Three Ways to Relieve Work Related Stress

It seems that these days no matter what business you’re in you have your fair share of stress.

Deadlines to meet, clients to satisfy, employee discontent and cash flow issues are just a few of the challenges that can crop up from time to time and when they do, it can be extremely stressful.

With the scientific research showing that stress can lead to many serious health conditions, it makes good sense to try to keep your stress to a minimum as much as possible.

Here are three suggestions that can help to relieve stress:

Get enough sleep

Adults should aim for 7-8 hours of sleep per night, regardless of what is conspiring to keep you awake. Don’t kid yourself. That cliché of how things always look better after a good night’s sleep is true. The “situation” itself might not be solved, but how you can approach and handle it, will be more effective. Try these sleep-inducing methods:

• Turn off your technology at least an hour before bedtime and place your devices in another room.
• Stay away from the television (especially the 11PM news) and instead, do some reading.
• Relax in a comfortable spot and if possible, head to your bed so that when sleep overcomes you there is no need to change rooms in the middle of the night.
• Limit your intake of food after a certain time and try a glass of warm milk to jump-start the tryptophan.
• Start a meditation practice and set aside a time each night to engage in this stress-reducing activity.

If you do these things consistently you will soon find that sleep comes easier and you are better rested helping to make you better equipped to handle the stresses that come your way.

Be grateful

This might sound very simplistic but is actually an excellent way to lose some stress. Practice gratitude and each morning (or evening if that suits you better) prepare a list of five things for which you are grateful. Remember that waking up in the morning is a gift that not everyone gets, clean water, access to health care and nutritious food are just some of the things that many people take for granted. Once you start this practice you will find that being grateful helps you to keep things in perspective; often the first thing that you can do to relieve stress.

Take action

Oftentimes being overwhelmed and stressed can contribute to feelings of being helpless and incapable of doing anything to change the situation. Take a close look at what is causing the stress and then assess what can be done to change it. If doing this assessment is problematic and you can’t see the proverbial forest for the trees, consider hiring a coach or business consultant to help bring clarity to the situation. Most things that are causing stress will not get better by themselves. The sooner you take action, the sooner things can improve.

Here at Champion, we know that we can relieve the stress associated with many aspects of running a business including having access to administrative and support staff, videoconferencing, as well as a conference room and office space.

We’d love to have a conversation and see how we can help