Leaders go through unique situations that only they have to navigate. It is only logical to conclude that leaders need to be able to relieve stress just as much as the people they lead do. The problem is, many times leaders are working so much without much downtime. So what are some ways that leaders can relieve their stress all while keeping up with the pace of what they do? Well here are 10 stress relief tips that can help.

Focus on What makes you Happy

Who is to say that being a leader means that you have to deny what makes you the happiest? Sure, we all have a ton of work on our plates to turn around as event professionals, however it will be all a bust if we don’t enjoy the work we do. Do everyone a favor and make choices that you are happy with. You’ll find that slowly you will create a workplace that you are happy and less stressed even if you are working hard.

Make Stress Your Friend

A while back I wrote about how we should look at our stress to determine if it is lifting us up or tearing us down. I still think that this is important to do. It is important in our event planning world to differentiate the types of stress that we are dealing with so that we can deal with it before it deals with us. Check out this video of Kelly McGonigal, Health Psychologist featured on TED she really goes into how we can make stress our friend.

Have a Best Friend at Work

Do you have a best friend at work? Well if not a best friend, a friend that you can talk do personally? Having a trusted confidante at work can help you with just the balance that you need throughout your day. If you need to destress and someone to talk to, you can engage with this person. It is also helpful to have someone that you can get together with outside of work as well. Close friends have a way of making things much better. If you do not have a best friend at work consider getting one.

Delegate Differently

One of things that I learned while read Free to Focus by Michael Hyatt, is that delegating can be an artform. Leaders can feel that their team is already stressed out, that many of the items on their plate, they have to be tasked with handling. If we take a deeper look at our teams, we may see that members of our team have expressed interest in areas that we are managing. Perhaps it is time to trust their passion and delegate to them things that they feel passionate about?

Level with Nature

We have everything that we need for stress to help us relieve stress just by stepping outside. Nature has a way of centering us and letting us know that whatever we are going through, it is minimal in comparison to natures design. Nature calms you and helps to settle your mind. So if you need to release some stress, get outside and get one with nature.

Snuggle a Pet

There is nothing like snuggling a puppy to make you smile. If you have a pet, you have a happiness easy button. If you don’t, then consider finding one as soon as you can and welcome the joy that happens after you interact with them.  This can easily be accomplished by going to a local pet store. You can also look into local community programs that might have these great awesome opportunities.

Healthy Eating

Whip out those veggies and fruits and make your meals much healthier. Do you know that healthy eating contributes to relieving stress? “Eating a healthy diet can reduce the negative effects of stress on your body,” said Matthew J. Kuchan, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at Abbott in this article. When you eat better, you feel better, and when you feel better you can tackle difficult situations with more ease.

Self-Reflection

Taking a moment to self-reflect can really help ease your stress. Knowing what you are stressed about and what is the point of you feeling the way you are can help you get to resolution with your being. It isn’t a point of just being stressed out and how to relieve it but also how to solve the reason for why you are stressed. Taking a moment to reflect on your situation might help you find some solutions to ease your stress or be content with your situation until a time of relief comes.

Exercise

After every workout that I do, I generally feel better. The thing is, we don’t always want to take the steps in our health. Start with a few minutes. Just go for a walk. Graduate to something more until you can at least give your body about one hour of good exercise a day. This will help lift your spirits, and will also make you feel more energetic.

Make Connections

Working virtually has provided us with some conveniences. However, it can make it much more difficult to make meaningful connections. Developing deep trusted relationships in the workplace can offer us some benefits. One of those benefits, are depending on those relationships at times where we need them. Being able to bounce and idea or just a situation off of another person that can relate to your world can be the bridge to helping you get through your situation. Make a proactive effort to building a trusting network within the industry.

Unplug

When people think of unplugging, they think of going to the beach or taking a walk. Although those can are very helpful to relieving stress, many times you need to physically and mentally disconnect from your source of stress. This at times means do not think about work, do not talk about work, do anything else but connecting with your work. Truly unplugging is like taking a mental and physical vacation from work. You can do this for an hour, or you can take a week of vacation. Do whatever works best for you.

Get Your Sleep

Sleeping is healing, and it helps rest your body. Office work even though it isn’t physically exhausting, it can be emotionally taxing. Making sure that you get at least 7 hours of sleep every night can help your mind, body, and soul to recuperate. When you wake you may find that you have more energy to take on the day. Some experts even say that napping during your day can also help gain you more energy and brain power. Check out that and some other health benefits here.

I hope these tips bring you some relief as you lead others!

P.S. Want some other stress relief tips, check out my related post: Planners, Ease your Stress with these 10 Easy Tips