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Five Tips on Spring Cleaning Your Mind from Work Stress

The spring season is upon us! The air is turning warm, the sun is shining, and you want to be outside. But for many of us, spring can be a very busy time, balancing our children’s sports schedules and school activities with our own commitments and hobbies while still managing to meet work productivity and quarterly deadlines. At the end of a long day, all you need is a break to clear your mind of work stress, but that break never seems to come.

Prioritizing mental health isn’t always easy for the modern worker, but implementing small changes over time can help to reduce professional stresses, allowing you to “clean your mind.” What better time to do this than spring? Here are 5 ways you can spring clean your mind from work stress.

  1. Clear your weekends to clear your mind. On the weekends, try to forget about work responsibilities. Turn off your phone if you can as well as other work-related technologies that distract you from enjoying the present moment. Use your weekend to something fun that will relax and rejuvenate you.
  2. Adopt zero technology hobbies. Take up a new interest or hobby that does not involve technology or initiate a “technology detox.” Staying away from technology, which you probably use every day at work, will help to give your mind the break it needs.
  3. Think forward. Plan a day off or plan a trip. Sometimes, having something exciting to look forward to – thinking about and planning for it – is enough of an escape to get you through a demanding workday.
  4.  Clean for spring to clean your mind from work stress. While working from home can be extremely rewarding, our homes can become cluttered, adding to anxiety you are already feeling from work. Take time this spring to declutter every room of your house. If your work is office-based, take a bit of time each day to declutter there also – clear your desk, file papers, empty the trash can. Give yourself the gift of a clean slate.
  5. Take time to smell the flowers. Do you have flowers on your desk right now? If not, get some. Spring is a time for new beginnings, and fresh spring flowers will remind you that life goes on despite the stress.

If your work stress is overwhelming you, see if your employer offers an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). For more information about St. Luke’s Penn Foundation EAP, visit www.pfeap.org or call 215.257.6556.