Little and often is usually more effective than an every now-and-then burst. Regardless what we talk about, exercise, food-intake, stress management…. When it comes to managing your stress levels in the office, it is extremely beneficial to train yourself to take a regular time-out. The ultimate excuse of ’no-time’ is not acceptable, because the time-outs I am proposing here will take about 1 minute. Less than a toilet break, a chat with a colleague, smoking a cigarette or picking up a coffee.
When you are working hard, spending lots of time behind a PC, in meetings, and travelling, you spend 99% of your time in the ‘stress-zone’. A recent survey from the American Psychological Association found that one-third of employees experience chronic stress related to work. Chronic stress brings with it a number of health threats, but is also responsible for lack of happiness. To ensure your physical and mental health it is important to train yourself to de-stress regularly.
De-stressing is about making a choice; not about time, as time is not the issue and can’t be used as an excuse, but about priority and focus. If you know you want to change, just get your mind into it. Put your de-stressing into the forefront of your mind, and do a regular practice to step out of your stress-zone. Regardless of what presents itself, make sure you do your 3 a day zone-out sessions!
Step 1: get convinced you want to change. Only you can make that decision. Read all the scary articles about the risk of stress: risk one, risk two, risk three and if you need more, just google….
Step 2: Plan your de-stressing in your diary. You only need to execute 3 short practices a day, so plan a meeting 5 minutes earlier, don’t drive away but take one minute, after a meeting allow yourself a few minutes of time…
Step 3: Choose your practices and DO THEM. Below is a list of exercises:
- Breath: focus on your breathing. Count your inbreath and build up to an outbreath that is twice as long as your inbreath.
- Listen: Bring the whole of your awareness into the sounds that surround you. Spent 1 minute to listen and register. Set an alarm to not go over….
- Focus: have your feet flat on the floor and breath in through the soles of your feet. When stressed you are all in your head, when focussing on your feet, you have to be disconnect from your head!
- Move: stand up from your desk, put your hands together, stretch arms forward, up, and backward in a big movement.
- Meditate: learn the magical one minute meditation technique, awarded the Platinum 2012 Award for ‘best stress management technique’.
Step 4: Give yourself a pat on the back for looking after yourself, looking after your employer and increasing your well-being!
If you need help with de-stressing or are interested in the packages that are available for companies, please contact Dr De-Stress via phone: 07967 717 131, or email: mariette@stressfreecoaching.co.uk.
Visit Dr De-Stress on facebook or read more on this blog.
