This week’s podcast episode is my attempt at walking the walk of stress reduction. I do work stress seminars all the time and attempt to talk about more than the usual take a deep breath idea that people no longer pay attention to. But then, I noticed I needed to follow my own advice.
A few weeks ago I did a presentation out of town and during the drive there noticed a good number of places I could add to my “must visit” list for the spring and summer. What came to me as I thought about it was how we fall into the trap of making what I call “mental health” breaks better known as vacations, into such big deals that we only end up taking them once or twice a year. This is not nearly enough to help you reduce stress and return to the work place refreshed.
Taking a break is one of the best things you can do for your health as well as your performance at work. Time off to just smell the roses is an excellent means of allowing the body time to repair itself and reset the emotional well-being clock. In fact, according to Karen Matthews of The Mind Body Center at the University of Pittsburgh who surveyed 1,400 participants in a disease study and found that leisure activities, including taking vacations, contributed to higher positive emotional levels and less depression among the participants.
Robert Kriegel, author of “How to Succeed in Business Without Working So Damn Hard,” says workers get many of their best ideas away from the job, without the pressure of dealing with ongoing crisis. Doing so allows Workers the opportunity to consider innovative approaches that might not arise in the day to day back and forth that comes with being on the job.
I realized that I had made taking time off from work a major production, and YOU probably have too. We think we have to go far and wide when mentioning taking a break or a vacation, which requires booking a flight (which is stress producing in and of itself), renting a hotel room, down to how do I keep the kids entertained as we travel cross country to the Grand Canyon. When in reality taking a break can be short trips of less than a couple of hours and may involve as little planning as packing a lunch. By that I mean a day trip.
Near your home I’m certain there are parks, rivers, historic sites, or bike trails that will allow you to get away without the cost or investment of time we usually associate with planning a vacation. You’re not going to be gone a long time so planning involves as little as making sandwiches and filling a few water bottles. Their advantage is they allow you to get out of your head (and that project that is driving you crazy) to problem solve on a much smaller scale. Here in Florida the State Park system has a feature on their website called “One Tank Adventures”. Tell it where you live and it will give you all the state parks you can get to in under a tank of gas. A quick means to get away without going too far.
The same goes for something as simple as a raised garden bed. Basically you build a box and divide it into sections to grow different vegetables. The advantages are: less work than a full blown garden, it is easy to weed and tend, uses far less water, gives no more produce than you need, and it provides you with your own Zen garden that is a stress reducer that also gives tomatoes.
These are simply two ideas but I’m sure you can come up with a million small things you can do to pull yourself away from stress mentally consuming every aspect of your life. It’s important because according to Christine Hohlbaum, author of “The Power of Slow: 101 Ways to Save Time in Our 24/7 World,” workers who forgo vacations aren’t doing themselves or their companies any favors. Even if they are physically present, they have often mentally checked out. If people are overwhelmed, they’re not contributing to the bottom line. And now I’ll stop so I can go check on my compost and tomato seedlings.
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