6 Easy Ways to Reduce Stress, is a good article that describes simple ways to decrease your workplace stress. What I found interesting is that nearly all of them could be boiled down into one word: disconnect. Step away from emails and techology at least once a day. Hand over parts of your workload that is unreasonable. Turn off the news. Don't worry about what you can't control (traffic or other people). Walk away (figuratively and literally) from stressed people. Every example is a form of walking away.
It is true that we cannot turn our backs on whatever happens to be difficult in our life. We cannot live our lives in a bubble...but, we can certainly visit one every now and then. We all need a protective barrier. Just like pollution wearing away ozone, however, exposure to negative emotions (ours or others') wears our protective barrier down. Stepping away, even for a brief time, allows us a chance to refortify.
The good news is, even a little change to our rountine can help a lot. I challenge each of you to try to do just one of these 6 things for one week. Come back next Monday and tell me how you feel.
