Tag: creativity

Here are my 11 ways to reduce stress right now…

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You naturally want to avoid and prevent stress as much as possible. Doesn’t work? Then here are 11 ways to reduce stress right now. Read it !! Breathe In, Breathe Out…… Remember we are living in a world where you can not avoid getting stressed. Everyone is struggling even me, but don’t give up the stress fight.

The Unstress Course is Now Open for Enrollment (but Closes on Monday)

This is how you reduce stress

Stress makes no one happier. Among other things, stress causes you to become irritated quickly, sleep badly and enjoy yourself less. Due to increasing fatigue, the frustrations continue to rise and your stress level continues to rise .

The solution is of course obvious: tackling the cause or causes of the stress you are experiencing. Sometimes, however, that does not work one-two-three. For example, financial problems are not easily solved, it takes time to process a breakup and caring for a sick family member can cause a lot of worries.

However, there are also ways to directly reduce stress in those situations. This way you can relax better, you are less likely to become overstimulated and you make yourself more resilient.

1. Write down what you are grateful for

Especially when you experience a lot of negative stress, it is sometimes difficult to think positively. You soon end up in a negative spiral, which only causes you more stress.

Looking for positivity can help you get out of that negative spiral. After all, there is always something to be thankful for. Think about it and write it down – make a gratitude list.

To reduce stress, I write down three things in a book every night that I am grateful for that day. The sun that unexpectedly broke through, for example;  A nice offer in the supermarket that saved you some money can also do something.

It’s the little things that do it. And by writing them down, you become aware that there is quite a lot to be thankful for. That makes you happier and that in turn has a positive effect on your stress level.

2. Move more

When you are stressed, you tend to worry a lot. At least I do. Grind, grind and grind again. What helps? Clearing my head by moving.

Exercise has of course many benefits, including reducing stress. Movement inhibits the production of cortisol (the stress hormone) and promotes the production of endorphins (the happiness hormone). No wonder I feel reborn after a run.

3. Go outside

However, the latter is also due to the fresh air outside. Not only because fresh air gives you a boost, but also because nature has a relaxing effect. The sound of leaves rustling in the wind, the warmth of the sun on your face, and even the feeling of raindrops falling in your hair can help ease your stress.

4. Wash off the stress

Walking in the rain is probably nobody’s biggest hobby, but washing your worries away can be healing.

A nice shower or a relaxing bath can therefore also help to reduce stress. Especially when you close your eyes and visualize that all your worries disappear down the shower drain.

5. Reducing Stress By Meditating

There are many more visualizations and meditations that produce the same effect. My favorite is a body scan, in which I consciously tense and relax every part of my body with my eyes closed. On the Internet you will find a number of nice meditations that will immediately help you to reduce stress.

Just close your eyes for a few minutes and follow your breathing – this is often enough to feel more relaxed. Slow down and do nothing but be.

6. Do something creative

Is meditation not for you? Perhaps you can lose yourself in a creative activity. For example, crocheting, crafting or assembling something can be very relaxing.

An adult coloring book helps me personally: for a while all I have to worry about is coloring within the lines. It can be that simple.

7. Cleaning up your house

Cleaning up works a bit the same for me: it’s simple, it yields something and I hardly have to think about it.

An additional advantage is that a tidy house helps to reduce stress. After all, your head is already full and chaotic enough when you’re stressed, so a cluttered environment is counterproductive. When you tidy up, you create peace in your environment and therefore also in your head.

8. Do something you’ve been dreading for a long time

There are even more ways to immediately create more space in your head. Those tasks that you keep putting off because you don’t like them so much take up space in your head. Check one off and you have one less thing to worry about.

9. Write off you

You can write off all those other things. Get the worrying thoughts out of your head and put them on paper. This way you don’t have to store them all mentally and you create space in your head again.

Just writing off everything you want to lose can sometimes be a huge relief. However, it also ensures that you have a clear overview of what is going on. By writing down everything you worry about, you may get helpful insights that you can use to move on.

10. Reducing Stress By Sleeping Well

If not, at least you’ve vented your heart and cleared your head. This often helps, especially when you can’t sleep because you keep worrying. Still, a good night’s sleep is very important to reduce stress. Without sleep you cannot recover and the tensions only increase.

So also use something like writing down all your worrying thoughts or a meditation to calm yourself before going to sleep. And go to bed on time.

No matter how busy you are, always make time for enough sleep. Without a good night’s sleep, you are much more susceptible to stress and you soon end up in a vicious circle of stress, lack of sleep and even more stress.

11. Make physical contact

Whether you sleep alone or with a partner: physical contact also helps to reduce stress. For example, if you give your partner or a friend a hug, your body produces the hormone oxytocin. This so-called cuddle hormone gives you a sense of trust and connection and reduces your stress level. Are you both stressed out? A firm hug does wonders.

Reduce stress step by step

Stress sucks the happiness out of your day. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to quickly experience less stress.

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STOP BRAINSTORMING

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Organizations need creative ideas to grow and innovate. Employees are creative because they have expertise, are motivated and can think well. Teams are creative because they benefit from the synergy between people. The most common method to turn that creativity into something concrete is the brainstorming. But that method actually does not work at all.

Brainstorming was devised by Alex Osborn in the 1950s. It has four rules:

  1. You must generate as many ideas as possible.
    2. You must give priority to unusual and original ideas.
    3. You must combine and refine the ideas
    4. You can not criticize the ideas during the brainstorming session.

This informal and unstructured process is based on two ancient theories from psychology. Namely that the presence of others has positive consequences for people’s motivation and that quantity leads to quality. Osborn even claimed that brainstorming would lead to fifty percent higher performance. But his theory has been studied for almost seventy years. What seems? Brainstorming produces no better and no more ideas than if all individual employees would work independently. In fact, there are even indications that brainstorming damages creativity.

Why brainstorming does not work

In a survey more than 800 teams were analyzed. The conclusion was that individuals produce more ideas when they do not interact with others. Brainstorming mainly damages the larger teams. Especially if they are subsequently also under a magnifying glass from a manager and if the ideas must be handed over orally instead of in writing. Moreover, teams give up faster when they notice that all their efforts do not yield anything.

There are four explanations for this. First, there are always people in a team who do not really commit themselves. They do not do their best and deliver little. This is the result of a psychological phenomenon known as the bystander effect. We are less likely to do something if we know that others can do it too. In addition, people are also afraid of what others might think of their ideas. If there is someone who is very good at a brainstorm, the rest may think they are not good enough. This reduces the overall performance. This effect is even stronger if someone is introverted or insecure. Then there is the human tendency to find an average. The best in a group adjusts its performance downwards, until the average of the group is reached. We often see this in sports teams when they play against a much worse opponent. They lower themselves to the level of the opponent. Finally, there is the fact that, no matter how large the group is, we can only introduce one idea at a time. The amount of ideas reaches a plateau when there are six to seven participants in the group. After that the total amount of ideas remains the same, and the amount of ideas per person falls.

Why we still brainstorm

But why is there so much brainstorming? This is probably due to the ever-increasing specialization in the field of work in organizations. The expertise is divided equally among the team members. If a problem needs to be solved that requires different levels of knowledge, it is important to put together the brainstorming group in the right way. As a result, the available knowledge is more diverse and the problem is highlighted from several perspectives. This benefits the solution. In practice, participants have to be carefully selected for a brainstorming session.

Much coordination and coordination is also required. If you have ever been to a brainstorming session, you know that that is not always the case. Even if groups do not produce more or better ideas, a brainstorm is more democratic. As a result, employees may feel more involved and use the solution sooner. Whether that solution has quality or not.

It comes down to the fact that brainstorms are still used to do what feels intuitively well. It is a wonderful placebo in the arsenal of a manager. It should work even if there is no evidence that it really works. So go ahead and put that brainstorm in the agenda. You can not achieve anything with it, but your team feels better.

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