Anti-stress: exercises for relaxed productivity

• A short, intense exercise session (sweat on a red face indicates you're doing it right).
• A cold shower (yes, you're thinking "how awful", but most people who start with this don't get enough of it because after three minutes they jump out of the shower as if they've been reborn).
• Listen to loud music and preferably sing and dance along.
• Cook something delicious.
• Take a nap for a maximum of 20 minutes.
• Do something crafty.
• Playing an action-packed video game.

Rule of thumb: Anything with such a sensual impact that you don't have time to think about it gives your brain the break it needs.

6 Developing resilience: it's all a question of the right attitude

6.1 The Eisenhower Matrix: Letting go of things that weigh you down

At the strategic time level, you can prioritize things in order to reduce stress. The Eisenhower matrix is very useful here:

1. first I do what is important and urgent.

2. then I do what is important and not urgent.

3. under no circumstances do I prefer unimportant things because of their urgency! I only do unimportant, urgent things if there is still time after the important, non-urgent things.

4 I let go of unimportant, non-urgent things.

Also think about which stressful things in your life you can let go of in the medium term. Do you have contacts, activities or environments that are stressful for you? Ask yourself, for example: Do I want to do this job for the next five, ten, fifteen years?

Keep looking around as long as it's not urgent - just like you have your teeth checked every now and then, even if you don't have a toothache yet.

6.2 Attitude: Emotions are "only" evaluation suggestions

And then there is the mindset.

Most people reading this have the luxury of dealing with first world problems. Most problems are not about life and death, but about what someone wants or desires.

We have it in our own hands how much we get angry - and how much we annoy others because of things that someone has put in their head. At the end of the day, it's just work, and mostly it's just emotions that tug at our nerves.

Remember: Emotions are evaluation suggestions that your brain makes to you based on evolutionary predisposition, experience and habits. Emotions are like a movie that is shown to you. You can take your emotions completely seriously - but you don't have to. At least not always.

The less you take yourself and your emotions seriously or see them as the only possible interpretation of the situation, the more robust your humor will be. A shoe that you don't put on can't hurt. Emotions are something we encounter - but not something we are.

7. recharging need batteries: the 10-finger method

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The 10-finger method helps us to find out what we are currently lacking and which battery of needs we need to recharge in order to feel comfortable in our own skin again. The more our batteries are drained, the thinner-skinned and more willing to suffer we become, and the more we are burdened by efforts of all kinds.

So the next time you feel like you need improvement, look at your left palm and go through these five needs:

Thumbs:

Do I already have a dry mouth or am I drinking enough?

Index finger:

Did I eat something sensible, something that made me feel really full?

Middle finger:

When was the last time I physically exerted myself to the point of sweating, panting or red cheeks?

Ring finger:

When was the last time I slept really well? (We have developed our own self-diagnosis tool for this check).

Little finger:

When was the last time I slept with someone? (Ideally out of love)

These are the most urgent physical needs. If this list sounds vaguely familiar to you, it's probably because some of it is inspired by Dr. Eckart von Hirschhausen. (Source?)

We start with the left hand and the physical needs, because these are important and urgent.

The needs of the right hand are also important, but do not require attention every few hours.

Thumbs: Excellent

We want and need to experience that we are good at something and that we are getting better at it. This can be many things: an instrument, a sport or a skill in our job. Cultivate your skills, challenge yourself, get better at what is important to you.

Index finger: Self-efficacy

We want to feel that we have leverage and that something happens when we do something. We want to shape our home, relationship, career, body and many other things and feel that we are sometimes the hammer and not always just the nail. This need has been drastically neglected by many people during the pandemic, and in many places this has contributed to making people susceptible to psychological stress.

Middle finger: Autonomy

Do something that you do on your own: at your own pace, in your own way, exactly the way you want it and where nobody talks you into it.

Ring finger: Relationships

We are pack animals. We want romantic relationships, friendships, family relationships, collegial relationships. We want to belong and be deserving, sought-after members of groups. Of course, this is in tension with autonomy. Both needs have their time.

Little finger: Sense

We don't always have to have the big picture in mind and in view with every move we make. But from time to time we want to take a bird's eye or satellite view and see whether we are going in the right direction and whether what we are doing is leading to where we want to be later.

If you want to arm yourself against stress, take care of your needs. Don't worry, you will immediately feel where you are lacking if you are honest with yourself. Also, establish good routines that keep you happy and energized: a repertoire of break routines that refresh you - and for emergencies, a handful of coping mechanisms that are playful and humorous and remind you that most things are not as tragic as they first appear.