What are ways to relieve stress at work?

One of the best ways to relieve stress affecting health and wellbeing is to make small preparations and take small measures to deal with any feelings and thoughts as they arise. For example, you may feel frustrated, annoyed and irritated–a communication problem in the workplace–because you cannot get your point across or you do not feel appreciated or valued.

These acknowledgements and feelings must be dealt with as they arise or they will become a much larger problem that will escalate as you continue to build your judgements and perceptions onto them.

There are many ways to relieve stress and cope with the negative impact of stress as an on-going process. Some people have the practise of breathing out their thoughts as if they are expelling them from their body and mind, which, by its practise, means that stress is reduced. Others practise tai-chi or other moving meditative sports.

5 Minutes of diaphragmatic breathing on a daily basis has been proven to be conducive to reducing the negative impact of stress and creating clarity of mind and thinking. This can be done easily and discretely by breathing from deep within the lower stomach so that oxygen is effectively absorbed. 

Many business people may think that it’s ok to dwell on problems or even bring them back home into their personal lives; however, this isn’t conducive to a healthy and stress-free life at all. In reality, you should separate business and pleasure and deal with negative stress in the business setting on a continual basis so that your personal life is not impacted.

Again, good practices to ensure that this takes place include some form of internal focus or meditative practices. Create some form of end of day closure activity like writing a ‘will-do’ list for the next day or writing a “things done well”, “things that could be improved upon”, “things I will do better” and “things that really aren’t as important as I previously thought they were” list.

To practice these ways to relieve stress, you must understand that negative thoughts or stress caused through communication or personality challenges should be acknowledged, addressed and rectified in the shortest time possible. By doing this, you take responsibility for your actions and you will reduce the negative impact of stress as well as maintain your personal power whilst being able to see things from a broader perspective.

As a result, a win-win solution can be identified and taken action upon. Negative stress comes from situations where the individual does not feel in control of the situation or the outcome. To reduce the negative impact of stress in a business setting, it is important to remain focused, but to also be open to change and collaboration on a continual basis.