Dealing With Stress At The Computer III

Dealing with Stress at the Computer III

Sitting in front of the computer for extended hours can easily lead to muscular cramps and soreness. An excellent way to relieve your muscles of excess tension is to put together a mini yoga routine that you can use when you feel the need to loosen your muscles. Or if yoga is not your thing, you can search the Web for a quick five- or ten-minute flexibility routine that has been tailored toward the office worker. For some of these routines, you can remain in your chair throughout!

We have just spoken of a couple of ways to minimize stress and tension when sitting in your room or office all day, but who said you have to sit in your room or office all day? Technology has advanced to the point where the combination of a laptop and a wireless Internet connection can allow you to take your work to the park, the zoo, the beach, or any other location that offers rich sensory stimuli. One relaxing place in which to work is your local Starbucks or cafe. These places tend to attract people who are in the same occupational position as you, and there are plenty of opportunities for networking, brainstorming, and developing close friendships with like-minded individuals.

It can be quite lonely working at home if you live by yourself, so one way to gain a little company is to get a pet. A cat or a small dog that will not tear up your room is a valuable companion. Studies have shown that pets have a way of countering human stress. Of course, there are sites online that allow you to adopt and feed a virtual pet, and you can download widgets for your desktop that give you a nice little fishbowl to watch. Yes, that is a facetious suggestion, but finding lighthearted, playful enjoyments online is a terrific way to ease everyday tension and stress.

In a similar vein, exchanging humorous emails with your friends and keeping an instant-messaging window open while you work are good ways of achieving relief from what ails you, provided of course that you do not get too distracted from your work. People are able to blow off steam in online communication in ways that face-to-face encounters make awkward, so having a few buddies on your IM contacts list for the occasional whine is an effective stress-buster. We have all heard the idea that expressing your troubles is much healthier for the mind than repressing them.

Having an MP3 playlist with an extensive collection of favorite songs is one of the common ways to address the tedium that tends to accompany prolonged typing or reading. Many media players can access streams all around the world and let you control precisely which genres of music come out of your computer speakers. Also, there are any number of Internet radio broadcasts in existence, and tuning your virtual dial to one of these stations can provide you with endless hours of mental stimulation. Yet another option is to obtain audio books of your favorite reading material and listen to them while you work. Listening to motivational material while you work is a great way to program your mind into staying calm and collected. Indeed, some audio products claim to be able to change your brain-wave state via binaural sound technology.