Stress at work a problem?

Do you suffer from stress at work?

Are you struggling to function and do your best?

The workplace can be the cause of and exacerbate stress and that means it’s hard for you to relax, cope and do your best and outcomes may be affected. Also it could lead to volatile situations and even poor safety measures and accidents due to lack of concentration.

There are ways to help you get into a mode of calm which are not hard to learn. It’s all about being more conscious and aware. Listening to and observing the body and taking control of your emotions. It’s also about stopping the virus ‘monkey mind’ from taking over.

Stress comes from physical occurrences, interaction with others, technological challenges and the unexpected, be it physical or mental/ emotional on some level.

Where to start?

Before you even get into work, make a conscious decision to leave any home situations out of the equation.

If the challenge is to do with the actual work or with colleagues or the structures of the environment, you will need to discover why.

Change is possible and once you are aware positive things can follow so be hopeful and expect the best!

The following breathing ideas will help you to be in the present moment and can be done before you leave home or in the car park before you enter the workplace.

Once you are at work you can use the technique again when it feels necessary or appropriate and also other suggestions here which are tried and tested.

• Feel into your body and stay in a place of connection with anything you sense is happening, be it an itch on the nose, a little sensation in one knee or tight feelings in the head.
• Breathe slowly and see if you can ‘be with’ whatever it is. Practice makes it easier.
• As you focus on whatever it is that you are noticing, see if it changes. Attention can alter things when you are in a state of allowing and connecting. It’s not really mind over matter but the energy changes and things relax. It ‘flips a switch’.
• Continue to breathe seeing a colour around the problem. Maybe the colour changes to something brighter as you breathe with awareness.
• Alternate nostril breathing may be good to do. Cover one nostril, breathe in through the other. Release the first, cover the second and breathe out through the second side. This is powerful.
• Put your hands on your abdomen and consciously fill your lungs so that you are breathing much more deeply.

Maybe you not only feel a difference on the ‘offending’ body part, but your head seems clearer and your whole being more relaxed.

Try to do these practices regularly as the intelligent brain will respond.