Four easy ways you can be more relaxed at work today

Four easy ways you can be more relaxed at work todayFour easy ways you can be more relaxed at work todayStress isnt something we can avoid if we want to succeed. It will happen what makes us successful is learning how to manage it.Resilience is about how you recharge, leid how you endure, happiness experts Shawn Achor and Michelle Gielan wrote last year.That makes sense we spend most of our lives at work, and if its nonstop stress during those hours, then our entire existence is colored by it and our personalities could change for the worse.Here are some things you can do inside and outside the office to be a more relaxed person.Be mindfulWhen youre worrying about the zillions of things you have you have to finish by the end of the work day,try using mindfulness tohelp you stay focused in the moment, and on the task at hand.In this2016 Harvard Business Review article, Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter wrote about a 10-minute mindfulness exercise that you can use when you get to w ork in the morning,Close your eyes, relax, and sit upright. Place your full focus on your breath. Simply maintain an ongoing flow of attention on the experience of your breathing inhale, exhale inhale exhale. To help your focus stay on your breathing, count silently at each exhalation. Any time you find your mind distracted, simply release the distraction by returning your focus to your breath. Most important, allow yourself to enjoy these minutes. Throughout the rest of the day, other people and competing urgencies will fight for your attention. But for these 10minutes, your attention is all your own, they wrote.Jason Marsh, director of programs for the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, told the Greater Good Science Center about how mindfulness benefits you at work, including promoting empathy and building resilience and positive emotions.Do yogaSometimes its best to stretch it out.Yoga can literally loosen you up at work, and more companies are encouraging it as a result .New York Times reporter David Gelles wrote about the transformative effects of meditation and yoga programs on employees at insurance company Aetna, which were introduced by CEO Mark T. Bertolini. Employees who took at least one yoga class gained an average of 62 minutes of productivity per week and benefitted from a 28% reduction in stress levels. Even if youre not flexible,Greatist reported in 2015 that software company SAS has offered employees access to free healthy-living seminars, and a recreational and fitness center with access to yoga and massage studios, among other perks. Online medical care scheduling service Zocdoc had free in-office yoga classes each week.The Huffington Post even madea list of 5 office-friendly yoga poses, like the Seated Backbend, Wrist Release, and Seated Twist.Turn your YouTube to natureIf you work in an open office environment, you may find it difficult to focus- but sounds of the outside world might just do the trick.Embrace the outdoors.A 2015 study published in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America found that science backs the importance of a walk outside for ability to concentrate and increasing overall worker satisfaction.Dr. Jonas Braasch, an associate professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a co-author of the 2015 study, told the Huffington Post about the impact natural noises can have in restoring our cognitive abilities - so even if you lose focus, you can regain it with some nature sounds.Even if youre stuck inside under fluorescent lighting and low ceilings, theres nothing like the sound of rain. YouTube has a variety of options, including this long, soothing soundscape of wind through the silent Arcticand this surprisingly soothing spa-like run of plinky piano music over burbling water. Try listening to videos of various nature sounds online to get calm during the day, or downloading an app like Brainwave that plays soothing nature sounds.Do some improvTheater skills can also help you l earn how to loosen up in the office. Rebecca Waber of innovation and strategy consulting firmInnosight told Forbes about how starting to take improv classes for fun made her presentation style better.You need to be comfortable not only with objective facts but with emotion and expressiveness, and the emotional side of decisions and organizational dynamics is critically important to successful interactionsIts not necessarily easy for everyone to do both the cognitive and the emotional side, but its very important for a leader and consultant to have that expressive, emotional, vulnerability, Waber told Forbes.Google, MetLife, PepsiCo and McKinsey are among the companies that have had them, according to Forbes. In terms of schools, MIT, Duke, UCLA, Stanford and Notre Dames Executive MBA program have all taught improv classes, according to Fast Company.Finding ways to relax at work should help get you in your element and spark your creativity.