Years ago, there was a commercial on television that essentially said ?life got tougher, so we made our over-the-counter drug stronger.” This disheartening commercial sent the message that the only way to face the modern work-a-day world was to medicate yourself at increasingly higher doses.The rate at which people turn to “medication” as some type of temporary antidote for the stresses of working in contemporary society is alarming.

In a given year some five BILLION doses of tranquilizers are prescribed in the U.S. Among 150 million adults, assuming 2/3 of them receive such prescriptions, that works out to one dose at least every two weeks. Without getting into the vile details, all evidence indicates that the level of dosage and frequency of prescriptions is increasing. This is nothing short of appalling. People seem to have progressed from aspirin, to Valium, to Prozac to who knows what’s next.

Popping pills belies the majesty of human potential, in particular, your potential. Your body is a wondrous mechanism, and it gives you the clues you need to stay healthy. If you’re “stressed to the max,” if you have pounding headaches by the end of the work day, that’s a definite sign. Popping a pill may bring predictable, temporary relief, but that strategy for getting through the day can’t compete with simple, tried-but-true measures you can take at any time, to keep yourself in balance throughout the day.

What are the tools at your disposal anytime throughout the work day when your head starts pounding, or your insides start shaking, or you feel like you’re simply going to explode? Fortunately, there are many:

1. Attempt to maintain a sense of humor. Humor will take you a long way. In his book, The Healing Power of Humor, author Allen Klien says too many people fail to recognize how powerful a tool humor can be.

•  The ability to laugh at yourself, or laugh at a situation can immediately help to defuse any stress that you’re experiencing.
• Laughter can help to lower your blood pressure. It can mean the difference between blowing up over a situation or sailing past it.
• Often times, the difference between dead-ending in your career, and rising to the top, is a sense of humor in the face of tough challenges.

Whether your humor focuses on you and your own shortcomings, or the absurdity of the situation you face, is of no matter. As a speaker, I am constantly reminded by other speakers, that no matter how badly the airline messes up my flight plans, or the front desk manager botches my reservation, all of it is grist for the mill. Later, my experience might be a juicy anecdote or incident I can relate to the audience, or better yet, a passage I can include in a book!

2. Stretch. I don’t mean that you have to join yoga class.

• Engage in any type of stretching activity that enables you to “shake out the kinks.”
• Right now, right where you are, stand up, close the door to your office, if you have an office and door, and reach your hands up to the top of the ceiling.
• Then, look right, look left.
• Extend your right leg to the right, extend your left leg to the left.
• Do deep knee bends.
• If you can bring your knee to waist level, and then alternate legs, it’ll only take about 10 or 20 seconds before your derriere and posterior side feel somewhat toned.

All other things equal, you’re going to feel less stressed, the better shape you’re in.

3. Think about each part of your body and slowly give yourself affirming relaxation statements. For example: “the top of my head is relaxing,” “the top of my head is relaxing.” This will be followed with “my forehead is relaxing,” “my forehead is relaxing.” This procedure, called progressive relaxation, helps hospital patients to shorten their stay and heal faster. By focusing on each area of your body, you’re able to release deeply held tensions and fatigue. Many people report that they experience an extremely restful night of sleep. You can practice this method in your chair at work, if you know you’ll have an uninterrupted stretch of minutes.

You don’t have to proceed through your entire body, simply focus on the areas that are noticeably in need. For most people, this could be the top of the head and forehead, the eyes, mouth, throat, back of the neck, shoulders, small of the back, and in and around the lumbar region.

4. Talk to somebody, particularly a co-worker who has a sympathetic ear. When I worked for a management consultant firm in, there was one friend in particular I could talk to at work, and knew that I had an odds on chance of feeling better. Jon was such a positive, up-beat guy, without affectation, that a quick trip to his office always worked wonders for me. I’m not sure if he knew what kind of therapeutic effect he had on me, but it doesn’t matter. When I got back to my office, I felt renewed.

5. Employ imaging. This is a rather simple process where you conger up a mental image of something that conveys happiness, warmth, or peaceful feelings for you. For example, you might remember a meadow or farm from your childhood, a waterfall, a picnic site, a scene from a movie, a favorite cousin, or a lover. By focusing on the image for even as little as a minute or two, you can achieve a drop in pulse, heart rate, and even blood pressure.

6. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Ray Perez, of Bradenton, Florida, takes the view that there are two major events in a person’s life. The first is when you’re born. The second is when you die. “Everything in between” according to Ray “is small stuff.” Too many people have the tendency towards catastrophizing daily obstacles. With Ray’s view, also called perceptual restructuring, you acknowledge all the day-in and day-out stuff that predictably is going to happen. Don’t let it get the best of you.

7. Get a massage. At the end of a particularly stressful day there’s nothing like it. I’m talking about a real massage, by a certified massage therapist (CMT). You may have to pay extra to schedule one so quickly, so perhaps your best strategy is to have a regular time each week, say Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. The cost varies in metro areas between $40 and $70. Massages generally last an hour. A good masseuse can work your lymphatic system and help your body to flush out toxins that may have built up. You’ll sleep like a baby that night, and have a notable movement the next morning, to boot.

8. Simply take a walk. Walking is one of God’s many gifts to homo erectus. It’s one of the simplest exercises you can undertake, and yet, one of the most rewarding. When I’m under stress, I find that simply taking a good five-minute walk can spell a world of difference. The key is to not be in a hurry. Walk purposely, stretching out your legs and swinging your arms as you go. Maintain your best posture. Take good deep breaths while you walk. Notice your surroundings.

9. Take a drink of water. Notice I said water, not coffee, not tea, not alcohol, just good, old, plain H20. Undoubtedly, you’ve learned along the way that your body is 90% water. Keep a bottle of good mountain spring water in your office or certainly nearby. If you find yourself running to the bathroom more times during the day, so be it. Your body needs to hydrate itself continuously. When you travel a lot, particularly flying, or you find yourself under stress, having a drink of water is a quick, reliable way to feeling at least a little better.

Staying in Shape in Front of the Computer Terminal

What if you’re spending too much time glued to your monitor? Here are some exercises that will help eliminate that kind of stress:

Tips for Diminishing Stress at Your PC

• Breath in slowly through your nose, holding it for two seconds and then exhale through your mouth. Repeat this several times — you’ll likely experience an energy boost.
• Roll your shoulders forward 5 or 6 times using a wide circular motion and then do the same thing backwards.
• Turn your head slowly from side to side and look over each shoulder. Count to 3. Repeat the exercise 5 to 10 times.
• While in your chair, slowly bend your upper body between your knees. Stay this way for a few seconds, then sit up and relax. Repeat this twice to stretch your back.
• Hold your arms straight out in front of you. Raise and lower your hands, bending them at your wrists. Repeat this several times. This stretches the muscles in your forearms and gives your wrists relief.
• Fold your arms in front of you, raise them up to your shoulders and then push your elbows straight back. Hold this for a couple of seconds. This gives your upper back and shoulder blades some relief. Repeat this 5 to 10 times.
• Make a tight fist with your hands and hold this for several seconds. Then spread your fingers as far as you can and hold in this position for another five seconds. Repeat this exercise several times. Your fingers and hands will feel relaxed and nimble.

“Too many people deplete their health in the pursuit of wealth, and then deplete their wealth attempting to regain their health,” says nutritionist Wayne Pickering from Daytona Beach, Florida. It’s a vicious cycle, that you can’t win. It’s better to not deplete your health in the first place, in the pursuit of anything. Then you have a decent chance of actually achieving what you’re after, and when you get there, you can save your money.

How to Hang Loose When Nothing Around You Is Going Right

Some days, perhaps too many of them, no matter what you do, nothing seems to go right. You want to throw up your hands, jump out of the tenth story window, or do something equally unhealthy. I came across a piece of advice years ago that has stuck with me to this day. Robert Ringer, who achieved fame by writing best sellers in the early 1970’s including Winning Through Intimidation and Looking Out for Number One, advises that when nothing is going right, look for something you can do, anything, that represents forward progress.

For example, you’ve got a big project, it’s due in several days and you’re roadblocked. The essential people are not in the office, you can’t get the approvals or the resources you need, parts aren’t working as planned, and you’re ready to scream. Ringer suggests that you look for some small victory. Perhaps it’s simply reorganizing some of the project materials, putting them into the proper file folders, making a couple phone calls that would need to be eventually made anyway.

Miraculously, when you string together two or three small tasks for which you can get a “win,” your whole outlook improves, and any stress that you’re experiencing begins to subside. I’ve followed this bit of advice virtually every day of my working life. I’ve never had a day that has gone so smoothly, so wondrously, that I didn’t experience some stress throughout the day. I’m sure it’s the same way with you. By finding the small win in even small but worthwhile activities, often enough, other roadblocks seem to dissipate, and I can continue motoring on down that highway.

Hanging Loose When Nothing Else Is Going Right

• Leave work back at the office. As the day winds down, even if it was a near disaster, give yourself the mental, emotional, and physical break of separating from your work. Don’t take it with you in your briefcase, or in your thoughts, if you can help it. Make a clean break, at least for that evening. Have a life for the rest of the night. It’ll all be there the next day, and, mercifully, you’ll probably have a better perspective with which to tackle it.
• If the spirit moves you, take a different way home, perhaps along a more scenic route. Stop off and get an ice cream cone, if it’ll make you feel better. When you do get home, change from your business suit or work clothes into whatever you wear around the house. This helps separate your personal life from work.
• Talk to people in your home. Especially before dinner, give everyone at least five minutes of your complete attention.