Episode 55 | 4 Daily Tips on How to Reduce Stress

Sophia Noreen: Hello, everyone. Welcome to another fantastic episode of the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen, and I'm going to be your host for today. Today, I want to speak to you about something that's extremely important for yourself, for your health, for your family and for your business and that is, how do you manage stress? And as an entrepreneur or someone who's thinking about getting into entrepreneurship, many times we underestimate the amount of work that is involved, and we do not plan for that work and that results in more stress. And so today, I want to share with you four tips to help manage stress. 

But before we do that, I want to speak to you about why we ended up getting into these stressful situations. One, of course, it is because we underestimate the amount of work, and so our expectations are exceeding what they should be. We are thinking that we are going to be achieving so many different things in such a short amount of time, so we over evaluate what our capacity is. We say we can complete X amount of tasks in this hour, for example, and then because our expectations are not being lived up to, it causes emotional distress. Why are we not able to complete this? What is happening? What is the situation? Why am I failing at doing everything? 

And then, because entrepreneurship is usually tacked on top of many other elements in life, you're not in a little bit of a bubble. You have another life that is circling around you while you are going through this journey, and then because you're putting more effort and time into being an entrepreneur or into that business, again, mindset, physical, time, energy, they're limited. You don't have unlimited time, energy, and focus. You have a finite amount of energy time and focus, and when you start adding things to your plate, then, of course, things might start to drop off. You may not have all your ducks in a row when it comes to, for example, household chores so if your expectations are not being met when it comes to maintaining a house, for example, then that causes emotional distress. 

And so need to be able to recognize that this can occur and that we have to be able to step back and we need to be able to use a few tips from today's episode to be able to manage that stress. Now, the four tips I'm going to share with you are very common but I'm going to put a twist on it because I'm going to relate it to my own situation, and I want you to do the same. So I want you to be able to take what I'm saying and think about your own situation and be like, yes I'm going to do this trip during this time because I know it's going to help me with managing my stress. 

And again, if you're not starting your own business and you're working a 9 to 5 and that's what you plan to do, that's great. These tips are going to be just as useful for you. So it doesn't matter where you are, you can be working a full-time job, a 9 to 5, you could be working for yourself, you could be even studying right now but I think these four tips are extremely important and you should try to incorporate them into your daily routine as much as possible. 

Okay, let's start with tip number one. It's all about your breath. And you know that I practice yoga regularly. In yoga, we always focus on the breath. You could do your whole practice laying flat on your back on your mat and just practicing breathing. When we say practice your breath, we mean intentionally feel your chest rise and feel it compress the air out of your lungs. Focusing on your breath provides a nice calming effect to your whole body. You may realize that you're holding tension in different parts of your body because obviously, our bodies are very attuned to the stresses around us, and we naturally carry tension on different parts of our bodies. So by focusing on the breath, will naturally start relaxing all of your muscles. 

And if you can put yourself in a situation, say it laying down on your back or even just sitting on your office chair and take a moment. If you're watching the video, you'll see that I'm putting my hand on my chest. My right hand on my chest, my left hand and my belly, and really just taking a moment to really relax and breathe. And my suggestion is to try to make this a daily habit and put it within your day. So you may want to have specific times of your day where you feel tired or you feel like you need to get up because you have some anxiety brewing so you walk to the fridge, for example, or you go and have a drink at the water cooler if you're in the office. Those are moments where you may want to step back and say, hold on, perhaps I should take a breathing break. And with the breathing break, you just need, honestly, sometimes only 60 seconds. You can put on your watch and just breathe for 60 seconds.  

I generally like to do this in-between meeting. I don't always run to the next meeting even if I'm a minute late, I sometimes will stop and I'll say, let's have a breathing break. Even while I was recording this episode, I thought to myself that I'm not getting all my thoughts out, and so perhaps I should take a breathing break because I need a moment to calm my nervous system and just refocus on what I'm trying to do. 

So think about your day, think about when you can incorporate a 60-second breathing break, and try to make it a habit. So again, you may realize that you need to only schedule it in for the first three weeks, and by the fourth week, you'll naturally just take a break and you'll do a breathing break. 

Okay, let's move on to tip number two, and tip number two plays off of tip number one where we focused on the breath, but now we want to dial it back even more and we want to be still, and this is more of an extended part of the breathing break but more around you being still and living in that moment, and almost coming to a state of meditation. 

Now, I know that sounds really woo-hoo and some people are like, we can't meditate, it's too difficult to meditate, but again, I practice yoga not just for the physical component but also for the mental calmness that comes with yoga. And I know that the practice of yoga, it takes you away and adds to your plate for something additional to do throughout the day. So it's not always the right option for people who already feel like their plate is too full. But again, sitting down in your chair and being still and taking your breathing break and perhaps extending it for a longer duration of time, say even up to five minutes, can help you calm your mind enough, and really it does help with your creative juices. 

I have my best ideas when I'm in my yoga flow, and that's because my frontal lobe, my frontal cortex, has been able to shut down and the creative aspects of your brain have the opportunity to bring ideas forward. And so, again, as an entrepreneur or even individuals working a 9 to 5, or even as a student, or even if you're working at home, you need to be creative. Creativity is going to be the fuel for everything that you do. Those ideas are so vital for any future endeavor.  

So again, I highly suggest that take your breathing break. Once you feel like you've established a good pattern or routine, try to be still even longer and try to push into a meditative flow, and you would be surprised at how much better you'll feel after you come out of that flow. 

Okay. Tip number three, tip number three is all about moving. Now, again, it's counterintuitive. You're like, okay Sophia, you want us to be still but you also want to keep us moving. Yes, stress has been shown to reduce once you actually get physically active. You may have heard this before, if you do read a lot of self-help or professional development, we always talk about the importance of exercise and movement and how it's good for you, functionally, physically, and mentally. You need to be able to move and you need to be able to move routinely. 

It's not good enough to just start a routine of movement. A brisk walk at lunch for only a few weeks, and then you shut it off. That's not going to help you over the long term. You need to have consistent practice. So just like the breathing break and just like being still for a bit longer after your breathing break to help you get into the meditative flow, you should incorporate in your schedule at least a few times a week, if not daily, a form of movement. And that could come as simply as walking for 10 minutes at lunch, for example, or after work. It could be as simple as getting up from your chair and stretching and doing desk stretches, which is what I do frequently throughout the day.  

I actually can't sit longer than an hour in my chair. I stand up on the hour and I will do a quick stretch. I'll do a quick walk around the house even if you don't have a lot of space in your house. You can just even turn on some music and just move with the flow of the music. My suggestion is to try to do that every hour, if possible. Research has shown that if you sit for too long, it results in back pain, your posture becomes more rounded and that can result in long-term side effects of really tight musculature and chronic pain.  

So again, getting up on the hour, and this is me putting on my physical therapy hat or my physiotherapy hat. Get up every hour and make sure you do a quick stretch, a quick walk around your house, and if you're having problems with timing that, my suggestion is to put an alarm on your phone. That way you're not missing that opportunity to stand up and stretch. And again, I know I speak a lot about chunking your time and your schedule and ensuring that you put things in 2-hour blocks. I'm not suggesting that you break up your 2-hour block and start on a new task every hour. So for example, say I chunked out two hours of my afternoon to create content for social media, at the hour, I'll stand up and I'll do a quick stretch. I'll quickly walk around it and I'll return back to my desk and continue working on the social media content.  

So that is one pro tip, don't switch your tasks at that time. Just get up and do a quick stretch so that way your body's not seizing up and you're not in that situation that three years from now you're like, well, I sat at my desk too many hours while we're trying to work on my business and now I need a whole load of therapy. We don't want you in that situation at all.  

Okay, let's move on to our final tip, tip number four, and that is to clear the clutter. This is my most difficult tip and that's probably because I just don't focus on the clutter but psychologically, your brain is focusing on what's around you. Even if you're not inherently focusing on that pile of mail sitting on your desk, you know it's there and that can actually help add to your stress. So research shows that you really should try to keep your desk clear and organized, and this will help you stay focused on your work especially if you're the type of person who has a hard time focusing on their work, the clutter around you could be causing half of that distraction. So my suggestion is to build a routine, and I'm working on this too guys.  

I'm telling you, it is very difficult for me. My suggestion is to have a routine called an office day where you at least spend a few hours just organizing. Organizing your desk, organizing your mailboxes, organizing your space around you, and is an active and daily practice. I feel like if you can do that every day, even take out half an hour every day to clean up the space around you, clean up your inboxes, or some people need even more. I actually need probably an hour of office time a day to keep myself organized, but I haven't provided myself that. So that is something I am working on as well.  

Look at your situation and ask yourself how much time do I need to reserve on a daily or weekly basis to ensure that I'm cleaning up my clutter? Research also suggests that if you're really, really stressed and you are sitting in the same environment for too many hours, go to a different environment that doesn't have any clutter, no business paraphernalia, no work paraphernalia, and perhaps if you're at home parent, no kid paraphernalia and no technology, and just be able to go there as kind of your Zen, your place to relax. That is extremely important, especially when we're so focused on getting things accomplished throughout our day, sometimes we need to remove ourselves from that environment so we have the opportunity for our mind to clear.  

Okay guys, let's go from the top. We're going to go through the four tips that we shared with you on how to reduce stress, and we want to make sure that you are putting these into action. So remember, take these tips and put them into action, put them in your calendar, and try to even use them as a preventative. If you're not feeling stressed, this could even be a preventative option for you to help elevate your stress tolerance.  

So tip number one was to breathe and I suggest taking a breathing break frequently throughout your day. I take it between meetings. The next was to be still. Try to extend your breathing breaks a little bit longer, perhaps up to five minutes, and go into a meditative flow to help really decompress, remove any stressful events that might be persisting in your mind.  

The next tip was to get moving. Try not to sit for too long. If possible, stand up every hour, put the alarm on your phone or on your desktop calendar, and ask yourself to stand up every hour. Do a quick stretch break. If you can work in a walk during lunch or after work, and just make sure that you are incorporating physical exercise into your routine, be it daily or weekly. So that way you're not going to be suffering any long-term chronic pain in the future because you spent all this time working on your business. 

 Okay, and the final tip was to clear the clutter, something I'm working on personally. Take some office days, our office hours each day to ensure that it's just for organizing, organizing your desk, organizing your mailboxes, even organizing your files. Trust me, the more organization that you actually complete, the more time-saving you'll have in the future. That's another big tip, which we'll talk about later on actually. I feel like that's a very important tip for people starting out. But again guys, I really do feel that it's undervalued, the amount of time that you put into organizing. So make sure that you do reserve some time for that as well on a daily.  

So again, look at your calendar, perhaps you'll see that every Friday morning, you generally don't have things booked so block off that time and say, this is the hours I'm going to be using for organizing my office or organizing my computer files, whatever it may be, just clean up that clutter. And we also spoke about how a place within your home with no business paraphernalia or no technology or no children's toys might be helpful to also de-stress and decompress. 

Okay, guys, that's all we have for you today. I hope you are able to take some of these tips and apply them in real life. Remember, we want to offer you information but we want to also have you use that information. And again, if you have any questions, you can always send us an email at [email protected]. If you're loving these episodes, feel free to follow and subscribe, and you can always send us a review through iTunes. We love hearing your feedback. Again, guys, thanks for listening. And remember, make a plan and take action and yes, you can have it all. We'll see you next week, same time, the same place. Bye for now.