1 – Force yourself to separate work and personal life: Social psychologists support that your ability to do a good job while at work depends on whether or not you have a home life that refreshes and restores you. If you cannot stop thinking about the projects you have to complete after leaving the office, try to create a mental filing cabinet. It would act as your actual project cabinet since you will allow yourself to sit down, open it and deal with your work worries. Then force yourself to mentally close the cabinet and do something else. You can try this on Fridays before leaving the office or each night at a certain time. The most important thing is to lock the cabinet before attempting to direct your attention to something less stressful.

2 – Avoid multitasking except while being at the office: A rather usual bad tactic today’s working professionals suffer from is subconsciously taking the office habits -especially that of multitasking- home with them. It is not rare that people find themselves washing dishes or cleaning their drawers while phoning a friend or checking their mails. Living everyday in the overdrive has resulted in multitasking when one ought to relax. Although some consider this as a normal routine, our bodies do not. In order to balance work, play, and rest, try to write down five ways work blends into your free time. Then select one to focus on. If for example you tend to check your e-mails every hour while at home, cut back initially by half and then more until you get it down to once a night. By transforming mindless habits into conscious choices, you will limit your body’s stress and gain control over your free time during the day or night.

3 – Socialize outside your work: To lead a more fulfilling personal life, expand your exposure to people you do not work with. Otherwise, you will constantly be pushed into the role you play while being at the office. Meet your friends, get our more often, sign up for a photography class, join the gym or volunteer your services for a cause. Meeting people and exchanging ideas is a very healthy way of finding the necessary balance within and gradually advance your abilities and social skills.

4 – Stop talking about work: People tend to develop social circles and share common experiences. When these circles are familiar or come from your work industry, try to avoid spending all your free time talking about issues that you would normally discuss during a lunch brake. Introduce new subjects and direct the conversation towards new issues of interest. Sports, arts, politics, and travel, can be very exciting subjects for your friends to dive into and by the end of the evening you will appreciate the fact that you learned something that was both entertaining and relaxing.

5 – Your home is your sanctuary: To prevent work from invading your home, create a personal project that will keep you busy but at the same time help you relax and recharge. You can gain a lot from painting, cooking a special dinner for your friends or investing time to start a home-improvement project. Invent new ways of keeping yourself active and your body and mind will thank you for having diverse interests.

Stress can be defined as the external forces of the outside world impacting on the individual. Yet stress is also a normal part of life that can help us develop and grow as people. On the other hand, stress can cause us significant problems.

Stress releases potent neurochemicals and hormones these prepare us for action. The common reason for stress is to either fight or flee. If we don’t take action, the stress response can lead to health problems. Prolonged, uninterrupted, unexpected, and unmanageable stresses are the most damaging types of stress.

Day in and day out we face stressful situations. They meet us at every corner of our life. We can face to face and with stress in life’s low valleys as well as on the mountaintops where we experience life’s real joys. The good and the bad both come with there own patterns of stress.

Meeting groups of people can be particularly problematic. Everybody, no matter how experienced they may be, will feel a degree of stress when faced with a group situation.

Bear in mind that if you are feeling under stress then everyone else in the group is feeling in much the same way. However, if you’ve been called to lead that group then the stress on you is going to be that much greater. You will be concerned about how others perceive you, about whether you will be accepted or not and you will be thinking about the task that the group must face as well. Never lose sight of the big picture, the reason for the existence of the group.

The group will operate and perform their task much better if they are feeling comfortable with the group. The group dynamics can be influenced by the degree of interaction of the members of the group. If you are the leader then it’s your responsibility to get the group performing.

You will find the task much easier and less stressful if you are adequately prepared. One way you can prepare is to have a bank of stress relief games for groups at hand, or at least have an idea of how these stress relief games for groups work.

You’ll find that these games will help to break down the natural barriers that exist as groups begin to form and develop.

Stress Relief Games for Groups #1: If I Were A…

These stress relief games is extremely good at getting people out of their shells and begin communicating. Good communication assists with group performance and without it the group would never achieve its stated aims.

Its best to have the group stand or sit in a circle, this will create a sense of the belonging. The leader starts by turning to the person on his right and ask the question “if you work and animal what animal which you be?” That person will answer the question and turn to the person on his right and ask a similar question, such as if you were a famous writer who would you be? The game that continues and everyone has a chance to ask a question and give an answer. Just remember that nobody is allowed to repeat a category.

This is a very simple game with no preparation beforehand and that is the best type of stress relief game for a group.

Stress Relief Games for Groups #2: Who Likes What?

In this game everybody has a pencil and a piece of paper on which to list five categories. Basically the categories can be about anything such as “composers”, “actors” or any other category like a fancy.

Now everybody is simply lists their favourite item in each part of the category.

Give everyone a piece of paper and a pencil. Then list five categories such as “foods” or “musicians.” Everyone should list his or her favourite thing in each category. All the slips of paper should then be given back to you (the leader). As you read each list aloud, the other members of the group try to guess whose list you are reading.

Stress Relief Games for Groups #3: Liar, Liar

Here we have each person in the group making three or four comments about themselves. Some of the comments should be true and some should be false, its up to the rest of the group to decide which are true and which are false.

Stress Relief Games for Groups #4: Gossip

This one’s especially great for groups that have to go on to develop a serious sense of communication but you do need at least 10 people for it to be most effective. The maximum for this game is 20. so bear these details in mind if you plan to use it.

The idea is that the leader begins by whispering a long sentence to the person on his right. That person passes the message onto the person to her right and so the message goes around the group.

Its amazing how the message will turn out as it gets passed on. This game will demonstrate just how informal communication gets changed form its original idea into something that never happened. It’ll stress the need to write down important notes as the need arises. We cannot always rely on word of mouth alone.

Stress Relief Games for Groups #5: Ethics

This game works well for a small group of adults who know each other who love to discuss/argue issues and don’t get offended easily. The leader starts the game by turning to a random group member and presenting an ethical dilemma. For instance, “If you knew someone was going to kill your worst enemy, would you try to warn him?” The person answers the question and explains his or her rationale. Then the group votes on whether or not they believe the person would really act as they said they would. If the majority of participants think the person is lying, he or she is out of the game. If the majority thinks he/she is telling the truth, that person picks another “victim” and poses another ethical dilemma. Last player left is the winner.

Using active listening through a spat is the first move you can take to mitigate the situation and crack whatever problems have surfaced. Realize, nonetheless, that when people feel strongly about an issue, their emotions will impact their ability to correspond and listen. It is imperative therefore to utilize a blend of active and reflective listening skills. Here are five methods you can use to defuse conflicts and enhance effective communication.

1. Condemn the issue or behavior, not the person. By dealing with the issue or the behavior, you evade attacking the other person. If you are “arguing” with your teen about a curfew, stick to the issue of the curfew or to his actions of breaching curfew. Don’t scour up all of his past blunders or chastise him a “crazy kid who can’t do anything right.” That is attacking the person. It will harm his self-esteem and will only create barriers. Listen to what he has to share and keep him on track if he wanders from the issue. Persist with active listening even if he other person does not. Your liberality with active listening will help soothe a potentially damaging situation.

2. Understand that each person has worth. It is almost impractical to observe active or reflective listening if you dismiss the speaker as inferior or insignificant. You don’t have to concur with him, but it is decisive that you defer to his right to a different opinion and recognize his sense of value. Find something that the two of you have in common. Try to appreciate what the other person is saying and why he feels a certain way.

3. Sidestep absolutes – right/wrong, bad/good. Statements like “you always” or “you never” are absolutes that hinder communication. An active listener will sense these right away and counter with a statement such as, “I hear you saying I always do such and so, but actually I…” The same is true of statements that indicate right/wrong or bad/good. This is not to say there aren’t circumstances that are right or wrong, bad or good, but in a dispute most right/wrong or bad/ good situations are merely exaggerations and the truth is somewhere in between. All-encompassing simplifications polarize a conflict. The focus then is not on cracking the difficulty at hand, but instead the focus is on each party effectively defining her personal position.

4. Convey “I feel” messages instead of “you” messages. For illustration, when you say, “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” you are sending a “you” message. An “I” message would be, “I don’t understand what you’re discussing.” The “you” message lays culpability on the speaker. The “I” message clarifies your apprehension. The same is true with your teen. An “I” message would be, “I worry about you when you aren’t home by your curfew,” or “When you come beyond your curfew, I feel like you are intentionally flouting me.” The “I” message tells the other person how you feel about a position. The “I” message is concerned with the issue. The “you” message harass the person.

5. Activate your brain and defer your emotions. This is perhaps the most trying of the five techniques since verbal discord by nature is emotional. The eventual goal is to transform the verbal conflict into a dialogue. Verbal rows are counterproductive in conducting business and certainly don’t cultivate a harmonious home life. Instead of letting your emotions take over, ask yourself, “How can I help solve this problem? What resolution is paramount for both of us? What can we modify? You need to rein in your emotions for the sake of the issue. Listen energetically and nonjudgmentally.