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Working in a stressful work environment takes a toll on your body. Add in bullying or discrimination to this mix, and you have a toxic workplace that can wreak havoc on your well-being.
Whether you have experienced harassment in the workplace or you are going through it right now—it’s essential to have modalities in your life to promote self-care in your daily regimen. Stress is a stealthy, sneaky force that can create harm in your body if it becomes chronic.
When you become stressed, it has an impact on everyone around you. Managing your stress levels can help you to ride out the rough spots that happen in your work.
I will share eight modalities that I used when I was being bullied and discriminated in my former job. These modalities are just a few of the many that can help you navigate the rough waters in your life and maintain your best health and well-being.
Massage
According to the Mayo Clinic, studies of the benefits of massage demonstrate that it is an effective treatment for reducing stress, pain and muscle tension, anxiety, and digestion disorders. If you are dealing with workplace bullying—you are probably feeling tense, and the stress you are going through can manifest many types of health ailments.
Many massage therapists know how to get to the root of the problem when it comes to tight muscles or provide some stress relief through massage. Massage can assist in easing medication dependence, lessen depression and anxiety, release endorphins and amino acids that work as the body’s natural painkiller, and relieve migraine pain.
Meditation
The word meditation is derived from two Latin words: meditari (to think, to dwell upon, and to exercise the mind) and mederi (to heal). Its Sanskrit derivation ‘medha’ means wisdom. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines meditation as to engage in mental exercise (as concentration on one’s breathing or repetition of a mantra) for the purpose of reaching a heightened level of spiritual awareness.
The benefits of meditation are stress reduction and better concentration. It encourages a healthy lifestyle, increases self-awareness, can increase your happiness and self-acceptance, and also be a benefit to your cardiovascular and immune health. There are different kinds of meditation, and you may find that one type is better than another for you.
Hypnosis or Hypnotherapy
Hypnosis is like a guided meditation according to an article on WebMD.com. It has many prevailing benefits that help you gain clarity, confidence, a sense of safety, overcome phobias, fears, anxiety, depression, stress, PTSD, and grief.
How does hypnosis work? A hypnotist or hypnotherapist will help the client get into a restful state of relaxation known as a trance. At this point, suggestions that the client has asked for are administered. These could be suggestions to your subconscious that you are feeling better, you can handle the stress in your life or, you can stand up to your bully. There are so many powerful suggestions to help you in your time of need.
Hypnosis can be an aid to psychotherapy or other counseling. It enables the client to work on issues to improve their self-worth and self-confidence. Many people report they felt like they woke up from a great nap when they come out of a hypnotic trance.
Art Therapy
Art Therapy is an established mental health profession that uses the creative process of artistic creation to enhance the mental, physical, and emotional well-being of the artist.
Art therapy is believed to be helpful because it helps people be creative and develop self-awareness, reduce stress, increases self-esteem. Treatment in Art therapy can help with depression, anxiety, mood disorders, abuse, and other behavioral problems. On top of helping with mental well-being, you can have visual art pieces you can enjoy for years!
Energy Work/Reiki
What is energy work? Since we are made of energy, sometimes you may collect energy that does not serve you well, especially if you have a very sensitive nature.
From an energy worker’s perspective, it is generally recognized that there is an electromagnetic field flowing around and through your body in very specific currents. The Chinese know this as meridians. Sometimes these currencies can get blocked and create an imbalance in your body. It is believed that it can create illness in the body.
People who provide energy work recognize that the heart, mind, and body are connected, and a physical problem in the body may lead to an emotional problem and vice versa. It is believed that the body can cure itself and energy healing may be a powerful modality to help you feel better in mind, body, and spirit.
Binaural Beats
A binaural beat is an auditory artifice perceived when two different pure-tone sine waves, with frequencies lower than 1500 Hz and less than a 40 Hz difference between them is presented to the listener dichotically—one sound in each ear. You may be listening to a 530 Hz pure tone in one ear and a 520 Hz pure tone in the other ear. By listening to these two sounds, it produces an auditory illusion of a third tone, which is called a binaural beat. You must be wearing headphones to experience this effect.
Some of the benefits of listening to binaural beats are that it assists in you entering a deeper meditative state, helps with healing the body, lucid dreaming, can heighten your levels of creativity, and increased learning ability/motor skills. Listening to binaural beats for 30 – 60 mins each day can provide positive results in four to six weeks. One of the greatest resources for binaural beats is Kelly Howell, a pioneer in the binaural beats arena, whose work I love.
Horticultural Therapy
Agricultural and gardening activities are integrated as complementary therapeutic modalities in many private and public psychiatric clinics in the USA. In an article published in the Journal Psychiatry Investigation in 2012 reports that wandering in a natural landscape help with the recovery of psychiatric patients, reduce pain, medication, improve attention and sleep quality and alleviate agitation, particularly in elderly demented patients. Groups of depressed adults also had substantial improvements with horticultural therapy. When you get to gaze at a beautiful plant or flower, you are immersed in the artistry of nature.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the act of being intensely aware of what you’re sensing and feeling at every moment — without interpretation or judgment.
It is super easy to spend lots of time problem-solving, thinking negatively or your mind is racing with concerns of the past or future. The Mayo Clinic states that mindfulness exercises can reduce stress, anxiety, depression, negative things, distractions, and it can improve your mood. It can be as easy as slowing down and noticing a flower and the details of the plant. You can sit in a comfortable chair and close your eyes while paying attention to your breathing.
The idea is to stay in the moment and not think of the past or the future. You can’t change the past and thinking of the future, denies you the opportunity to appreciate where you are at the moment. Listening carefully to what someone is saying, without judgment can be a great exercise.
For more articles around resiliency, leadership, bullying, discrimination, and solutions, be sure to check out my column here on GMP.
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Photo by Mathieu Turle on Unsplash
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