17 Answers
Find the people at work that most resemble the main care givers of your childhood and look to see how they may trigger wounds you have not been able to reach and start working with all the protective parts you have inside that keep you from going to those wounds and unburdening them.
I agree with Theresa Marie below. It is important to establish some type of meditation practice where you regularly go within. The skillset that I teach with HeartMath® is heart-based and validated by 30 years of scientific research. Here's a quick practice called Heart-Focused Breathing that you can use anytime. It only takes one minute. First, focus you attention on the area around you heart. Next, breathe as if you are breathing in and out of you heart creating a rhythm of 5 seconds in and 5 seconds out. This balances the nervous system. Focusing on positive emotions as you breathe bring your hormonal system into balance. I teach a 4 week training in Heartmath with personal coaching included. Contact me to learn more.
Being mindful is the first step. If you're having a particularly stressful day, do a 30 second meditation.
All that's needed is 30 seconds of your time to focus in on any item around you - something from your desk or bag, a spot on the wall, or the pattern on the carpet.
Focus on the item and observe the colors, textures, aromas, etc., and find wonder and amazement for the way it as made, or what it does.
By interrupting the stressful, spiraling thoughts and bringing ourselves back to the moment, we can better handle crazy work days!
I suggest beginning a meditation practice of mindfulness. Start with 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening. Just be, give yourself space to feel your heart beating, your body inhaling the fresh air around you. Allow this feeling to cultivate appreciation within you and observe as a smile of thankfulness arrises on your face. Then take this practice of awareness to work and use it to bring you back into your heart space to empower your mind and creativity to allow solutions to your work issues.
Reiki will assist you in clearing out what is now being stored in your body and energy field as stress and open you up to a higher frequency of clarity, focus, love, and overall wellbeing.
Please, feel free to share your thoughts and feelings!
Love,
Teresa
Manage means that something is directed, used, maintained, controlled. A part of managing stress is to divert it, get rid of it, not let it build up. Stress can collect any where in the body or spirit depending what kind of stress it is. Help is useful to find where the stress is located in you and release that stress. Pain or weakness in the body often is due to stress locating there. Are you are talking about dealing with stress while you are in the middle of it? Staying above it, of it, shielding yourself from it are techniques that can help. It is not a short or free answer.
To me there is a difference between treatment and healing. If your question is how to treat stress, and management falls under that term, there are many common methods to treat, cope or manage. Each individual may have different proclivities to cope, treat or manage.
Healing to prevent the underlying causes of stress are different and a bit more complicated requiring practice. My book The Imperative Habit, 7 Non-Spiritual Practices towards spiritual Behavior offers this road map
Hi Liz.
Managing stress at work can sometimes be quite a challenge! For a quick fix, try raising your vibration by thinking of some things in life you feel grateful for, and feel the strong emotion of gratitude. For more long term relief, having some kind of regular practice such as Qigong, meditation, or self hypnosis - or consulting a hypnotist for help with managing specific work related issues - can make a lasting difference. I agree that deep breathing or a break are also good immediate ways to find relief. Ultimately, a job change may be in order as well.
Sincerely,
Joanna
I find breathing through your nose as much as possible is a very simple and helpful stress remover. When we breath through our nose we bring the air to our parasympathetic nervous system in contrast to shallow upper chest "fight or fight" adrenaline producing breath.
Managing stress at work is a very common question. There are techniques that can be used in your work environment such as breathing techniques, focusing on one task at a time. The multi-tasker lifestyle that we have become accustomed to is not natural and causes us a great deal of stress.
But for best results, I find the work starts at home and on a continued basis. Meditation and mindfulness performed on a daily basis for even 10 minutes per day can be much more effective than for an entire hour once per week.
Self care is another effective way to alleviate stress in your work place. If you take the time in your life to take care of yourself before everyone else you will have the energy and patience needed to deal with your day.
Navigating stress at work asks you to make a priority of your own heart and your own wellness.
Making a priority of your heart, even in a work setting, does not mean avoiding or denying what's going on around you. It means that you are willing to do your part in the world around you without carrying the heavy loads of other people's conflicts.
It asks you to make a commitment to seeing the stresses around and bringing your awareness back to your heart, back to your breath, back to your body. With a little bit of experience, the mind begins to understand that being connected with the heart and the body is actually the safest, most desirable place to be.
For some, this includes meditation, yoga, breathwork practices, or other rituals that generate a consistent sense of ease.
It is possible though to go directly to awareness of your heart in any situation. Your body always responds with feedback of openness and relaxation. There are tools of awareness that I teach that very simply provide you a way to navigate these situations with grace. Even when you do experience stress, you are empowered to walk yourself through it without escalation.
With more experience, your relationship to stress changes. It's not so big or scary. The body spends more time in a state of openness and relaxation rather than reaction and survival.
Please connect with me if this feels like a direction you wish to go. Begin with the heart and apply your skills from there, and watch yourself rise beyond stress and become a beacon of harmony.
One thing that I practice regularly and that you can literally do anywhere that takes very little time are called "PQ Reps". Positive Intelligence Repetition. All you need to do is focus on ANY one of your 5 senses for 10 seconds.
1. Sight
2. Sound
3. Taste
4. Touch
5. Smell
For example...If you're at work, you could close your eyes and just listen. Without judgment of what you're hearing. See how many different things you can hear. People talking, footsteps walking past your office, the copy machine, traffic outside, elevator ding, etc. If you choose "Touch", close your eyes and rub the tips of two fingers together. See if you can feel the ridges of your fingerprints. Is your skin dry or oily? As much detail as you can notice.
The whole point is to get you out of the past or future and back into the present. The present is where everything is created.
There are so many things and it can depend on your job and how easy it is to fit some stress management things in. The quickest and easiest thing in learning some deep breathing exercises as this can be done anywhere. I like the 4-7-8 method where you breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 7 and breathe out deeply for 8. There is also a quick visualization mediation you can use where you imagine yourself in your "happy place" for 30 seconds. For example, if you love the beach, imagine you are there. See yourself there. See the waves, the beach, the sun, the birds, and hear the sounds of the beach and the peaceful lapping of the waves on the seashore and feel the peace and joy of that experience. Of course, stretching and moving around or taking a quick walk outside is very helpful.
Breathe! Connect with your breath for at least one minute...breathing from the diaphragm - deep, tummy breaths (this is the key). Deep breathing engages your parasympathetic nervous system taking you out of stress mode. And it's so easy to do!
There are so many things you can do to help manage stress at work! Setting time aside to take a break can be very helpful. Whether that means taking a walk, going to chat with a coworker about something non work related, sneaking away to a workout class, or any other quick relaxing activity. Bringing mindfulness into your day can also be incredibly valuable. Even if you don't have experience meditating, taking just a few minutes to close your eyes and focus on your breathing can bring you back to the present moment and provide some stress relief. Making sure you are properly nourishing your body can also make managing stress much easier. Be sure to eat healthy, filling meals and have healthy snack options available so you don't find yourself stressed out and hungry!
I have found that setting aside five minutes every hour for a deep breathing and meditation/exercise/stretching session really helps.
This is highly dependent on what sort of work you do and what sort of stress you are under! Are you sedentary or active? Working with people or isolated? There are lots of different strategies and it's difficult to give specific advice without knowing a little bit more about your situation.
I agree with Kristina Frederick -- meditation can help in all aspects of life!
Do you meditate? Once you develop a regular practice it helps you in all aspects of life.
