Work can be stressful even on a good day.
It’s even worse on busy or hectic days, when you barely have enough time to do everything that you need to do. It’s days like that when you want nothing more than to get out of there and find a way to unleash all of that stress. Unfortunately, it seems like more often than not we end up bringing workday stress home with us and let it affect our home lives as well.
When you’re finally off the clock after a busy workday, you need to get rid of some of that excess stress before it has a chance to ruin the rest of your day as well.
Here are just a few suggestions for how you might relieve stress and get on with your day:
Get Some Exercise
Physical activity is a great way to relieve stress, and it can have some wonderful health benefits as well.
When a busy day has you feeling down, try hitting the gym or going for a jog after work. Even a leisurely walk can make a definite impact on your stress levels. Just make sure that you don’t try to channel that stress into anger thinking that you’ll use that to fuel your workout; if you’re angry then you’re more likely to overdo it and possibly hurt yourself in the process.
Breathe
Breathing exercises are a great way to knock your stress down as well.
There are a number of different exercises that you can learn, though they all have the same basic premise: By controlling the way that you breathe, you’re clearing your mind and focusing on your breaths. This focus can have a significant calming effect, and can be continued until you’re ready to breathe normally.
Meditation
Another focus exercise, meditating is a good way to reduce your stress levels and wind down after a busy day. (Or, you can even meditate during your workday.)
As with breathing exercises, there are a number of different ways that you can meditate. Regardless of your chosen method, the end result should be clearing your mind of all of that stress so that you can cultivate a deeper focus and an inner peace.
Write It Down
You’d be amazed at how satisfying it can be to write down what’s troubling you.
Even if no one is going to see it except for you, the simple act of airing your grievances can help you confront the things that are bothering you. Once you’ve listed everything, you can either try to find solutions for all of those problems or simply destroy the piece of paper. This symbolic rejection of your stress can be very cathartic and leave you much less bothered by those things that stressed you out all day.
Reflect
If something is really bothering you, take a few minutes to think about it and exactly what it is that went wrong.
Consider how you handled the situation and what you would have done if you’d had more time. While you can’t change the past, spending a little time on reflection may help you to avoid making the same mistakes next time. It may even give you an insight into whether anything can be done to improve things after the fact.
Talk It Out
Do you have someone that you can talk to about anything? Talk to them about this.
Just like with writing things down, talking about the things that are bothering you can be very therapeutic. Not only will talking about your stress help you to get it off of your chest, but the person that you talk to may have some insight on the problems that you wouldn’t think of on your own.
Regardless of the method you choose to relieve your stress, make sure that you do something. Holding on to stress can increase blood pressure, cause headaches and otherwise make you miserable. Whatever the problem is, it’s certainly not worth putting your health at risk just to keep things quiet.