Having a dog in the office as Stress Relief

A dog in the office can help reduce stress

Working in any office can be stressful, however, with a dog in the office, stress levels are reduced considerably. It doesn’t matter if you work for yourself, work on your own or in a corporate environment, stress is now a factor in our working lives. The skill we have to master is trying to manage that stress.  We also have to be aware of when our stress levels are overflowing. It is true that we all can manage a certain amount of stress, we are hard wired for it, but an overflow can be dangerous and unproductive.

There are many tools, therapies and strategies on the market to help elevate stress, but have you thought about have a dog in the office?

Stress Exercise

Stress in the office is a silent killer

Here is a quick exercise for you.  Retrieve a cup from the office kitchen and place it on your desk.  Now, for every task you are required to do this week put a pen in the cup.  Each pen will represent one task only.  Once you have completed a task you can remove that pen.

Many of us will soon have a cup so full of pens that we just can’t fit another pen in the cup.  It doesn’t matter how hard we try, we just don’t have space.  Eventually, you could start to put one pen on top of another and then another.  Ultimately the cup will fall over.  This is exactly the same for anyone of us.  If we have too many pens in our cup we are going to fall over.

How many Pens in your Stress Cup?

It is an interesting test!

If you have too many pens in your cup what are you going to do?

Stress is one of those quiet, silent threats that we don’t always know is happening to us until we are in the middle of a total meltdown and everything just becomes too much to bear and we vegetate all weekend in front of the television to tired or exhausted to do anything.

Dog in the office

There are numerous stress relief toys on the market that you can purchase to minimise stress and corporate initiatives to help relieve levels of pressure in your working environment.  Nevertheless, have you thought about taking a dog to work?  Every time you pet a dog you reduce your stress levels and a dog can also change your mood.

Research has demonstrated that spending time with a dog can increase your levels of serotonin and

Tilly in the office of a Virtual Assistant

Dopamine which are associated with relaxation and happiness. A 2012 study in the International Journal of Workplace Health Management showed that stress levels dropped among employees in the workplace when they had dogs with them. Why not pluck up the courage and speak to your employer about the possibility of taking your dog to work.

Naturally, you could also help with your increased levels of work by outsourcing to a Virtual PA or Virtual Assistant like those at myPA Virtual Services.

In Conclusion, there are a number of ways to relieve stress, you could:

• Get signed off work for a rest
• See a Hypnotherapist
• Change jobs

My preferred stress relief is having Tilly, my dog in the office.  She helps me and the rest of my staff.