Let's look at some stress relief tips that you can do at the office and most other work environments. As you probably know, workplace stress is a major cause of lost productivity as well as being a nightmare and sometimes even a killer for those who suffer from it. In this article we will give you some quick and simple stress relief tips for reducing stress at work.
1. Walk away
If you can physically remove yourself from a temporarily stressful situation without causing a problem, then do it. Getting away from the stressor is one of the top stress relief tips. Depending on the situation this may or may not be possible, but in most cases you can at least take a bathroom break for five minutes, close your eyes in the cubicle and physically relax. If you feel you need to cry in there, don't stop yourself, because crying is a wonderful stress reliever.
In other situations you may be able to leave the building and get some physical exercise in the fresh air, whether it is jumping jacks in the car park or a short walk.
2. Laugh
'Laughter is the best medicine' as the old saying goes. One of the reasons that it is so good for you is because it is a very effective way of reducing stress. It has been reported that the average person laughs out loud 17 times a day, but people under stress probably laugh a lot less – so you need to change that.
Make a joke of the stressful situation and laugh about it with your colleagues if you can. That will help to build your working relationships as well as relieving everybody's stress. Or if that is not appropriate, view one of the top 10 funny videos on YouTube, or keep a book that you find hilarious in your desk.
If you feel that there is no way that you could laugh right now, then smile. Fake a smile if you need to. It will make you feel better and reduce the tension for everybody.
3. Breathe
The final one in our series of 3 quick stress relief tips is breathing. Most relaxation techniques focus on the breathing, and there is a good reason for this. When we are stressed, our breathing tends to be fast and shallow. In the extreme event of a panic attack, it becomes so fast that we hyperventilate.
And the opposite is also true: if we slow down our breathing and breathe consciously and deeply, exhaling all the way each time, that's a signal to our body that there is nothing to panic about and it can safely shut down the 'fight or flight' reflex response to stress. That will deal with most of the damaging symptoms of stress.
Most of these stress relief tips are things that you can do at the moment when you are feeling the highest amount of stress, but they are also techniques that you can build into your day to reduce chronic stress. The more often that you practice a stress reduction technique, the more natural it will become, so that you automatically do whatever works for you when you find yourself in a stressful situation.
So build into your regular working day plenty of short breaks, opportunities to laugh, and moments when you simply relax and breathe deeply. That will allow you to make the most effective use of these stress relief tips for the workplace.
