“Relaxation means releasing all concern and tension and letting the natural order of life flow through one’s being.” ~ Donald Curtis
You’re seated in your office with tens of files staring at you and you’re wondering how you are going to get your job done owing to the fact that you are already tired. You are confused and you need help and this article might just be the right spice to change your work life!
Having a stressful day should not be a new phenomenon if you are constantly engaged in stressful activities during your working hours. Having long hours of strenuous activities can lead to unneeded stress which is very inimical to your mental well-being and normalcy.
The importance of unwinding after a stressful day at work cannot be over-emphasized. Scientists have posited that the best results are gotten after long hours of de-stressing.
There are a thousand and one things to get you stressed at work. Every day, you go through the hassle of meeting up with the standards of your job, getting to meet new people, adjusting to new rules and meeting up with new tasks.
These activities and many more can increase the level of stress one can have and since, in most cases, they are inevitable, certain steps must be taken to ensure a de-stressing process is done. De-stressing, or relaxation is a very vital part of maintaining good health and mental stability.
It allows the body to catch a break from the constant activity that it goes through and this manifests in the ease with which various organs of the body work. The entirety of the body finds it easy to work with the tasks of the day and this means more productivity and a happy lifestyle.
Life is full of stressful activities and sadly, some of these activities cannot be avoided. In other words, stress cannot be avoided, it can only be reduced. When we go to work, we meet people and crush tasks; this process causes us to go through physical, mental and emotional stress. For many, the stress does not just stop at work. They take it home, enriching their pool of stress and making their body system vulnerable to health hazards. If you are among these set of people and you are genuinely ready to experience a positive change, then this article is for you. Our jobs can indeed be time-consuming but getting stuck on a sickbed as a result of negligence or ignorance can be more time-consuming.
Let’s take a quick look at stress…
Stress is the body’s reaction to any change that requires a response. Stress is very normal. In one way or another, everyone experiences stress. Your body can pick up stress signals from your environment, your thought or a change within itself.
As an individual, issues relating to stress should not be taken for granted. You know you are stressed when you start experiencing any of these:
- Dizziness
- Constant fatigue or exhaustion
- Sweaty palms
- Headache
- Weight gain or loss
- Sexual difficulties
- Many more…
There are two common kinds of stress: physical and mental. You can be stressed physically and experience strange fatigue and tiredness.
You can also experience mental stress and experience a gross mental breakdown. And if you are a writer like me, you should know the grave effect that mental stress can have on your written works. One of the major causes of the infamous “writer’s block” is mental stress.
Put duties aside at least an hour before bed and perform soothing, quiet activities that will help you relax.
One of the many faux statements about relaxation, especially after work, is that it can only be done with the aid of alcohol. To counter that, I will touch a bit on how to relax after work without alcohol.
Some of the ways to decompress after work include: having a massage, getting some exercises done, reading books, yoga, listening to music, taking a walk, basically, anything you love doing. De-stressing after a long day at work can be very easy. It is as easy as breathing. Many breathing exercises can be done to relax after work.
Our works can be consuming and in this article, you would realize that after rocking the boat of daytime busyness, there is a need to de-stress and this article focuses on some of the ways you can de-stress after long hours of work.
10 Tips On How To Relax After Work:
1. Schedule Your Relaxation Time
There are 24 hours in a day. How much of these hours do you have for yourself? How often do you take out time to unwind after long hours of stress?
The truth is, as little and irrelevant as 10 minutes might seem, they could help you build up your strength after long hours of stressful activities. Sometimes, you do not need to read paragraphs upon paragraphs on how to relax after work.
Who knows? Setting out five to twenty minutes of your time could be the way out of the stress you experience after work. If possible, do this daily and if not, do it as frequent and possible and ensure to integrate it into your calendar.
2. Have A Warm Bath /Shower
Water has been proven to have a calming effect. A cool shower can help you ease the tension created by the stress you might have gone through.
The essence of knowing how to relax after work is to easily create a culture of rest and the use of water, warm or cold, could be an aiding factor to that.
So, if you are tired of the huge pile of work to be done, maybe that’s a sign you should take a break and have a good shower to help yourself!
3. Read A Book
A unique tip on how to relax after work is reading! If you are a lover of books like me, then this should be easy!
Tired from the day’s stressful activities? Worried you might not meet up with the tasks in front of you because of tiredness? Then reading might be the way out! While this might seem to only work for people who love to read, it can also work for people who do not love reading too.
One of the best ways to induce sleep is by reading a book. When reading a book, you focus your mental energy into a particular thing and that aids you to sleep, if you are not a lover of reading.
When was the last time you spent a quiet moment just doing nothing – just sitting and looking at the sea, or watching the wind blowing the tree limbs, or waves rippling on a pond, a flickering candle or children playing in the park?” ~ Ralph Marston
4. De-Stress With Exercises
Exercises make you more alert and vibrant. Exercises releases endorphins which causes stress/pain relief. After a good exercise, you’d feel lighter, happier and ready to go crush more goals! You can do the exercises alone, and you can also do them with a team.
When you carry out exercises, “you work off the stress” and get more relaxed thereafter. Exercises help to ease the tension you might have gotten from your stressful day and provides you the beauty of having deep sleep – a major factor to de-stressing.
Whatever you do, ensure you’re happy doing it. If you have been wondering about how to relax after work, then this is an amazing way.
5. Take A Walk
Looking into how to relax after work, one major way of unwinding is taking a walk! The magnitude of work in front of you might be scary and this means that you might experience mental fatigue and one major way of curing mental fatigue is taking a walk.
Changing your environment and the scenery you have been used to while working might help you to experience a certain level of calmness. While taking a walk, find solace in nature.
Go to that serene park and rest. Catch a new breath and feast your eyes on new things outside the confinement of your workspace. This would help you relax after work.
6. Meditate
Meditation is another beautiful tip on how to relax after a stressful day at work. Listening to cool and calm sounds while meditating can help you relax and unwind after long hours of work.
It is important to know that meditation helps you to calm down, relax and get yourself ready for another day or session of work. Meditation should not necessarily be done with the lotus plant shape or the unending chants of “mmmmm”.
You can search for easier and more convenient ways of meditating. There are also videos on YouTube. Get one of them and help yourself unwind from stress! To relax. Your body is precious, as it houses your mind and spirit. Inner peace begins with a relaxed body.” ~ Norman Vincent Peale
7. Do A Self-Massage Aimed At Unwinding
Self-massage helps to relax the muscles and ease the tension created by stress. Massages are therapeutic and can help to ease the tension created by the stress accrued at work.
Usually, however, the major excuse that people have for not having massages, is that they do not have enough money. If that is your “excuse”, then you do not have any excuse.
The world is a global village and you can have access to thousands of videos showing practical steps to doing a self-massage. Quit lazing around wondering how to relax after work and get yourself some massage!
8. Listen To Music /Nature Sounds
Most definitely, music can be used for relaxation after long hours of stress. Listening to cool music is soothing and gives a feeling of relaxation.
When you are tired or stressed and you want to relax, the kind of music you listen to plays a major role in determining your mood, so, it is advised that you listen to calm songs.
Loud, aggressive songs can aggravate your stress and give you a headache. With slow, melodious music, you can close your eyes and concentrate on relaxing your muscles.
9. Have Company /Enjoy Solitude
When relaxing, you can either have a companion or enjoy solitude. Your choice should depend on your mood. Affectionate touches have been proven to ease stress.
Having someone to smile at and talk to, helps in releasing helpful body chemicals from the brain and this could help to ease the stress you might be going through.
And on the other hand, having alone time for meditation, concentration and deliberate relaxation can be very therapeutic too. You just need to know what works for you and take the step!
Aman insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.” ~ Herodotus
10. Have A Good Sleep
A powerful quote by Walter Reisch that goes thus: “Tired minds don’t plan well. Sleep first, plan later.” This is an unquestionable truth. When one is tired, it is almost impossible to plan and if planning is forcefully done, it ends up being incoherent.
When you are tired from the stressful activities you might have encountered during the day, ensure that you get a good sleep and you are good to go.
These steps carefully outlined and detailed above should be your guide to getting good relaxation after a stressful day at work. To sum it all up: You have read about the tips on how to relax after work but there’s more and that is playing your part in working on these tips.
It’s not enough to learn how to unwind or read about how to wind down after working late, you should also do the job of carrying out the tips and hopefully, lead a stress-free life.
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