Don’t carry your work home

It is that time of the year when the calendar is once again packed with celebrations, but what if it also happens to be time to meet your year’s deadlines?

How do you switch off from work pressure and not let your rough day affect your evening? Chennai-based counsellor Mohana Narayanan shares tips to unwind.

“Do deep breathing exercises, consciously and deliberately,” she says. “Have a pleasant thought for every work related thought that runs in your mind.

Adopt automatic thought stopping techniques while getting home back from work. Take only mandatory calls, and learn tactics to say no, gracefully and tactfully.” And music, of course, remains the favourite mantra. ”

Put on some relaxing music in the vehicle while you are travelling back home after work,” says Mohana. Besides, increasing the flow of endorphins, the natural stress busters, in your body also helps, says Mohana. And what better way to do that than a brisk jog or warm-up?

It is not just for the party season, but leaning to compartmentalise one’s personal and professional lives helps at any time. “We need to get our priorities right,” remarks Mohana.

She speaks of her friend who has a peg outside his main door and performs an act of hanging up the invisible bag of troubles outside before entering his house every evening. “He wears it again like a jacket before leaving for work each morning and claims that it works!” she says.