Corporate Archives

Today we are talking about the BIG S-WORD. The one we all know very well. The one we all experience at some time or another. The one we can’t escape. Yes, I’m talking about stress. That little buzzword that is often the answer to “How are you?”

At Sensory Intelligence® Consulting we understand the brain science behind stress. We also know that stress is part of life – we can have no life without stress. We’ve spent a lot of time, energy and research on understanding stress and creating easy, practical “sensory hacks” for everyday life to beat stress. Once you start to implement them in your life you will be surprised by how much more manageable your stress becomes!

CHEWING GUM
Chewing gum provides deep pressure and repetitive movement through our jaws. This helps to regulate our arousal levels and can calm us down when we are stressed and under pressure. Some schools even promote chewing gum during class!
MOVE/WALK
Steve Jobs was a fan of walking meetings, for good reason. The quickest way to calm our sensory system is through movement. Walking meetings, quick lunchtime walks, longer walks at the end of the day … anything goes, as long as you move!
SILENCE
It is very rare to get a moment of complete silence. Very often there is the sound of traffic, people talking in the background or the radio playing. This means that our auditory sense becomes overwhelmed and overloaded. Taking 5 minutes of true quiet – sinking underwater, putting in earplugs, driving to a forest and just sitting – can make a world of difference.
DOODLING
Does your boss always moan at you for doodling in a meeting? Here’s your chance to make your case! Doodling uses our visual, proprioceptive and tactile senses to regulate our arousal level and calm our brains. It improves concentration, memory retention and prepares our brain for calm, clear decision-making.

Can you think of other sensory hacks? Leave a comment below, we would love to hear!

Want to find out more about your own sensory thresholds and what specific sensory tips and tools would work for you? Click here to do our Free Sensory Quiz™ – you will be amazed at the results.

Have you ever had a busy day at work and just needed to step outside for fresh air to clear your mind? Or wanted to start a difficult task on a messy desk and have the urge to first clear it up? Or automatically choose the table in the corner of the restaurant with your back to the door? We instinctively know that our physical environments are important to us. However, many of us fail to take this into consideration when we create our workspace.

Open-plan offices have become ‘the new normal’. Spatial restraints are a real concern and having your own office has become a luxury. This means that you don’t always have as much control over your environment as you’d like. Luckily, we are here to help – we specialise in practical, creative solutions for the modern workplace.

At Sensory Intelligence^® Consulting, we have a unique service called the Sensory Audit™. During an Audit, we measure 50 factors across 3 components of the physical workspace:

Collective space
Personal space
Wellness factors

We look at everything in your workspace – from the number of water coolers to the quality of your lighting and air conditioning, to the amount of social space available and even staff amenities.

We then take it one step further. We determine the individual sensory thresholds (how our bodies react to external stimuli) of the team members in that space and suggest adaptations to your workplace to promote optimal focus, productivity and wellness for all.

Research has shown that there is a direct correlation between our environment and our stress levels, which in turn impact on our productivity and output in the workplace. Making real changes in your environment could lead to your team communicating better, a decrease in stress levels and absenteeism and higher productivity. Although we can’t take away the reality of distractions in open-plan offices, it’s sometimes as simple as knowing who to place where to boost productivity. And then adding a few specialised spaces for ‘focus’ or ‘quiet’ work.

Practical things you can do this week without needing a Sensory Audit™:

Keep a water bottle handy. Drinking enough water during the day can re-focus your brain and reduce your stress levels.
Move! Make sure you get up at least once an hour to stretch, fill up your water bottle, make some coffee/tea or go outside.
Check the lighting in your environment. When your eyes need to work hard due to lack of sufficient light, your brain is using energy for this, instead of energy for focusing on your work. Sometimes it’s as simple as opening a blind, adjusting the brightness of your screen or adding a desk lamp.
Use earphones. If you work in an open-plan office or noisy environment, the use of earphones is highly recommended. Especially if you are doing high-level concentration work.

Change doesn’t always have to cost a lot of money – small things make a huge difference!

Category: Corporate

Sensory hacks to beat stress

The Power of Environments