You can find out more about me and what I do at Integrated Wellness — www.igwell.com.

One of the ways to know that you are stressed is when your mind is not focused, when your

mind is stuck in a negative feedback loop of trying to figure out the same problem over

and over again without coming to any resolution. One of the first things to do when you become

unfocused like that is to stop focusing, stop what you're doing, walk away, leave your task.

You might think that you can or need to push through whatever you doing, but taking the

fifteen, or if you have thirty, minutes of time to really step away is going to help

you much more. You'll come back with refreshed vigor with new stamina, and you'll actually

be able to make some really good progress on your task. The next thing to do is change

your scenery. Get up from your desk, take a walk around your floor, if you can get out

side take a walk around your block. If there is a park near by, get into nature. Being

in nature is a great way to relax your mind. You're able to shift your attention from voluntary,

where you're focused on one particular thing, to involuntary, where you can gently witness

the surroundings around you. Listening to music is great way to relax your mind. It's

also something that's really easy to do. Pick a piece of music that relaxes you, something

that's not too intense, and just put it on, sit back, close your eyes, breathe deeply,

relax your muscles, and allow yourself to get lost in the feeling of the music. Let

your mind go, don't think about anything. Just listen to the music. If you're at your

desk and you cant get away, they are still things that you can do to effectively relax

your mind. The first thing always to do is to remember to breathe deeply. Breathing will

calm you. It will recenter you and get you grounded, get you back in touch with yourself.

You can also do a quick progressive muscle relaxation, where you relax different groups

of muscles throughout your body starting with your forrhead and moving all the way down.

There's also a great exercise that you can do it at your desk that i call it ""The Space

Between,"" where you take your fingers on different points on your face, and as you

close your eyes, you feel the distance between your fingers on your face, so I'm feeling

the distance sort of in my head between the fingers on each side of my jaw. And you can

do this anywhere on your head, so you can to it you can even do it on your eyes. So

feeling the space between my fingers in my right eye, between my fingers around my left

eye. And again all this does is just to help relax the mind and get the mind out of single

pointed focus, out of focusing on one thing contently. And the last thing you can do at

your desk is doodle or draw. Keep it simple, take a pen, grab a piece of paper, and just

let what ever is coming out of your hand happen. It doesn't have to be specific, it can be

abstract. Let your mind go, and have fun with it.