful situations like layoffs can cause negative self-talk. You might feel like you’re not good enough to keep your job. Nip this internal dialogue in the bud.

“Self-care is a conversation we have with ourselves,” Bronée said. “All day long we ask ourselves questions, and most of those questions tend to be ‘why not’ questions. ‘Why is this not working? Why am I not this?’ If we can pause those internal questions and make them more constructive and focus on the problems and what we need so we can solve the problems, then we can start using our ability to care and focus with intention in a more constructive, productive way.”

Acknowledging your feelings and the fact that you have agency over your mindset will give you more power over your mental health. 

“You need to wrap yourself in relentless kindness and compassion for your situation, for the fact that you've tried and gotten this far, and feel the emotions of uncertainty and anxiety through your body so that you can thoroughly overcome that,” Mnayarji said. “You can't move on if you haven't fully felt through it.” 

Finding control in situations where you don’t have much will make you feel better.

“We spend a lot of time wishing something was different, [saying] ‘if only’ and so on,” Bronée said. “But we're actually fighting against the current when we do that. So we can [try to] accept the circumstance for what it is… For example, there is a risk I will be laid off and then we can ask ourselves, ‘What do I need so that I can gain more confidence in my position? Who do I need to talk to? What are some of the things that I can do in preparation if I do get laid off?’ So instead of sitting back and being nervous over something we can't control, what are some of the small things we can control?”

How Employers Can Encourage Self-Care at Work 

The employer also has a role to play in encouraging self-care at work. 

Give your employees a break when they need one, and provide resources to help them work through stress and burnout.

“Change the culture,” Mnayarji said. “And that's step-by-step — it's not an overnight fix. Leadership has to really be on board or else it's just shouting into an empty chamber. And leadership has to practice what they preach when it comes to PTO, breaks throughout the day, and working hours.” 

Don’t be afraid to ask employees what they need, especially if a stressful deadline is approaching. 

“Start having some conversation about that,” Bronée said. “Then it makes it normal that we have to take care of ourselves to be busy instead of saying, ‘All right, we can't do any self-care next week because we're going to be so busy with this deadline, so we're going to just have to wait.’  That is not the way we create a sustainable culture. That is a message that self-care is an inconvenience rather than a really foundational way that we make sure that we can think with right intent, really be present, and do our best work.”

Don’t just tell employees which resources they have available. Tell them why they are available and how they help. 

“Instead of just saying it and letting it go in one ear and out the other, actually provide resources that supplement the learning so the employees actually understand what that looks like,” Muhammad said. “Yes, of course, [breathing exercises] feel good, but do you understand how important it is to practice these things consistently?

“I'd also have to say from an employer and leadership standpoint, it's actually about practicing them yourself. A lot of times it can be easy to tell people what to do, but we're not modeling it… We want to lead by example as much as we can.” 

Top Takeaways

Self-Care Tips for Uncertain Times

• Self-care gives employees the foundation they need to prevent stress and burnout, but it requires consistency.
• Mindfulness techniques like meditation and grounding help you focus on the moment instead of what is stressing you.
• Your internal dialogue is a form of self-care, so be kind to yourself.
• Encourage self-care in the workplace by asking employees what they need, providing resources, and telling them the resources’ purpose.