Working hard and working smart are key factors that can lead to success in your career. However, working for too many hours consistently can lead to a stressful situation. It may also cause burnout, increase stress levels, and even affect your mental health negatively.
Regardless of how much you love your job, there are workdays where things get harder than other days. Even your office work can turn out to be a little challenging, especially where work-life balance is crucial. This calls for the need to decompress at the office and here are the five ways to achieve this goal:
1. Do Some Deep Breathing
If you feel your workday is too stressful for you, then you should find an easy way to decompress. In this case, you can take several deep breaths, hold them, and let them out gently. Try counting up to 10 for each deep breath you take. Then let out the breath after the 10th count. Doing so will help you feel the stress flowing out with every breath you take.
Deep breathing provides a quick way to de-stress after a long day at the office. It takes away work-related stress by making your body relax and bringing down your anxiety levels. By the time your workday is over, you will leave the office feeling happy, strong mentally, and relaxed, ready to take on another long day come tomorrow.
Even working from home is also stressful. This is because of too many distractions from your family members, neighbors, and visitors who pop in unannounced. Just like an in-office setup, remote work in your home office needs some privacy and peace of mind. Otherwise, you may fail to deliver the desired results, leading to more stressful days, underperforming, and difficult home life.
2. Do Some Meditation
Stressors at the office can affect your wellness and general well-being. As a result, you may find your workspace too uncomfortable to perform your usual duties. You can solve this problem by turning to meditation.
You certainly don’t have to be trained to perform a short and relaxing meditation session in the office. What you need is to sit down somewhere quiet, relax your body and mind, close your eyes and focus mainly on your breathing. At the same time, try as much as you can to concentrate on your breathing as it comes into your body and gets out.
Even if other issues or thoughts come into your head, just acknowledge them. Don’t bother about forcing them out, instead allow them to gradually leave on their own as you focus on your breathing.
Keep meditating for as long as possible before turning to cleansing breaths. By the time you are done with meditating, you will feel comfortable, happy, and stress-free. If need be, get in touch with Headspace for guided meditation.
3. Try Self Massage
Self-care plays a significant role in handling work stress. Through self-massage, you can achieve this self-care. This is a step away to handle stressful situations in the workplace. With that being said, find some time from your busy schedule to massage your neck, shoulders, head, and lower back.
Even better, have someone close or one of your team members do it for you. Alternatively, you can use a great relaxation technique that involves tensing up your muscles in the body and relaxing them one at a time. Start with your toes moving up to your head to make this relaxation technique work wonders for you. Massage helps a lot when it comes to decompressing.
4. Connect with Friends on Social Media
Even though you may have a tight schedule in your office or when doing remote work, sparing some time to connect with friends can help you decompress. In this sense, you can call your friends or connect with them through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
Chatting with friends in between breaks can brighten your mood and make your workweek an easy one. If your company allows pets, you can bring your dog along to give you some company. Your furry friend will uplift your mood, help lower your heart rate when under tension, and make you relax even after a long day of office work.
5. Listen to an Audio Book or Podcast
Don’t let stress overwhelm you in the office when you can easily relieve it. Instead, decompress at the office by listening to an audio book or podcast. Either option will undoubtedly take your mind off your workday.
Consequently, you will spend most of your working hours focusing your thoughts on something more relaxing and soothing. Bear in mind that podcasts are fun and exciting to listen to. Most of them can motivate you into working stress-free even when you are under pressure. On the other hand, you can take a short break to walk around the office building, read through the digital signage (if available), or get some fresh air before proceeding with your work.
Final Thought
Whether you are working remotely in your home office or company office, decompressing quickly is essential. Just keep in mind that after a busy workday, you need to find ways to recharge in order to prevent burnout. Use the above-mentioned tips to de-stress yourself during and after office work.
