How many times do you feel stress flooding your whole body? Every day? Every waking hour? You are not alone. Our stress levels are continuously increasing day by day. In the office, at home, during your commute… countless situations will stress you out. What you do against this never-ending stress taking toll on your body, soul and happiness?
Let’s talk about what you CAN do at the moment when stress is happening.
Take a deep breath. Then take another…. Try to control your reaction to stress. Don’t get involved if possible. Especially if you are close to screaming or crying already or your blood pressure hitting all time high, it is better to physically distance yourself from the stressor. At the office ask for a new meeting time if possible if stress is making it difficult to think straight. Or go to the bathroom for few minutes to calm down a bit.
Your phone ringing off the hook? Depending on your job responsibilities, the following tip might not be applicable to you. Let the call go to your answering machine. If you already feel stressed it might be impossible for you to help the caller. Take a minute for yourself instead and call back the person when you feel ready for the conversation.
Too many emails clogging up your inbox and just looking at it drives you crazy? Gather all the topics from the same sender. Go over to the person or department and discuss those topics personally. You will save tons of time if you are ready to face your colleague and discuss instead of relying on email exchanges.
Being stuck in traffic? Take back control and make good use of the time you waste sitting in your car (and not getting where you want to). Always have a few CDs with you. Take the time to educate yourself! Listen to a training CD or an audio book. There are countless great audio books available on Amazon so take advantage of them.
During your commute instead of listening to the news – which guaranteed to stress you out nowadays – opt for listening to relaxing music. Or something classical. Be careful with listening to meditation pieces, though! Most of those are not allowed while driving. You still need to pay attention to the road and traffic even if you feel you are getting nowhere and just sitting in the car.
Your family stressing you out? A little distance will help! Go outside for a few moments at least. If you can leave for a longer period of time, take a 15-20 walk. If you have small kids and you cannot leave home, take a few minutes and disappear in the bathroom. Works wonders!
Laugh a lot! Laughing fights stress so laugh as often as you can. Make funny faces with your kids, tell jokes, watch funny movies or go to YouTube and search for cat videos or clips of your favorite sitcom.
Cry a little. Let the tears wash away your frustrations. I would not recommend tearing up at the office but in the sanctuary of your home let the tears come and clean the stress out of your system.
If all else fails, go ahead and have some high quality dark chocolate. Think about this chocolate as a medicine and only take 1 piece. Please don’t eat up the whole bar, ok? You could package up a few squares for the office and not have the whole bar tempting you…
If your company offers onsite yoga classes take advantage of those. Take yoga classes regularly to learn a few easy breathing exercises and simple stretches that can help you return to your serene self in no time.
Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos
I like the suggestion of listening to relaxing music in the car. So often Ill get stressed because of traffic or crazy drivers, before I even get to the office, which starts the whole day out on the wrong foot. Good idea, begin the day with some relaxing music.