Stress affects everyone, and end-of-year stress can be particularly difficult. Many of us are struggling to finish up all our work for the end of the semester, or celebrating holidays and all that comes with it, in addition to dealing with every single other thing that was already driving us crazy all year long! Patrons have less patience, money is suddenly tighter, and all kinds of extra programs can just cause even the best-balanced library person to hit a breaking point.

CMLE is here to help you. This month we will provide all kinds of information about stress, to help you learn more about it, and learn some strategies for managing stress. You cannot stop stress from happening, but we can all learn better ways to increase our resilience so stress does not knock us out!

One easy way to help is to listen to podcasts.

Of course, there are all kinds of librarian podcasts out there, and we recommend those as nice way to keep up with interesting things happening in the profession!

And there are podcasts you can listen to that will help you address your stress in a productive way.

A recent Harvard Business Review podcast talked about Handling Stress in the Moment. “HBR contributing editor Amy Gallo discusses the best tactics to recognize, react to, and recover from stressful situations. She’s a contributor to the “HBR Guide to Managing Stress at Work.””  Amy gives some good advice on handling a stressful situation that pops up right in front of you – always a tough one!

Check out some of the other HBR podcasts that might be helpful for workplace stress-busting ideas, including:

• Re-Orgs Are Emotional “Stephen Heidari-Robinson and Suzanne Heywood, authors of “ReOrg: How to Get It Right” explain how good planning and communication can help employees adapt.”

• Building Emotional Agility “Susan David, author of “Emotional Agility” and psychologist at Harvard Medical School, on learning to unhook from strong feelings.”

• We Can’t Work All the Time “Anne-Marie Slaughter on (finally) bringing sanity to the work/life struggle.”

• Be a Work/Life-Friendly Boss “Managers play a huge role in their employees’ personal lives, which in turn affects productivity, morale, and turnover at work. Professor Scott Behson, author of “The Working Dad’s Survival Guide,” and professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University, gives practical tips for being a leader who is flexible, fair, and effective.

• How to Say No to More Work “Karen Dillon, author of the “HBR Guide to Office Politics”, explains how to gracefully decline excessive projects–and thankless tasks.”

• Being Happier at Work “Emma Seppälä, Stanford researcher and author of “The Happiness Track,” explains the proven benefits of a positive outlook; simple ways to increase your sense of well-being; and why it’s not about being ecstatic or excited all the time.”

You may have read the December Goodreads book “The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun” by Gretchen Rubin. Or you may have read her other books on happiness:

• Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon a Project, Read Samuel Johnson, and My Other Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life
• Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives

Or maybe you read her blog, or listen to her podcasts that she does with her sister.

No matter how you encounter Gretchen’s material, you feel like you know her – like she is a friend who likes to talk about happiness, and wants to give you suggestions on strategies you can use to increase your happiness levels. She won’t make everything perfect for you, but she will encourage you to look at life with a more positive attitude. And just telling everyone that happiness is a worthy goal is a great thing!

Do you have podcasts you like to listen to when you need more happiness or less stress?? Share them in the comments!