Before I give you the 3 tips I'm just going to share my '3 Shock Stats' in case looking after yourself or your employees has fallen off the radar in the last few days, weeks or months...  - 35% of all illnesses in the workplace are due to stress – - up to 80% of all accidents in the workplace are due to stress – - stress costs roughly £2k per employee per year - Luckily, there are some super simple things you can do right now to alleviate your stress and the stress of your employees. 1. Breathe – OK so yes you are probably breathing right now (hopefully…) but if you just alter the way you’re breathing you can instantly cut off the cortisol (stress hormone), and epinephrine (fight/flight/freeze hormone) production in your body. You just shut your eyes and take 6 deep breaths. Now according to science 6 is the magic number in cutting off these two hormones so don’t skimp! 2. Sing a Song – Singing at the top of your voice (regardless of how likely you are to win Xfactor) produces a couple of great stress reduction hormones called endorphin and oxytocin. Endorphins are pleasure hormones (and produce the same high you get if you were to take morphine or other less legal opiates…). Oxytocin has been termed the ‘love hormone’ in the popular press which is slightly inaccurate. While it does give you the warm and fuzzy when you have a hug from someone (30 seconds is the optimum hug time for this hormone to be released) but it also causes you to relax, reduce anxieties and feel more trusting all things which reduce cortisol production in the body. 3. Feed your Funny – This is my favourite one because I really love feeling good (and my singing voice causes untold havoc to glass objects …) If you haven’t already built up a bank of funny clips on YouTube do it now. Try to limit them to between 40 seconds to 1 minute and the real trick is to only choose YouTube clips that make you laugh so hard you feel like you may wet yourself anything less just isn’t going to have the same effect. Research shows that every time you watch something which makes you laugh your body produces serotonin (the happy hormone) and stops cortisol and epinephrine. What’s really cool is that every time you watch something that makes you laugh if you recall that clip in your mind it also makes you laugh and the same process occurs meaning you have an emergency stash of instant stress release in your head whenever you need it. I'm sure you appreciate that while these are awesome instant tips they're not going to protect you long term. Don't worry I've got you covered - just click the button below and grab the FREE Mini-Guide on ‘How to Survive Your 9-5’ If you need anything else drop a comment below & I'll get back to you ASAP :) Have a wonderful Wednesday - Katie.
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