Rest your neck and shoulders
Place your hands on your upper legs. Shrug your shoulders as far as possible and lower them after a few seconds. Do this 5 times. Then turn your shoulders forwards and backwards a couple of times.
Relax hands and arms
Let your arms hang down your body and gently wave your hands for about 1 minute. Now stretch. Hands together and stretch them as high as possible. Bend your arms a number of times towards your chest. Turn your wrists for a minute.
Relax your face
Sing a nice song by only using vowels such as a, e, i, o, u, ou in a loud and exaggerated way. Pull some crazy faces. Raise your eyebrows too, make your eyes bigger. Do this together with your colleague and make each other laugh.
Move your abdominal and back muscles.
Go and sit upright in your office chair, keeping your legs firmly to the floor. Grab your handbag or backpack and keep it in front of you, holding your arms at 90°. Gently turn from left to right by only moving your trunk, rotate your head along. Lightly strain your abdominal muscles.
Die laughing
Do you want to experience some health effect by laughing? Laugh at least 15 minutes per day. Unfortunately only 30 percent of the Belgian people succeeds in doing this. However, laughing is very healthy and it has a relaxing effect. In week 3 you received an e-mail on laughing. Go find this e-mail again and die laughing with your colleagues!
Breathe in a conscious way
Sit up straight in your chair, with your feet firmly on the floor, and your back against the chair. Place your hand on your abdomen and close your eyes. Focus your thoughts on your hands. Breathe through your nose as you feel your belly pressing against your hands. Hold your breath for 3 seconds. Now breathe through your mouth. Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold it for 3 seconds, breathe out for 6 seconds. Allow your shoulders and jaws to hang loosely. Do this 10 times. Do you already feel more relaxed?
Strain and relax
Go and sit in your chair and relax or go and lie down. Strain your body parts one by one for 5 seconds and then release the strain. Think of your feet, calves, upper legs, hands, arms, buttocks, abdomen, breast, neck, jaw, eyes and eyebrows. Continue to breathe normally during the effort.
Step back
We spend all our day running back and forth. We often do not even notice the small things that surround us. Please switch off your mobile phone, go outside and find a quiet spot. Concentrate on your breathing and try to relax all of your muscles. Then focus on what your senses are telling you: what do you hear, what do you smell, what do you feel and what do you see? Experience all small details, which you normally do not notice. Isn’t it amazing all the things you suddenly notice?