Quick Ways to Reduce Stress (and Get Back to Giving Your Best)

Declining public trust, political polarization, and tightening resources are reshaping the daily challenges faced by public employees. Local government work carries unique pressures.

From filling potholes to shaping policy, the work of local government is highly visible and the impacts on individuals and neighborhoods are immediate. This makes the work deeply meaningful, but it can also intensify public scrutiny and self-imposed pressure.

Learning to grapple gracefully with work stressors can not only result in better service, it can also boost job performance, increase work satisfaction, and support personal well-being.

There are many ways to flex our resilience muscles, perform under pressure, and grow our capacity to experience stress as ‘eustress’—a positive, motivating force. Below you’ll find a variety of practical tips to apply in any role.

Start with a Strong Foundation

Our ability to navigate stress begins long before we feel the pressures of work. Daily habits and preparation can serve as strong foundation for personal well-being and resilience.

Fundamental Fuel

The healthy habits of sleep, exercise, and a nutritious diet are essential to a long-term resilience building practice. When life’s curveballs disrupt them, take note of what is missing.

Even small steps to bridge the gap—like time for a quick walk outside, a healthy snack, or a power nap (less than 30 minutes to avoid the pitfalls of sleep inertia)—can be effective.

The Power of Play

Recovery doesn’t always mean rest and retreat. Play—whether through humor, hobbies, or joyful activities—is proven to reduce stress and sharpen our thinking, including creativity and problem-solving.

The best news? Play looks different for grown-ups, so find what reenergizes you and be available for it.

Build Your Bench

Supportive peers are invaluable in hard situations, even if just to empathize. Build and nurture a circle of friends or colleagues and know you are not alone when a time of need arises. Still building your network? Consider joining a professional association.

Plan for Pressure

Whether it is due to a looming deadline, heavy workload, big presentation, or high-stakes meeting, anticipate stressful days and pre-load some resilience tools. Begin the day with a confidence-boosting quote, “armor up” by wearing something that reminds you of someone supportive, queue up an encouraging email from a colleague or mentor, or take a moment to visualize how you will successfully manage a difficult moment.

To help recoup after an anticipated hard conversation, consider proactively scheduling time on your calendar to reflect and reset.

Skill Up!

Stress often stems from stretching significantly outside our comfort zone. We can grow our comfort zone and more readily rise to the challenge by expanding our skills and knowledge. Whether it is dealing with a difficult customer encounter or contributing to a discussion on form of government, MRSC offers training and the resources to help you learn and build your confidence.

Managing Mindset

To paraphrase ultrarunner Scott Jurek, we all carry burdens; some we carry lightly and some with great effort. A great deal of the time, the difference in how we ‘carry our burdens’ is mindset.

Growth Mindset

By some studies, perfectionism has increased 40% since 1980. Instead of driving us to do better, perfectionism can cause added anxiety, self-doubt, and stress.

Alternatively, adopting a growth mindset—a belief that we can develop our abilities over time through challenges, learning from mistakes, and personal effort—can increase performance  and resilience in the face of tension and obstacles.

Mindfulness and Meditation Practices

There has been a growing buzz around mindfulness over the last two decades and for good reason—a growing number of scientific studies have confirmed significant benefits, including reduced stress, decreased anxiety, increased focus and self-awareness, improved memory, and more with as little as 13 minutes practice per day.

Rightsizing Urgency

On top of daily work, public service often comes with constant demands: Incoming emails, chat messages, telephone calls, dispatcher requests, or pressing constituent concerns—all of which can seem dire. While urgency can drive productivity, when unmanaged it can cause burnout, unnecessary mistakes, or reduced collaboration.

When we recognize that we are experiencing unhealthy levels of urgency or overwhelm, we can reset with empathy—for yourself and others. It can be as simple as a reassuring affirmation (“I am one human doing the best I can with the time I have”).

In situations with others, we can practice empathizing with their experience and needs without taking on their emotions and urgency as our own.

Choosing Abundance

An abundance mindset, as coined by Stephen Covey, is believing that there are enough resources and opportunity for everyone. It can alleviate stress caused by a sense of scarcity and prevent us from making choices that don’t help us in the long term.

 Instead of fighting over resources, recognition, or opportunity out of the sense that there is only so much to go around, an abundance mindset can prime us for collaboration, help us see greater possibility, and allow us to problem-solve with less stress. This mindset can be grown by paying attention to your thoughts, practicing gratitude, choosing collaborative projects and spaces, and finding big and small ways to support others.

In the Moment

In our work or personal lives, there are times that call us to step up in a hard moment to be our best selves. While the right response to stress will be different in any given situation, these ideas are a starting place for how to rise up in a difficult situation.

Breathe

Deep, slow breathing can relax the nervous system. Even better: It is discreet and only takes a moment.

Navy SEALs practice a specific technique known as ‘Box breathing.’ To try it, inhale for four counts, hold for four counts, exhale for four counts, and hold again for four—effectively ‘drawing’ a box with your breath.

Pause

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

While questions remain about the origin of this quote, a moment of pause can be powerful. A ‘pause’ can look quite different depending on circumstances, such as a deep breath before answering a question in a public meeting, stepping away for a quick moment of privacy, or asking for time to reflect before returning to a hard conversation.

Press the Reset Button

In the book Micro-Resilience: Minor Shifts for Major Boosts in Focus, Drive, and Energy, authors Bonnie St. John and Allen P. Haines recommend a “joy kit” to serve as emotional first aid.

To create your joy kit, prep a variety of immediately accessible options proven to soothe: This could be physical or digital—joyful photos of your pet, an energizing fragrance, a favorite dance song, a stress relief or fidget toy, a series of memes that never fail to make you laugh, or an email from a friend or mentor sharing just the right reassurance.

Access your joy kit anytime you need a mood boost or a shift in perspective.

Conclusion

Experiencing stress is not all bad news—it is a sign that we are stretching, growing, and striving. Building resilience is a muscle we can flex and grow. When we do, it can expand our “window of tolerance,” allowing us to stay grounded, balanced, and effective in a broader range of situations.

These tools are not just about avoiding burnout, they allow us to show up as our best selves, make thoughtful decisions, and be better collaborators. By investing in your resilience, you can continue to serve your community with clarity, compassion, and excellence.