JANUARY is the month of resolutions and good intentions, particularly around health and wellbeing.

But how do we continue to focus on our health when January comes to an end? Brighton Chamber of Commerce now has a monthly column in The Argus business pages.

This week they spoke to Aideen Smith-Watson of Life Blueprint, Workplace Wellbeing to find out more about how to practise mindfulness to reduce work-related stress in January and beyond.

What do you think is the number one cause of stress in the workplace?

Numerous studies point to increased workload, leading to longer working hours as the leading cause of work related stress.

The continued economic downturn has led to many companies either not hiring more staff to cover additional work coming in or cutting their workforce with existing staff picking up the slack.

Also, technology has transformed the way that we work making it possible for us to work anywhere and everywhere.

One of the downsides of this is the “always on” culture, the expectation to action requests and reply to emails at evenings and weekends.

This eats into our personal and family time, placing workers on a permanent state of reactive alert so they have very little time to revive and switch off, leading to emotional, physical and mental burn out.

Why should we prioritise stress management?

Work related stress costs the UK economy up to £99 billion annually as it impacts performance, increasing presenteeism (working while ill, resulting in lost productivity) and absenteeism, greater staff turnover and higher medical and insurance costs.

In addition to valuing the mental and physical wellbeing of all employees, employers can see the return on their investment by implementing a wellbeing strategy that is focussed on keeping employees happy and healthy.

They can reduce costs and improve profit margins as happy and healthy employees are more engaged, loyal and creative and up to 21 per cent more productive than their less-satisfied, non-engaged counterparts.

What are your top tips for minimising stress?

Stress is a part of every-day life, it can be positive, keeping you alert and ready to avoid danger.

Stress becomes negative when a person faces continuous challenges without relief or relaxation between challenges.

The key is finding a way to elicit the relaxation response that works for you.

There is no one-size-fits-all.We are all as unique as our fingerprint.

One of the best ways to relax yourself is by connecting with your breath, finding the parts of your body that are tense and then imagine breathing in to those parts of your body to relax.

Connect with your senses rather than getting lost in trains of thought when you’re doing a task.

When we engage our senses, we lessen our ability to catastrophise.

Take the stairs, walk instead of taking the bus.

Physical exercise not only can keep us fit and healthy, and to de-stress, but also improves our cognitive function.

Have a good laugh.

Laughter is a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict.

Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring your mind and body back into balance than a good laugh.

Best of all, it is fun, free, and easy to use.

l To find out more about Life Blueprint, Workplace Wellbeing head to https://www.lifeblueprint.co.uk/