Cubicle Got You Down?

Want to be happier at your job?  Here is one way:  Ask your boss if you can install a tub in your cubicle.  After she finishes laughing at you, return to your cubicle, sit in your office chair, and imagine you are taking a bubble bath.  A long, relaxing, soaker bath with scented bath oil and fluffy white bubbles and a glass of your favorite beverage at your side.  And while you're imagining this bath?  Breathe...  Breathe...  Breathe...  Slow, quiet inhales and exhales.  Feeling your chest expand, your shoulders rise, your nose take in the subtle current of air.  After two minutes of this relaxing bubble bath of your mind?  Return to work.  

According to researcher and educator, Shawn Achor, after doing two minutes of breathing meditation, your productivity will go up.  You will feel less stressed, more focused, and experience greater optimism.

  

Most of us work somewhere in the vicinity of 40 hours per week.  That is a lot of our lifetime spent working.  For many, that's a lot of time spent hating one's job, feeling trapped, dreading the rest of the work week, avoiding that dreadful coworker.  

Do you have fifteen minutes to watch a video that will help inspire you toward feeling better about your job? Can you take fifteen minutes, or  less than one-tenth of one percent of your work week to steer yourself out of the work-week-blues?  Sure you can. You owe it to your physical wellbeing and future happiness to do so.  

Besides being entertained by Achor's delicious humor, listening to his TED Talk will help you  learn that job success is largely determined by:  

1. optimism levels

2. social support

3. ability to see stress as a challenge, not as a threat

You will learn that, happiness isn't determined by what you do, what you have, or where you are.  Rather, "Ninety percent of your long term happiness is predicted ... by how your brain processes the world."  Happiness, in other words,  is determined by how you think about what you have and where you are.  

So even if you're stuck in a tiny cubicle, you can think your way into a more productive, more challenging, more successful mindset.  And mindset is, according to research Achor discusses, seventy-five percent of the happiness equation.  

Watch the video and you will also learn that, "being positive in the present - turns on the learning centers of the brain."  You have the opportunity to be better at what you do, learn more, and impress your boss with your willingness to go the distance.  

Watch Achor's TED Talk, here.  

--Sandy Andrews, PhD 

Clinical Psychologist

Austin, TX 

Tips for Easing Chronic Pain

Contemplation, I Guess
bas relief painting

Robert Terrell, Lubbock, Texas

Relaxation exercises. Deep breathing, meditation, recalling pleasant memories, progressive muscle relaxation, letting your mind go completely blank, these are all methods for achieving relaxation. For more examples, click here.

Visualization is a powerful relaxation tool. Learn to visualize a peaceful and calming place. This exercise is sometimes called visualizing "special place" or "vacation place." It is especially therapeutic when you use deep breathing tools before you visualize and during.

Pleasurable Activities Choose activities that are pleasureable and take your mind off the pain: listen to music, paint or draw, meet up with an old friend, watch a movie that you associate with good feelings.

Keep a Diary of your pain. Also known as a pain journal. The more aware you are of when the pain intensifies the more in control of the pain you will be. (This will be of value to both you and your doctor.)

Cognitive Skills Try to minimize negative thought patterns. For example if a normal feeling is, "I don't want to do this project." Try changing that to, "I will feel much better when this project is done."

Stop and Rest. Listen to your body when it is telling you that it is tired or in pain. Try to get 7-8 hours of sleep a night and be sure not to over or under sleep.