Get yourself psyched up for the big return

After months on furlough or working from home, heading back to the office could be a stressful experience. Put your mind at ease with these tips

You groan as the alarm clock obnoxiously tears through your sleep. Your skin crawls as you let out a loud and stagnant yawn. The kitchen floor chills your feet as you gaze at a boiling kettle. Is this sounding all too familiar? If so, you might be glad that it’s time to return to the office after months away.

While large parts of the industry have been busy in workshops and showrooms throughout the pandemic, for many the months have been spent at home, either working at the kitchen table or furloughed and wondering what the future holds. There’s bound to be some anxiety floating around.

Uncertainty of this kind triggers a fear response in our brains. Cortisol is released and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (the fight-or-flight system) is engaged, which builds our sense of anxiety.

What we need to do, then, is develop a psychological process for the management of this response, first by acknowledging that the return to work could be overwhelming and then by looking for the positives in it.

Of mice and men

We can’t manage an emotion if we simply deny its existence. Italian scientists proved this using a series of experiments that involved exposing mice to stress and pressure. The scientists then examined their brains and found that the most resilient mice had more synaptic connections to their emotional centres. Essentially, the more aware they were of their emotions, the more resilient they were in stressful scenarios.

The same is true in humans. Accept that you’re feeling stressed about returning to work and we can deal with it. Deny that you’re feeling a certain way and it’ll only get worse.

Just consciously acknowledge how you are feeling – as in, right now. Done it? Good, now we can move on to the next step.

Look on the bright side

When we have a thought, neurons transfer information to adjoining neurons via neurotransmitters. This is the basis of all thought. Fundamentally, thoughts are just a pattern of neurons communicating via chemical and electrical signals; sometimes moving across entire departments of the brain, sometimes instigating further thought, sometimes instigating motor neurons to trigger a physical movement.

The more a neural pattern is used, the better it gets at performing this messenger service, making it more efficient and accessible.

This is effectively what learning is. Unfortunately, this also applies to negative thoughts and behaviours too.

The more you think and behave negatively, the easier it is to do so. Thought process and behavioural patterns can actually perpetuate each other, so the more you think negatively, the more you’ll behave negatively and the more they’ll instigate each other. In layman’s terms, the more you sigh and whinge, the more you will whinge and sigh.

So, let’s put this two-fold defence to good use against the return-to-work worry. First, let’s acknowledge that it is overwhelming, stressful, worrying and a lot of change, and then let’s start to look for the positives within it. You’ll be able to reconnect with those colleagues you haven’t seen for a long time, for example. You’ll pursue work projects more efficiently too. You could even develop a new, healthier lifestyle on your commute. The positives are almost endless.

The main point is simple really: the more you smile and laugh, the more you will laugh and smile.

James Elliott is a military mental resilience coach

This is an edited extract from IMI's new MotorPro magazine, received free as part of IMI membership. Time to find out more about becoming a member of the most influential community in UK automotive…?