Coping With Work Depression The Natural Way [Infographic]

Emily Johnson http://omnipapers.com 5m 1,193 #depression

The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.

Getting Rid of Work Depression

Have you ever felt sad or exhausted at work?

If so, you might know what the work depression is. People who are depressed at work have poor concentration, reduced working performance, and a lack of motivation. No matter what your profession is, you might have different difficulties at work that lead to the work depression.

According to one research, people work around 10.3 years during the lifetime, and it’s more likely everyone faces problems at work from time to time. If you want to stay inspired and happy, you need to know how to cope with the work depression.

While there is a big number of articles with tips and pieces of advice on coping with depression at work, just a few of them are actionable for most workers. Thus, you need to understand how to fight the work depression the natural way without making much effort.

Do you want to know the best part?

All humans have natural mechanisms for coping with depression, and there are simple but actionable ways to prevent this disorder. Being inspired by one infographic by OmniPapers, we’ve collected a list of tips for people who want to prevent depression at work, and here is how to do it:

• stay active during the day length
• increase the amount of daylight
• set up proper artificial lighting
• look after yourself to increase the level of endorphins
• go in for sports during your work

If you want to prevent the work depression, you’d better form habits to use the above-mentioned tips. However, next time you feel sad or think hard at work, try to cope with the work depression the natural way.

To learn more about the natural ways to fight work depression, pay attention to this handy infographic below.

Non-Interactive JPG version

Text-Friendly Version

It’s scientific that animals, including humans, have chemical mechanisms of depression. Let’s see how we can use the chemistry of our emotions to fight the depression at work.

Light

Animals adapt their biorhythms to day length. Our activity is suppressed (we feel depressed) during shorter days. Let’s fix it!

How it works:

Light -> Melatonin -> Gonadoliberin -> Depression

Suggestions:

1. Daylighting
   • Replace your dark curtains wight lighter ones [EASY]
   • Benefit from window-mirror combo [EASY]
   • Create an inspiring phrase on your wall, using mirror letters [EASY]
   • Put the same-size mirrors directly opposite one another [MEDIUM]
   • Mount a skylight tube [DIFFICULT]
2. Artificial Lighting
   • Use SAD light box [EASY]
     • It’s a peculiar light box, created for depression therapy and prevention with proven results
   • Mount a mirror wall sconce [EASY]
     • The scone-mirror combo can help you manipulate artificial lighting efficiently

Grooming

Have you ever seen cats licking each other? Or, a monkey looking for bugs in its companion’s head? Not always these actions take place for reasons of hygiene. The experiments show that such behavior increases the level of endorphins and protects from stress and depression.

How it works:

Grooming -> Endorphins -> Depression

Suggestions:

• comb your hair [EASY]
• wash up and wash your hands [EASY]
• use a head massager [EASY]
• organize hug days at office [MEDIUM]
• buy a massage chair [DIFFICULT]

Physical Exercises

Physical exercises like grooming stimulate endorphins secretion, which effectiveness is proven by scientific research. There is a significant nuance most people ignore: exercises should be hard to do. And here’s how it works:

How it works:

Exercises -> Pain -> Endorphins -> Depression

Antidepressive workout must be:

• short (30 min)
• intense
• morning 7am – 11am

Suggestions:

For office workers:

• attend gym [EASY]
• attend ashtanga yoga classes [EASY]
• do exercises at office [MEDIUM]

For office exercises you will need:

• 10-20 mins of your time
• sportswear
• empty room
• water
• towel

As has been mentioned, only intense training is a good antidepressant. That is why hard cyclic exercises with short rest periods are the best.

Here’s a short list of simple but hard exercises with one muscle group per column. The only required equipment is a pull-up bar. If you don’t have one – ask your office manager to buy it for your office.

• arms and chest
• abs
• legs
• back

Make a new program every day

Take 1 exercise from each column randomly. It will be your set after which you can have a short pause – 1 minute. Repeat this set for 2-4 times.

It means you should do pushups, then do squats (w/o any pauses), then do lower abs roll-ups (w/o any pauses) and then pull-ups. After this, you can have a rest for 1 minute and repeat the whole set again.

Strategy:

2 sets (no matter how many reps) -> 2 sets (12 reps per exercise) -> 3 sets (no matter how many reps)

Caution:

• Consult your doctor before starting.
• A short stretch before starting is highly recommended.
• Remember that you need a good load, not overload.

Tips: 

TIP 1: Add some other exercises you like.
TIP 2: Challenge your colleagues to join this program.

For freelancers:

• buy a leverage pull-up bar [EASY]
  • Leverage pull-up bar is compact and does not require any mounting
• do a home workout program [EASY]
  • Here is a good option for you: www.22minhc.com
• do exercises at office [MEDIUM]
  • The adjustable dumbbells are cheaper and require less space. It makes them a perfect choice for your home!

Additional Tips

When setting up the room lighting, keep in mind several important things:

TIP 1: More isn’t always better. This investigation shows that our mood correlates with our subjective estimation of lightness. If you’re comfortable with a luminance which differs from contemporary recommendations, it’s totally fine.

TIP 2: Do not focus on the light of particular spectrum. Paul F. Boray’s research shows that no significant correlation lays between our mood and type of light.

Exercising is like writing: there are so many ways to do it wrong! That is why I want to point your attention to these six tips:

TIP 1: Avoid costly and cumbersome home gyms like this one. You can do more and better exercises, using barbell and dumbbells.

TIP 2: Do not buy devices which are more fun than action. For example, sitting on a fitball won’t help with depression. And examples of such equipment are numerous.

TIP 3: A free-standing pull-up bar is a nice choice for office rooms without firm walls. And a leverage pull-up bar is a good match for our homes: it is compact, and there’s no need to damage the walls.

TIP 4: Spice up your cardio workouts with a challenge. The virtual mission is a quite interesting variant to try.

TIP 5: Probably, office yoga is a good stretch, but it doesn’t work as antidepressants because it’s too light. I would recommend you external ashtanga yoga classes, a physically intense type of yoga.

TIP 6: Both aerobic and non-aerobic exercises are efficient.

Final Words

I do hope these ideas will help you. It’s obvious that following some of the advice will give you extra benefits. For example, pull-ups will help with your spine and make your back muscles stronger… That’s quality of life, isn’t it? I’ll be happy to hear your thoughts on these tips in comments!

Source: http://omnipapers.com/work-depression/

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