Life-work integration reduces work stress

Work-life balance has been a popular buzzword for several decades now, but the concept itself has come under scrutiny in recent years as our interconnected lifestyles have brought to the table various new challenges.

The idea of work-life balance is from the pre-mobile-devices era outdated and is more and more unrealistic without causing stress.

Instead of seeking artificial balance and separating work from personal life, we should be focusing on work-life integration. Looking at life as holistic reduces work stress as your work is no longer pulled out of the rest of your life.

As we have explained in-depth before, work stress is your own adverse inner reactivity. You experience stress when you face stimulating external pressure such as deadlines, challenges and the need to learn new professional skills under a short timeframe.

If you look at your life you can find that many conflicts in it get triggered within your mind due to the need to combine your personal life and work.

When your loved ones put on a pressure to earn more and be there for them at the same time; your work demands doing more, solving bigger challenges and doing it all faster as you don't only compete with your colleagues but also with programs, A.I. and robots.

In that sense need to keep life and work separate and in balance is an approach to building up pressure until your break and burn out.

This is exactly why now it is time to learn how to separate stressors from stress and focus on living a life that matters and contributes without stressing you out burning you out and leading to massive health problems.
 

Simply put, the idea that work and personal life are two separate entities is plain wrong.

We all have one life where all activities are intertwined and should be approached as such.

Work-life integration acknowledges that the demands of work and personal life are constantly evolving and that they can't be siloed off from each other.

Lately, some leaders have been bringing to the table even better and more adequate term life-work integration. We also used those words in that order back in 2020 when opening up work-life integration benefits.

Our life goals should dictate the work we do and define our work patterns so that our individual visions and missions align with what we do for a living. Indeed, this is an even better and more sustainable approach.

One of the key reasons why life-work integration is becoming more popular is that our personal life and work are no longer separate entities, especially in the age of technology. Most of us carry technology with us almost 24/7. It is on our wrists, on our pockets on our tables, in our cars and in our homes.

Being disconnected has become a luxury. It shouldn't be that, but in reality, our lives and technology are interconnected if we desire to thrive at most workplaces or enjoy personal freedom to move around. The positive side of this modern tech is flexibility!

Life-work integration is possible due to such flexibility!

This is possible only in case you remain the master of tech and your intrapersonal processes.

Only then the apps don't run you and create inner turmoil, but you run calm-mindedly your apps and make those to support your life and your work. Tech, when used consciously, allows you to gain more! And here the mental wellness gym, we developed for you and your team, is an example.
 

The new paradigm or working comes from the tech we use

With the rise of remote work, flexible schedules and digital connectivity, people are no longer tied to a physical workplace or a specific time to work.

It means that people can work from anywhere at any time, but it also means that personal life choices strongly influence our work (including entrepreneurial efforts) our work can often encroach on our personal life choices.

Therefore, life-work integration acknowledges that people need to take personal responsibility and exercise individual initiative to manage their work and personal lives effectively.

This means that individuals need to find ways to make their personal life and work merge in a way that supports their healthy lifestyles and priorities. In the age of machines and A.I. human being is more about being present than being a biorobot.

All we do subconsciously renders us biorobots. All we do automatically, based on hour habits removes our ability to be present and use creativity, intuition, insights and other awareness intrapersonal skills that machines lack.
 

Intrapersonal education is the key to integrating life and work

The key to success here is having excellent intrapersonal education.

Only when you have sufficient practical intrapersonal skills, you can lead your life on your terms and still productively achieve great work-related results.

For example, someone might decide to work from home on certain days to spend more time with their family, or they might take breaks during the workday to talk to their kids and run personal errands or take a relaxing mind training break.

Only when urgent personal matters are dealt with in time, those don't develop into stressful situations in your work life. The same applies in the case of work, when urgent work tasks are dealt with in time, those don't develop into stressful situations in your private life.

It isn't work or life, it's both!

... and if you are an entrepreneur, it isn't your business or family life and health, it's both!

Only when you keep the big picture and respect equally all work deadlines and family meetings or school events of your kids can you truly thrive. Then you have reasons to celebrate both on and off work and can enjoy such milestone events wholeheartedly. Only then can you be fully present, aware and joyful.

Benefits of flexibility

Having more flexibility allows people to create a schedule that works for them and merges their personal and work obligations so that people thrive and get less stressed. Of course, this approach demands that intrapersonal skills based on self-leadership and mind health become a priority. Both off and on work.

Only intrapersonal skills sustainably support employee engagement and also ensure a stress-free, healthy lifestyle.
 

Life-work integration is possible when it is based on your initiative and your conscious choices. So here self-leadership drives home win-win deal for employees and employers alike (see the graph above).

Successful life-work integration demands more honest communication. This means that individuals need to be proactive in setting boundaries and communicating their individual needs with their employers, colleagues and family members.

Here aware listening matters as much as the precise wording of the message you communicate.

For instance, if someone needs to take a break from work to attend a personal event, they need to communicate this clearly to their colleagues and ensure that their work is covered during their absence. 

Equally, when there is an important work task, you need to inform your loved ones, that unless there truly is a real emergency, you need time for focus. Our kids are more intelligent than we often acknowledge. Communicating honestly, kindly and on daily basis with our children is the key to securing focused time at work.

Conclusion

Life-work integration is an approach that acknowledges that personal and work life are always interconnected and that people need to find ways to make them merge into a holistic whole.

This approach requires taking strong personal responsibility and individual initiative to manage personal life and work activities in time effectively. It also demands good skills for re-focusing as taught in the e-training "Getting Things Done".

By adopting a life-work integration approach, people can create a lifestyle that works for them and achieve a sense of harmony between their personal development values, family errands and work obligations.

When people thrive, businesses thrive. Allowing people to be human in the era of A.I. and tech-centredness benefits everyone.

And for being human we need to notice, we have awareness and we can lead our inner processes at will as taught in all the online trainings available on this site.
 

Choose your mind health training to support life-work integration here