How to achieve stress-relief while at work?

In todays over competitive world,almost each one of us suffers from stress resulting from one factor or the other. According to a study conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA) in the US in 2007, 75% of the Americans feel that money and work are the two major causes of stress. The following 10 of the best quick stress-relief techniques are simple to use and can be practiced at the workplace itself and will surely help you to manage stress in the middle of a hectic work day!


Meditate. Get short breaks of 5 to 10 minutes every 2 to 3 hours to spend some time with your inner self. When you take these short breaks, think of nothing. Choose a secluded place, if you can choose a place underneath a big tree, it would be great! Relax, close your eyes and breathe deeply. Inhale as deeply as you can and concentrate on your breathing. Once you have filled your lungs full of fresh oxygen, hold your breath as long as you can. Once you have held your breath long enough, exhale as slowly as you can, once again concentrating on your breathing.


Chat. Try and spend some time with your colleagues and catch up with them to do some friendly chit chatting. Make it a point not to talk about anything related to work or business. Some tips for topics that you could discuss would be a new movie which has been recently released, or about a restaurant which serves great food or simply to listen to what your colleague has to share.


Laugh. Keep a humor book handy at your desk. Whenever you feel stressed out grab this book and read a couple of humor anecdotes and if possible (and of course, if the situation permits!) share it with your colleagues too! Everybody is aware that humor is one of the most powerful stress busters and it serves the purpose while you are at work as well!


Organize. Clear-up your desk! Remove all those unwanted papers, organize those files, organize important documents neatly into different folders or files and clear all the clutter. It is very stressful to work in a cluttered work-desk than to get stressed out by the work itself. Once you do this, and your work desk is clean and neatly organized, you will not feel stressed out without any reason. Not anymore!


Chew a gum! According to an article published by stress-relief.net, a research by Professor Andrew Scholey says that chewing gum may act as a stress buster in addition to relieving anxiety and boosting alertness. Gum chewers who participated in the research had a 17% reduction in anxiety during mild stress (against non-gum chewers). The study also showed around 10% reductions in moderate stress among gum chewers against non-gum chewers.


Music. Listen to some good and soothing music. Choose some mild music which has a soothing effect on you. Music has long been recommended by most physicians for a range of therapies, stress-relief being one among them. Stop all that you are doing for 5 minutes and just listen to the music. Concentrate on the music and enjoy every beat of it. I guarantee you that once you are done with listening to the music for as less as 5 minutes, your stress would have vanished and you will be totally refreshed.


Say "NO". It is very important for each individual to understand and accept each one of our limits. While we all will be even happier to do all that is possible under the Sun, what is more important is that we need to accept the fact that it is not possible. Whether it is in personal relationships or at work, refuse to accept additional responsibilities unless and until you can fulfill them without compromising on "your time". Eating more than what you could digest will cause indigestion and other related ailments, similarly accepting more than what you could handle normally is a guaranteed recipe for stress.


Enjoy. Make it a point to do something that you enjoy doing every day, even though it might be for as short a time as 5 minutes. It is very important for each individual to set aside some time everyday to do some leisure activities of the person's choice. Some examples of leisure activities are a game of tennis, a good workout, gardening, spending time with the kids, etc.


Avoid smoking and drinking. Smoking and drinking alcohol may tend to act as a stress-relief medication temporarily but the damage inflicted is permanent. In effect, there is no stress-relief associated with neither smoking nor drinking.


Sleep! Get enough sleep. It is very important for a healthy and normal human being to have a good eight hours of sound sleep every night. Adequate sleep fuels the mind and prepares our body for a hectic day. Feeling tired because of lack of sleep, will increase stress apart from forcing the human brain to think irrationally.