Stress in the Workplace Part 2 - A Tool to Use Today

I’ve been writing for EV Living for some time now and my last post “What is the Cost of Stress in the Workplace” seems to have hit the mark. I have received numerous emails asking for more information on ways to effectively handle stress and requesting my Free e-Report “Stress in the Workplace: How to stop working against the grain and let you talents shine.” If you would like a copy, please email me directly at george@jaunscenter.com and I’ll send it to you ASAP.

Most of the questions I received were about my in-house program, PATHS©: Pro Active Tools for Handling Stress. The rest of the emails were requests for specific techniques. So, I’ll give you a little of both today.

First, about PATHS© and about our view of stress in the workplace. PATHS© comes to your business as a “lunch and learn” workshop. We need about one hour to deliver the material. Attendees walk away with several techniques that they can use immediately to better handle the stress in their lives; both at work and at home. The underling theme is that stress cannot be avoided – it will continue to come at you, so we need to train ourselves to respond differently. Keep reading and I’ll give you a great tool.

Here’s what I mean about not being able to avoid stress. You attend an all-day “stress management” seminar. Then you get in your car at rush hour on one of the Valley freeways and some yahoo, driving like a nut cuts you off at 85 mph… OK, tell me – how do you “avoid” that? How do you “manage” the other drivers – not to mention all the other stressors in your life? Answer, from our POV - you can’t. You can only manage yourself to respond differently.

So it’s really “self-management” not “stress management” isn’t it? No matter how you examine it, change comes from within. PATHS© teaches you several very effective tools, based on physiology, hypnotherapy, NLP and martial arts (no, we do not teach you to beat the *&^% out of the person causing your stress…)

Now, you are smart and you know there must be a catch to this free proposal… Hey, I gotta make a living too. The idea here is that you and your team will like the material in PATHS© and see value in digging a little deeper to get to the root causes of stress in your organization. That’s how I make my money. If you like the free stuff, you’ll probably be willing to talk to me about additional services and programs. Real surprise right? You get a chance to sample the product at no cost and the pressure is on me to deliver value so we can do more in the future.

If you have stress in your organization now… if people are taking sick days, being less productive, present but not engaged, call me and let’s get a free PATHS© workshop done. This will take the edge off.

OK, I promised a technique for you. here is one of my all-time favorites. This is called “soft-focus” and it is designed to slow down your thinking cognitive mind so you can gain access to your unconscious emotional and instinctive mind. The technique takes about three minutes. Each time you do it, you will notice how you can hold the feeling of “calm” for longer periods. With experience, you should be able to maintain the feeling for hours.

Do this when you find your mind is racing with too many thoughts at once. Do this when you catch yourself totally immersed in a project and not making progress. Do this anytime you start feeling tense.

Getting into soft focus
1. Find a spot on the wall (or ceiling) that you can focus on comfortably. Be sure your eyes are up at a slight angle – not too far to be uncomfortable. Have your eyes be up slightly and in front of you, not off to the sides or down. You may want to put a post-it note with a black circle on it on the wall to train yourself. Don’t laugh, I have exactly that on the back of my office door! Clients ask what it is, I smile and have them stare at it… and off we go.

2. Continue staring at the spot and notice how your vision gets wider – in the periphery. You’ll notice a “halo” forming around the spot. That’s normal. You’ll also notice that your eyes will want to blink either more quickly or more slowly. Let them blink so you are comfortable.

3. Keep staring comfortably and notice the relaxation happening in your body. You may particularly notice your shoulders drop and your jaw relax.

4. Your peripheral vision should be quite wide now. Bring your awareness out to the periphery – notice how you notice the periphery. Maintaining that awareness, bring your eyes down to normal.

5. Keep your awareness wide and notice how much more calm everything is. Notice how much more you can observe now. Notice how your thinking seems more calm, clear and easy.

OK, cool… I did it and it feels nice. Now what? Congratulations, you succeeded in putting yourself into a very mild self-hypnotic trance. What will this do for you? Easy. It will slow down your conscious chatter so you can find the answers and tap the resources of your unconscious mind.

Remember back in high school when you had homework that you just couldn’t figure out? You went to bed… and woke up with the answers. All night long your unconscious mind was solving the problem for you. When you get good at holding the feeling of soft focus for an extended period, you’ll get the same results. Insights and solutions will come to you with less effort and work. And they will come quickly.

Warning: When you first do this technique, it is common to feel a little spacey, lightheaded, dizzy, etc. That will pass very quickly with practice. So go ahead now – grab a post-it note, put a black dot on it, stick it on the wall and try getting into soft focus. It will just take about three minutes – go for it!

And if we get a chance to meet face to face someday soon; I’ll be looking for the dot on your wall. By the way, it’s even more fun if you don’t tell anyone what the dot is all about… just have them sit down and stare at it.