Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : August 17, 2022 11:04 AM IST
Workaholics Should Take regular Breaks Amidst Work Stress
Are you feeling unproductive, unmotivated and exhausted all day? This can happen due to too much stress, which can take a toll on your physical as well as mental health. If you're feeling too stressed at work and struggling to deal with it, we have some at-home mental exercises to help you beat the blues and boost their productivity.
These are exercises suggested by Aditi Surana, who is a distinguished high-performance coach and behavioral analyst. She is also the founder of Aspire Perform Transform (APT) India's only mental gym.
Aditi explained it this way:
What if I tell you that stress is a great thing! What? Really! How so? Some of you may protest. Naturally so. We all are told that stress is a bad thing, and we should avoid it at all costs. As a result, most people stay away from stress. They hate being thrown into stressful situations. They resist any and every situation that makes them feel stressed.
Think about it, falling in the water may feel like a horrible experience for anyone who does know how to swim. Driving might be scary for someone who has never learnt the skill of driving. A kitchen knife may feel like a dangerous weapon for someone who has never learnt how to cut vegetables.
Mind is as trainable as you choose to make it. Most people I have met always struggle and feel overwhelmed by their uncontrollable thoughts and emotions. Do you also fall into these traps over and over again? Your mind is not the problem, you are.
Think of any 3 people you may call 'high performers' or successful. People who you think are great at what they do. You may or may not know them personally. Now answer my simple question - These people on your high performers list have more stress or less stress on their plate?
Most of these people have more stress than we can imagine. I know this firsthand after having trained several leaders, athletes and artists as their high-performance coach.
However, they not only survive but thrive in such stressful situations as they have more effective ways to deal with stress. They have trained themselves & their minds to process their thoughts and emotions more effectively. They know how to stay calm, composed and in control.
Below Aditi Surana has shared some mental exercises one can easily do at home to beat stress and boost productivity.
1.Dump journaling
Use this mental workout when you feel overwhelmed or emotionally triggered. It could have been any small or big thing. That doesn't matter. What matters is that you feel triggered. Set a timer for 3-5 minutes and write down the most frustrating feelings and thoughts. Write the meanest, most disturbing things and then tear that paper.
2. Calm sutra s stroke
More than 20,000 people have used this powerful mental workout to induce calmness during the pandemic. Use a ruled notebook and a ballpoint pen. Start drawing this s or 8 like formation. Follow these simple 5 instructions
Practice this stroke for 10 mins a day on a regular basis to build a calmer mindset.
3. Connect with growth minded people
We all learn from people we surround ourselves with. If you only hang out with people who are talking about other people, complaining about things or focused on activities that are only leisurely, you need to make a few new friends or find some people to spend your time with. Growth minded people naturally love to learn and grow. They try new things and take pride in experimenting. They love challenges and solving problems. You tend to look at your stress in a more solution-oriented manner in their company.
4. Set a breathing tracker
I love breathing trackers. Our breathing is constantly changing and monitoring our mental and physical status. We can use it like a live traffic tracking app! How we check the red, yellow and blue zone on Google maps, similarly, we can also track our breathing to check our emotional status. This little practice of checking your breathing several times a day starts telling you what food, things and people trigger you easily.
5. Set an experiment
Stress is just an indicator that you need to learn new ways to solve old problems. It is not a problem in itself. It rather tells you that your current ways of solving problems are not working and you need to try something new. Ask experts. Do research. Ask people who are good at doing things you are struggling with. Whatever you learn, turn it into an experiment. For 7, 15, 30 days. Try something new before you decide on the experiment.
As Aditi has stated, "Every stressful situation holds a mirror that tells you what you need to change. Do not back off. You will never grow. Do not just keep fighting with your old methods and ways, you will feel burnout. Create a game in every challenge and look at stress as your indicator or feedback mechanism."
"The more you work at mastering any skill like - speaking, writing, connecting with others, presenting, decision making, leading, socializing, the less stress you will feel," she added.
It's better late than never! Do not ignore you mental health. While stress is not an illness itself, if you continue to experience it frequently, it can increase your risk of developing mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and sleep problems. Chronic stress has also been linked to increased risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, obesity, as well a diabetes. It can also lead to premature wrinkles, which can make you feel and look older than you are.
