Welcome to this Post-Easter issue

In this month's newsletter
Thought For The Day
Did You Know?
30-Second Stress Buster
News And Offers

Thought For The Day
“It takes 72 muscles to frown and only 14 to smile.”
Are you burning energy, or conserving it, while you read your emails?

Did You Know?

• That the Easter Bunny is not a modern invention? And that it is linked to stress relief?
• The ancient Anglo Saxons celebrated the return of spring (in the northern hemisphere) with an uproarious festival, which commemorated their goddess of offspring and of springtime: “Eastre”. She was often depicted in her earthly form as a rabbit.
• Celebrating is one of the best ways to release tension. All through history, cultures have celebrated and had fun at regular, and commonly recognised times throughout the calendar. Smiling and laughing have huge psychological and physiological effects on the body and mind.
• Researcher and Philosopher, John Morreall, says that the relaxation that occurs after a bout of laughter inhibits the stress response of ‘fight or flight’. He has also shown that successful leaders use humour more than most individuals. They often use it to de-fuse threatening situations, for example in a potentially embarrassing or difficult situation laughter may serve as a conciliatory gesture, or as a way to deflect anger. If the threatening person joins in the laughter, the risk of confrontation lessens.
• So the next time one of your colleagues messes up (and we all do from time to time) – try laughing instead of getting angry. You may find that instead of becoming defensive and unco-operative, your work mate actually then tries to find ways to help you out of the problem…You will not lose any respect, instead you may gain it.

• From a physiological point of view, laughter releases all sorts of hormones and endocrines that enable us to relax. The breath that is forced out of the deepest parts of the lungs clears out ‘dead air’, toxins and stress factors from the body.
• Try this breathing exercise …

• For more 30-second stress buster exercises that you can do at your desk, see our archived newsletters on our website.

• Are you in IT or do you work on a help desk? You may be interested in attending The 14th Annual Pacific Rim Help Desk and Support Services Conference in May in the Gold Coast? Zen At Work will be running a half-day workshop on stress management for attendees as well as providing yoga and tai chi classes in the morning on the beach. For more details visit the website www.terrapin.com
• Love to attend one of our stress busting yoga / tai chi / martial arts classes or want a massage but can’t organise a group together at work? Then watch this space, as soon we will be launching classes for anyone to attend in hotels near your work place. Contact us for locations in your area.
• As our list of services continues to expand we have reclassified them to make them easier to remember: (1) stress management programmes such as workshops, seminars and coaching (2) stress relief services such as massage and classes in yoga / tai chi / pilates / martial arts / wu tao / meditation. Of course, all of these are still available at your workplace, or conference, all over Australia.

• If you found this email useful, please pass it on to a friend, or send them a link to our website: www.zenatwork.com.au, so that they can subscribe too.

• Let us know if you would prefer to receive this email in plain text, rather than html.
• Let us know what you like, or would like to see improved, regarding this newsletter. The best suggestion each month will receive two hours worth of free massage for the team or office. Please contact us at info@zenatwork.com.au