It’s tough to balance work and personal life. After a long day at the office, filled with meetings, numbers, and boss’s demands, all you want to do is relax. But then you get home, and a new set of challenges usually waits: your partner wants to chat, the kids want to play, or there are chores like an oil change or a fridge restock.
Many people push themselves hard at work, only to come home completely drained. Their usual way of coping is just to crash on the couch with a beer and Netflix. But that’s not really a healthy way to handle stress. It’s a shame, too, because when you bring work stress home, it can hurt your relationships, and your much-needed rest just turns into another struggle. You can’t truly unwind and connect with others if your mind is still stuck on office problems.
If your job is demanding, it might take hours to finally let go of the day’s stress – often just in time to go to bed and start the whole thing over again the next morning. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just switch off all that stress the moment you walk through your door? Good news – you can. Through my own busy days as a business owner, I’ve found five simple methods that can help you destress in less than ten minutes.
1. Use Your Body’s Most Powerful Tool: Your Breath
Your breathing has an incredible power to control your nervous system, lower stress levels, calm your heart rate, and even boost your immune system. One of the best breathing techniques comes from breathwork expert Wim Hof. It only takes a few minutes, but it can completely reset your system, get rid of stress, and make you feel refreshed. It’s super simple, which is why it’s my go-to after a difficult day.
Here’s how to do it:
- Sit or lie down comfortably.
- Take 30 deep breaths in and out, one right after the other, without pausing.
- After the last breath, breathe out completely and hold your breath for 60 seconds (with no air in your lungs). It might feel like you’ll suffocate, but you won’t. Just stick with it.
- Then, breathe in fully and hold that breath for another 15 seconds.
That’s one round, which is usually enough for me, but you can do more if you like. Afterward, you’ll feel incredibly clear-headed and energized, almost like a fresh start, far away from any stress or worries.
2. Empty Your Mental Bucket
Think of your mind like a bucket: if you keep filling it without ever emptying it, it’s bound to overflow. When I have long workdays, it’s hard to stop my thoughts from racing. I might sit down for dinner or a drink with a friend, but my head is still buzzing about what happened at work. If you feel the same way, there’s an easy trick to quiet that mental traffic jam.
All you need is your phone – or simply a pen and paper.
- Open your voice memo app or find a place to write.
- Just start talking or writing whatever comes to mind. Whatever thoughts are in your head, just let them all out. It doesn’t have to make sense or be organized – just empty your mental bucket.
- Keep going until you feel like there are no more thoughts left to express.
Thoughts often go in circles, but when you put them into words, you create a sense of calm. This helps you let go of those endless thought loops. This practice makes space in your mind for all the wonderful things you do outside of work.
3. Get Into the Present Moment with Cold Water
The first time I tried an ice bath, it was amazing. After fighting the urge to jump out for 30 seconds, I was completely pulled into the present moment. When your body goes into emergency mode from the cold, you stop worrying about meetings and appointments. But you don’t need a full-on ice bath to get this effect.
Even a quick cold shower can kickstart the biological processes that help you release stress. It lowers your heart rate, making you feel less anxious, and it releases endorphins, which are hormones that further reduce stress. If plunging into cold water sounds tough, start small. Take a quick warm shower, then turn the water cold for just five seconds. You can handle anything for that short time. The next time, add another five seconds, and keep going until you can manage thirty seconds. When you shock your body into the present, your mind will follow.
4. Release Physical Stress to Relax Your Mind
Your mind and body are deeply connected. When you’re stressed, your neck and shoulders often tense up as part of your body’s "fight or flight" response. Sitting at a desk all day only makes this worse. If you want to destress, you need to release that physical tension. You can do this in just five minutes with a few simple stretching exercises. There are many great short videos online that can guide you through stretches for your neck and shoulders. When I used to suffer from really tense neck muscles, I had a little ritual: soothing music, burning some Palo Santo wood, and then stretching. Just a few minutes of relaxation can really help bring your stress levels down.
5. When All Else Fails…
Stress can build up inside you, like steam in a pressure cooker. If you keep it bottled up, it’ll eventually explode. Sometimes, work just makes you downright angry. Wasting time in pointless meetings, cleaning up after frustrating colleagues, or dealing with a know-it-all boss who takes credit for your work can make you see red. If you bring that aggression home, dinner won’t be much fun. Sometimes, you might just feel incredibly angry and want to let it all out, rather than calm down.
However, there are better ways to do this than fighting with your partner:
- Let out a few loud screams.
- Chop wood or hit the ground with a sledgehammer (safely, of course).
- Punch a pillow or a beanbag.
- Rip apart an old telephone book.
This isn’t the healthiest way to deal with stress in the long term, but some days, you just need to release that raw energy. And that’s okay. Just make sure it’s in a way that doesn’t hurt anyone or anything important. You’ll feel much better afterward.
To Sum It Up: Quick Ways to Destress After Work
Work isn’t always fun; often, it’s demanding, stressful, and can make you want to pull your hair out. If you don’t want work stress to spill into your personal life, try these quick exercises:
- Do a few rounds of Wim Hof breathing to reset your mind.
- Brain dump all your thoughts by journaling or recording a voice memo to make space for new ideas.
- Take a cold shower to snap yourself out of your head and into the present moment.
- Stretch to release physical tension in your body, which will help your mind relax.
- If nothing else works, find a safe way to let out any aggression.
Life’s too short to be constantly stressed.