Don’t Want To Burn Out? Leave Work At Work!
Stress reduction can mean a lot of different things for different people, but one common factor for anyone who has a career is bringing work stress home.
Developing the techniques the leave work at work, rather than allowing work stress to bleed into your home life will make an enormous difference in your sense of peace and the health of your body and mind.
Release the negative work-related thoughts
Once you step out of your office, you must make a conscious decision to release your nagging work-related thoughts and focus on your family. Here’s what you should do when you notice that your thoughts are focused on work-related matters:
- Close your eyes and gently acknowledge these thoughts and say something like “I am starting to think about work.”
- Now, notice the feelings that are associated with these thoughts. Do you feel stressed, unhappy, angry, and/or frustrated whenever these thoughts come up? Take deep breaths as you identify these feelings.
- Take another deep breath and say, “I acknowledge these work-related thoughts and feelings, but I am releasing them now.” Imagine that you are placing these thoughts in an imaginary box, and then imagine that you are locking that box.
- Then, open your eyes and take another deep breath.
This relaxation response is a great way to stop bringing work stress home.
If you fail and still take work stress home with you, try this relaxation exercise to stop negative (and work related) thoughts.
Try some visualization techniques
Practicing a visualization technique is a great way to stop bringing work stress home. This technique is a form of meditation. It strengthens your power over your mind. It helps you relax and refuel after a long and tiring day at work. It also deepens your awareness of your feelings and thoughts.
Now, after you go out of the office, stay in your car or somewhere you can be alone for a while. Make yourself comfortable. Take a deep breath and then close your eyes. Imagine that you are on a beach and that you’re burying your toes in the sand. Imagine that you’re holding a freshly squeezed juice in your hand. Imagine that you are calm, relaxed, smiling, and happy.
Then envision a bright white light beaming through your head, taking away all your work-related thoughts.
Now, visualize that you are walking around the beach and assure yourself that you can go back to this place anytime you want. Say a little gratitude prayer and then open your eyes.
This exercise will help condition your mind to stop bringing work stress home.
Take time to appreciate the little things on your way home
While you are driving or commuting on your way home, take your time to appreciate everything. Make your daily trips from work to home an opportunity to enjoy all the beauty around you. Take time to appreciate the trees, the people, and all the other beautiful things that you see on your way home. This strategy is a great way to stop bringing work stress home.
– via Good Relaxation
Tips To Keep Your Relationship Safe
One of the biggest risks you take when bringing home work stress is that it can take a harsh toll on your relationship. But the good news is that the tips to help manage stress will help your relationship and the tips to protect your relationship will also help reduce your stress!
Develop good mobile device habits.
Perhaps the most common way in which work distraction seeps into a person’s relationships today is through smartphones. Have you ever finally decompressed in an evening only to look at your email, see something alarming, and become stressed? The average person now checks their phone 46 times per day, spending nearly five hours per day on mobile devices, leading 30% of users to consider their smartphones a “leash.”
Develop good habits and rules that keep your tablets and phones from tethering you to work. Keep two separate mobile phones — one for work and one for personal use — and leave the work phone in an out-of-the-way place (or turned off) on nights and weekends. And never check your work email in the hour or two prior to bed. Multiple studies have found that staring at a phone before bed can negatively impact your brain’s ability to prepare for sleep, and sleep deprivation is linked closely to stress. When on vacation, lock work-related mobile devices in the hotel safe and check them only at predetermined times.
Have an end-of-work habit.
Sometimes your brain needs a signal to prepare you for time at home. It’s even better if this signal can help you decompress. For example, John uses his afternoon commute to unwind — taking a more scenic route home, listening to music or the news, and giving himself time to switch gears for family life. Others we’ve spoken to have mentioned hitting the gym, running, meditating, and other rituals. Think about what helps you unwind, and find space in your schedule for this habit — particularly at the end of a long day at work — so that when you return home you’re free of the baggage that’s built up throughout the day.
Create a third space.
When professionals have families, their entire lives can revolve around their responsibilities at work and at home. Busy executives run home to help with kids — changing diapers or shuttling preteens to soccer games — or to do the little things that keep a home humming, like laundry, yard work, or cooking. But having a third space outside of work and home can help enormously with stress management.
Each partner in a relationship should maintain habits and times that allow them to explore their interests, relax and seek fulfillment, and find space outside of home and work. These spaces are different for everyone — quiet cafes, book clubs, trout streams, karate classes, poker nights — but they are important for maintaining our identities and our sense of peace. Make the sacrifice of offering your partner a third space to find themselves, maintain their friendships, and explore their interests, and ask that they do the same for you. Third spaces mean no person runs from responsibility to responsibility without having time to breathe.
– via Harvard Business Review
Do you find yourself bringing work stress home?