Wellness in the Workplace: Combat Stress to Be Your Best
The entire Caster Crew has been hitting it out of the park the past several months with insightful blogs to help readers cope with the new way of working and doing business. Recently, the team has penned blogs on working from home do’s and don’ts, how to make the most of your next virtual event, maintaining PR relationships during times of uncertainty and communicating during a pandemic. Each team member takes to the Caster blog to share useful information and write about a topic that is important to us. For me, that topic is a friendly reminder about office wellness.
As we stare down the Fourth of July weekend, summer is typically the time think more about “getting away” than going back to the office. While the return to the office has many of us here at Caster enjoying a bit more “normalcy” in our lives, it is still important to remember we’re all in the middle of something big, unprecedented, and unlike any other life event we’ve faced before. During these times, it is important to remember the small things we can do to combat stress levels, especially as many of us emerge from our WFH cocoons.
Take a walk. A tried and true tip. For many, the past couple months have been the longest-ever stretch of time working remote, and you may have adapted to a new schedule. A common byproduct of WFH is logging on earlier and staying online later due to the elimination of a work commute. Getting up from your desk (at home or back in the office) to take a quick break, stretch and break up a lineup of conference calls can help keep you focused on the task at hand. If you can swing it, try to take a quick walk outside to get some fresh air.
Meditate. A common misconception is you need to be isolated on a beach somewhere or on a mountain in absolute silence to mediate. Not the case! In fact, for those unfamiliar with the practice, a guided meditation can help walk you through the steps, and many can be done right at your desk. In fact, mindful.org has a short, 15-minute desk chair meditation you can try the next time you feel the stress levels rising.
Limit your news intake. With so much going on in the world, it’s easy to feel like you should be tuned into the news or scrolling through Twitter at all times to keep up with it all. The problem is, you cannot –and trying to do so does more harm than good. The CDC says, “take breaks from watching, reading, or listening to news stories, including social media.” Constantly digesting all that news can be mentally exhausting, leaving you with little energy for not only work tasks, but day-to-day tasks too.
Whether you’ve started to make the transition to returning to a physical work environment or you’re continuing to work from home, the three suggestions above are just small reminders to keep your wellness top of mind. What have been you go-to solutions for managing stress and keeping yourself well? We’d love to hear all about them. Connect with Caster on Twitter at @CasterComm or with me on Twitter at @CasterPete.
