Three Things You Can Do Now To Reduce Stress

Are there any of these common scenes?

… The children get up early this morning. By the time you take them to school and fight traffic jams, you will be 20 minutes late for the meeting you are supposed to lead …

… When you were first hired, you felt lucky to get your customer service job. But now you wonder if it's worth it. Calls are always ringing and you hear nothing but complaints. Last week, you drove sick just to get a break …

… The time for your presentation is near. Top management has arrived and your manager is counting on you to make him look good. You woke up all night completing PowerPoint. You wonder if you were expecting all the possible questions …

Depression is a permanent feature of our lives, but it seems to increase dramatically in the workplace. More than two thirds of American workers report stress at work as a problem.

This means that we all spend a lot of time in "combat or flight" mode. It also affects our bodies through decreased immune systems, high blood pressure, and heart disease. These conditions shorten our lives and reduce the quality of what is left.

There are many strategies to manage stress, but when stress blinds us and we do not have time to prepare, we do not need a plan. We need quick, practical steps that we can take NOW that work quickly and can be done anywhere. When depression strikes the next unexpected event, try some of the following: take a deep breath, visualize, relax slowly.

Take a deep breath

                                                                                                     Deep breathing can be one of the most effective ways to stay calm. Everyone is breathing, but most of us are breathing in the wrong way — shallow, fast, and up to the chest. This type of respiration relaxes, increases our sense of anxiety, and stimulates our body's negative reactions.

Slow, deep breathing triggers a relaxing response, calming the body and concentrating the mind. It increases the amount of oxygen in our blood, increasing our ability to function.

Are you breathing properly? To achieve this, try this: put one hand on your chest and the other on your abdomen just below your ribs. Now breathe. Which hand is moving? If it is a hand on your chest, your breathing is not very deep.

The trick is to make the hand on your stomach move. Take a deep breath as you slowly count to five. Try to stretch your abdomen instead of your chest. If you have trouble making it happen, try lying on your back. With a little practice and patience, you will be able to switch to a deeper breathing pattern automatically.

Once you have learned how to breathe deeply, you can do it anytime