This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 109, How to Talk About Stress in English.
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Hello, Michelle. How's everything going in your world? everything is good here oh man though i feel like there's you know stress in the air you feel stressed at all lindsay there's a little stress in the air yeah i've been prepping for my trip uh to egypt and i've had some family things going on this week it all comes it all happens at the same time michelle When it rains, it pours, right?
That's the expression. Oh, it's so true.
But the reality is, is that we still have to work.
When things happen in our lives, we still have our work lives, right?
Right, exactly. And you kind of have to pull yourself together for work.
And I think everybody has gone through that where some things may be going on in your personal life or maybe you are stressed about work, whatever it is.
But do you think it's okay to express that you feel stress in the workplace or does it show weakness?
What do you think? I think it depends on how you do it.
I think it depends on how you do it. Yeah, I think people, especially these days, will give you a lot of latitude if you're going through something in your personal life.
At the same time, you want to make sure people know you're going to, you know, they'll give you some space and then you're also going to get stuff done later.
Like it's going to happen. You know what I mean?
It's okay. They can trust you. Does that make any sense?
Yeah. yeah i think you know it's okay to show like a vulnerability but yeah you don't want to make it seem that then you can't handle your obligations and things like that so yeah yeah um so i mean what do you do lindsay when you feel stressed i mean i know you've been big into yoga and things like that is there anything specific that you do lately when you feel stressed i think just getting outside in the fresh air taking a walk with my dog hanging out with my dog he is so playful he loves to play and i just picked him up from the uh doggy daycare because i was in la last weekend picked him up and brought him home and he's go he goes to get his cookie wants to play with the cookie the little toy he's just he's all about playing he's got a very high play drive for dogs and yeah just play with my dog go outside take a walk maybe go for a jog yeah That's nice.
That's nice. Yeah. When I feel stressed, honestly, I sometimes I also also walking does help me a lot, like not walking with my children.
That's stressful. But just walking, if I were to take a walk by myself, that would reduce my stress.
And I don't know, honestly, like the least stressful time, the time when I release my stress is late at night when everybody goes to sleep and I can just sit there and be like, person.
And so that's it. Yeah. So I feel like that time is like my my time of peace.
But yeah, you're kind of more of a night owl, right?
You're a night owl. That's when you recharge, would you say?
Yes, I need that time. I need that time at night.
And sometimes when Dan stays up late, I'm like, can you go to sleep?
Because it's like, I need it by myself. Like I need I'm like, you know, I just like me.
Yeah, even just like a half an hour just like by myself.
So if ever he stays up later than usual, I'm like, I'm It's time to go to bed.
Don't you have to go to sleep? Isn't it past your bedtime?
Yeah, this literally just happened last night.
But today we're going to talk about this feeling of stress and ways you can describe it, things that you can do, because this is part of life, like we always talk about on this show, guys.
Business English, like just because we're talking about business English doesn't mean we aren't human, right?
So stress enters the workplace. So we want to talk about that in English.
So guys, just another one to listen to is over on the All Ears English podcast.
Episode 1217 is Don't Dwell On It. How to respond appropriately when someone is stressed in English.
So go listen to that one. yeah guys if you're not following all ears english podcast as well you must follow that show so find that podcast all ears english and hit follow and find that episode good stuff yes yes yes all right so what's something that you can say about stress Well, Michelle, the most common thing that you hear everyone saying is I'm so stressed out.
I'm so stressed out. That's the number one way that native speakers are going to talk about having stress or to be under stress.
You know, for example, I'm so stressed out right now or I'm under a lot of stress right now. and another thing is you can say is carrying the weight of the world now that one's a little bit fancier right it's like you know the world is on your shoulders um so i'm carrying the weight of the world right now or you can say the weight of the world on my shoulders right now actually every night you know the song hey jude by the beatles Yeah, of course.
Who doesn't? Yeah. Well, I sing that to my son every single night.
Amongst the rest of the Beatles collection, we go through four.
We're a Beatles fan. Yeah, he is. So yeah, it's don't carry the world upon your shoulders is one of the quotes, if I'm allowed to say it.
But yeah, that's okay. That's okay. We attribute that to the Beatles.
Yes, that's the Beatles. Yes, not me. I didn't do that one.
But yeah, so that's a good one to use. And then what's another one?
This is another song, actually. Okay. So under pressure.
Is that a song by who? That's Queen and David Bowie.
Oh, yeah. He's under a lot of pressure at school, for example.
Yeah. These are very common expressions.
And the next one I especially love because it's very...
It's also super common, a lot on your plate.
Do you have a lot on your plate? Now, Michelle, are we talking about, you know, we just went to a buffet and we filled up our plate with a lot of food?
No, not literally. A lot on your plate. can mean that you have a lot going on, a lot of stress.
So it's just kind of an expression, an idiom that we use.
And we talked about this in episode 1921, which was Of Allers English, okay?
Pesky prepositions of place in English grammar in, on, or at.
So we talked about that there. Yeah. Yeah.
OK, that's good. Yeah. I mean, in times when people might say this, I mean, people have said this about me recently.
I'm helping my aunt with her things and helping my parents with their things.
And then you have a dog. I don't have kids right now.
So that's a whole thing. It might seem very light.
I can't imagine right now having kids on top of that.
Right. So you just there are times in our lives when we have a lot of responsibilities.
Right. That's a lot on your plate. Right, right, right.
So you could say she's got a lot on her plate, but I'm sure she will call you back later.
Yeah, I like that. I like that. Lindsay, do you think people have a harder time handling stress in today's society?
Or you kind of mentioned you feel like there might be some more leeway at work.
Tell us more about that. well i think people at least in american business culture are becoming a little bit more empathetic to each other i think you know through the pandemic the black lives matter movement just everything i think we became a little bit more aware as a society you know i think our consciousness level was raised it was increased um so i think more so now than let's say the 80s or the 70s where people would just want you to just leave it at home it's your it's your home business But I think the problem now, Michelle, is that people go to the wrong things to relieve stress.
They go to the news, like, let me read the New York Times, read the stressful article about Donald Trump running again.
Right? That's, that's where I think I'm going to go to relieve stress, but it's not going to work.
It's going to be more stressed out. Right.
There are so many distractions nowadays and so many interesting things going on.
You might think, oh, you're relieving stress because people, people might think that they're relieving stress just because they're not doing work.
Right. But that doesn't mean you're relieving stress.
Just not like not doing work doesn't equal zero stress.
So. yeah yes there was actually an article just i was just reading last night an article about resilience in harvard business review that talked exactly about this and they said that people don't recharge in the right way so they might recharge they think they're taking a break by going to social media going to the newspaper but these things actually wind them up more going to cnn which is a weird mix of entertainment and news now right right Yeah.
Have you seen CNN at night lately? It's like there's always different hosts.
I have. I saw it last night. I'm doing the wrong thing.
We just always laugh because we're like, what is going on over there?
And then there have been shakeups in the news.
Anyway. There have been. Oh my gosh. There's been a lot of things going on lately.
Lots of things. Very interesting. But yeah, that's not true recharging.
And a true recharging is going for a walk in the woods.
Like I said, playing with my dog, disconnecting to technology.
And we really need that to be resilient as workers and people, right?
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Exclusions apply. See details online. Okay, Michelle, are we gonna get into a few other ideas on this same note?
You know, what can we do? What do we recommend?
What are some other things we could do? Yeah, well, good things to do to handle stress.
I know meditation, Lindsay, you have a lot of experience with meditation, right?
Do you feel that that has helped you? Yes, I do think it's helped.
However, when it comes to meditation, when I'm really wound up and that's a good expression to be wound up, right?
When you really, really, maybe you just got some news about something and you're just really high, strong in that moment.
I can't go straight to meditation because it's like asking your brain to go from a thousand miles an hour to zero.
It's just not going to happen. And so I use meditation as more of a daily habit in the everyday moments, not when I'm stressed, just whatever.
It's part of my day. And then that makes it easier for me to react when there is a stressful thing.
Because you're practiced. Because you're practiced.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I really, I should meditate.
It's always something like I've tried it and I'm not very good at quieting the thoughts and I don't have the patience for it.
You're shitting all over yourself again, Michelle.
Remember that expression we talked about on All Ears English, I think.
Don't should all over yourself. No shoulding, no should.
No should. Don't use should because maybe someday you will, maybe you won't, but you have your own things you do, right?
What do you do? How do you relieve stress?
Probably in all the wrong ways that you were just listing.
So I mean, I'm learning something from today's episode and what you said about recharging in the wrong way.
I mean, now when I'm reflecting on the way that I recharge, it's Definitely all wrong.
Like, it's totally wrong. I mean, yeah, sometimes I just watch a TV show that I like.
I really like Ted Lasso. And yeah, but yeah, certainly it's like it shouldn't be just at night.
Now I'm like, look, I'm staring. I mean, my TV is off, but I'm just like being drawn to it.
You know, I do. I do read articles. I do, you know, end up looking things up about current events.
And yeah, I think I need to learn more like about how to recharge in a better way. yeah well maybe you know i'm always craving an activity that requires full immersion so maybe your meditation could actually be because meditation is really just steadying the mind and the problem i have which is going to the gym and walking on the treadmill is my mind is still going or i have cnn on right maybe or my mind is just still going so it's really not a release of stress that much instead i you know some taking up something like cooking you know cooking where actually i'm not very good at it so i have to be fully immersed to follow the menu Or capoeira, where I'm still learning, so I have to know where to put that foot, where to put that arm, do this flip, right?
Something that requires presence. Right.
And yeah, that's true. I do find like, I guess for some people, it may be might be working on a puzzle.
You know, like, maybe that's what people like to knit, things like that, where you just have to focus on doing that thing.
Actually, that's why sometimes you and I have said that recording is a stress relief.
Because we can't, I mean, your brain can only focus on that.
Like you can't think of anything else. Yeah.
So podcasting, we can recommend to our listeners.
Podcasting is hot, guys. You know, so start your own podcast.
It's true. We are actually this is actually for us a centering activity because there's a lot going on in my life right now.
But I really can't think about those things and I don't want to.
I need this break. So I'm going to come out of our recording session today feeling refreshed. right so it is kind of we're lucky in that way that parts of our work are actually stressed we are lucky yeah that's amazing I love that yeah so should we go into a role play for our listeners yes so we've done a few expressions today so let's go for it so um we are friends talk we are work friends talking about life okay here we go Go for it.
Oh, it's me. Here we go. I'm really under a lot of stress at work.
Oh, me too. It's busy season. I'm under pressure too.
Yeah, there's a lot on my plate. Same. I feel like I'm carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders these days.
Wow. You know, there are some careers, though, that carry more weight than others.
Right. You know, for example, lawyers, trial lawyers.
Yeah. Imagine that. Right. Or or even doctors.
That's what I was thinking about. I mean, like think about during the global health crisis, all the health care workers.
You know, so sometimes, you know, when something stresses me out, I would not be good in those industries.
I'll just say that much. Okay, good to know.
Good to know. Me neither, to be honest. I don't work great under pressure like that.
But let's go through this because I love these examples, Michelle.
They're very typical on how we use stress as a word.
The first one, you said, I'm really under a lot of stress at work.
Very clear. Yeah. Yep. And then you said, I'm under pressure too.
And then you said, there's a lot on my plate.
Yeah. Same. I feel like I'm carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders.
That's very wordy, guys, but give it a try.
And I would say our listeners, you guys might want to reserve that phrase for some very heavy things.
Yes. yeah not for like oh just like there's a lot going on that day and like yeah yeah yeah for something pretty heavy i would say i agree heavier things you know life death decisions um that's what you want to reserve that for because if we don't save certain phrases for bigger moments we don't have anything right our words don't really mean anything they all lose meaning right right right right yeah it can't be that everything has that same stressful weight like not everything is the same so you want to reserve some you got it michelle what's the takeaway for our listeners today All right.
Well, we talked about how we can be stressed out and we gave expressions to deal with that.
And we talked about some of our tips or things that you can do.
And guys, this really, like we said, the business world, I mean, this is human connection.
So we want to be in our best state of mind for our personal lives, but also so that we can succeed at work and make sure that we still accomplish what we need to do.
So we talked a little bit also about how um maybe the workplace is changing a little bit and the viewpoints on stress and you know really mental health in general so i i agree that it's changing so yeah any anything else you want to bring up lindsay yeah i would say to our listeners guys if you have a follow-up question because i feel like we kind of just opened this topic with some broad phrases but what do we say next you know where do we go from here do we need to ask for some time off?
Is it something very serious? Like, was there a death in the family?
Or is it just that you need a little latitude?
What are some things that we could say next?
That's what I feel like could be a great follow-up episode, Michelle, on this topic.
But if you guys have specific questions, we'll just have them send them straight to you, Michelle.
So Michelle at allearsenglish.com, and she will get that episode set up for you guys.
Please send them my way. All right. Good stuff, Michelle.
Thanks for hanging out with me on the mic today in our little meditation slash podcast recording.
Thank you, Lindsay. I'm feeling refreshed and recharged.
Guys, thanks for listening. Take care, Michelle.
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