Increase Your Workplace Well-Being

Getting up every morning for work is hard enough as it is. Just thinking about maneuvering amongst half-asleep Rochester drivers in traffic to get to work on time is enough to make you stay in bed. It isn’t until you walk through the office doors that you realize this is only the beginning. You still have a whole eight hours of co-workers, phones ringing and busywork to deal with. Managing your stress level and maintaining a sense of calm at work seems nearly impossible in this day and age.

This doesn’t have to be the case-there are several workplace tricks you can use to make sure you’re involving your mind, body and spirit in the healthiest way possible at work. Here are four ways to make sure your space at the office is just as peaceful as a monk’s garden:

• Find your footing: Balance of the mind and body is an important aspect of maintaining harmony in the workplace. Next time you’re feeling overwhelmed at work, firmly place your feet flat against the ground. This will establish a firm physical foundation and help bring a sense of balance back to your body.
• Become a beginner: Avoiding arguments or small disagreements in the workplace is hard to do. Everyone is different and therefore has different opinions about how things should work. Before you start an argument with a co-worker, take a deep breath and begin asking questions instead. By asking questions instead of arguing, you might be able to uncover the other person’s way of seeing things and in return overcome roadblocks with more ease.
• Name your mood: It is easy to become quickly frazzled in the workplace. Even the smallest things seem to ruin the day—the copier breaking down, losing your favorite pen and your co-worker’s new habit of tapping the side of the desk. It is during these times you need to take a minute to put your feelings in perspective. Every hour, write down one word summarizing your current state of mind. At the end of the day, review your list of words—you’ll come to find even the worst moments seem to pass with time.
• Let it go:  Whether you mean to or not, sometimes a bad day at work is brought all the way back home. Stop—before you even leave the office, imagine a box and place all of the day’s events inside, then visualize the box floating away. Being able to release these thoughts before you leave work helps you to engage wholeheartedly once you get home.

Bad days are unavoidable, but don’t let these days get the best of you. Making sure you’re embodying your mind, body and spirit at work is great for stress management in Rochester. Use the four Zen workplace tricks to boost your well-being and end your day on a calm and stress-free note.