7 well-being tips for surviving the office

For all the office workers out there... I feel your pain having worked in a job where I was sat in front of a computer all day for 7 years and developing the lovely aches and pains in neck, back and wrists that you might be suffering from.  I thought that I would share a few ideas to help you look after yourself whilst you’re at work.  Since changing my career to body work I have realised that a lot of my clients work behind desks and these are some of suggestions that I give to them to help keep as relaxed as possible as most people can’t afford to have a massage every day/week.  So to help you maintain your well-being try adding these to your day:

1. Get up at least once an hour.  This can be tricky if you’re really involved in something or you’re fixed to your phone but try to get up from your chair and ideally leave your desk on an hourly basis.  This could be to go and get a glass of water, talk to a colleague rather than sending an email to them or even standing up to make a phone call.  Your body gets used to being kept in a sitting position and the hip flexors get very used to being shortened when sitting and protest when you stand up, so keeping moving keeps them active and they’ll be able to keep you doing what you enjoy.

2. The 20:20:20 rule.  This is to help keep your eyes healthy and the full rule states  “Every 20 minutes, look 20 feet away for 20 seconds.”  Constantly focussing on a computer screen gets the eyes used to seeing that distance and we’ve not evolved for it we’re meant to be looking all around and at different distances from close up work to long distance.  So looking at something in the distance exercises the eye muscles and prevents them getting lazy.

3. Sit at your desk properly. I know how easy it is to slump when sitting in front of your computer, but this sitting position really doesn’t help your back and neck. Your back muscles will weaken over time and your vertebrae will be more likely to become displaced possibly leading to slipped disks and agony.  The head is often held in a forward position putting extra strain on the shoulder muscles leading to aches and pains in the upper back and possibly headaches.  Remember:

• that your spine should be more upright and take the weight vertically down through the bones.  
• There should be natural curves in the spine so don’t sit bolt upright.  
• The spine should feel lighter when all muscles and bones are working together to keep you upright (using less energy in the process). This lightness is something I introduce to my clients after a massage so they know what it should feel like, as I find it is easier to understand once you’ve experienced it.

I know from experience that changing the way you sit isn’t easy to maintain all the time, at least to start with so it is easier to try to change it in small stages.  Start by sitting better each time you sit down , which will be at least once an hour (see tip 1) and over time you will get better at it until you start to catch yourself sitting badly.

4. Get your desk properly set up.  Having your desk organised properly and your chair at the right height can really help to reduce the strains and stresses we put on our bodies, however the workstation assessment is seen as a chore by many office workers and is seen as a box to tick off by everybody concerned, and many companies are now using an online self assessment which means that corrections aren’t checked.  I know that when my HR department came and checked my workstation I did everything correctly until they had left the room when I went back to my old habits.  What I didn’t appreciate when I was younger was that getting my mouse/keyboard/monitor/chair set up properly meant I wouldn’t develop aches and pains as quickly.  I will be spending more blog time on this, but in summary::

• when sitting up properly with your shoulders nicely relaxed, your arms should be at the keyboard height with your elbows at approximately 90 degrees,
• your arms shouldn’t be constantly reaching forward to the keyboard or mouse. If the arms of your chair hit the desk and prevent you getting close enough then get rid of the chair arms!
• move your mouse closer so you don’t have your arms constantly extended, and if your mouse mat constantly migrates away from you then try tacking it into position with something like white tack.
• if you need to raise your chair to get your arms at the right height and this means your feet come off the floor then put something underneath them (you do not want to cut off the blood supply to the backs of your legs),
• have the top of your monitor at eye height when you are sitting up properly (see tip 3) you should be looking very slightly down

5. Rest the backs of your hands. We’re typing away for long periods and often our wrists are bent slightly.  The finger muscles start in the forearm and they are constantly being used to hold the fingers off the keyboard so when you need to break from tyling whilst you think about what you’re going to write next turn your hands through 90 degrees so you rest them on the side of the palm. This then gives the muscles on the back of your forearms a well earned rest and doesn’t take a great deal of effort.

6 Keep yourself hydrated.  We are about 60% water and this needs to be maintained to allow good functioning of the body.  Modern office environments are warm and dry so tend to dehydrate people.  There are a lot of articles about how much you need to take in and 2 litres is often given as the minimum amount that you need to drink of water.  I know that I feel better if I do consistently drink plenty of fluids but I also know that:

• a lot of the food we eat contains water, though bear in mind that salty foods like crisps can make us need more liquids,
• tea and coffee and alcohol provide liquids that the body can use, though they also make up pass more liquid out than they provide as well as overload the body with toxins that need to be excreted.
• Drink little and often, that way you don’t overload your kidneys.
• Your kidneys will constantly work to keep your body in homeostatis (balance) with regards to fluid levels meaning you need to pee less when you need to take in more and pee more when you’ve drunk too much.  The colour of your urine is the best indicator of how hydrated you are, and during the day it should be straw coloured, darker than this and you should drink more, paler than this and you’re drinking too much and placing too much strain on your kidneys.

7. Take a breather.  Getting stressed, mind losing its focus.  Then stop what you’re doing and focus on your breathing, feel how it enters the body, travels down to the lungs, a short pause before you start to breath out, a pause before air enters the body again and travels down to your lungs, etc  Do this “observation” of the breath for 10 inhalations/exhalations and then return to your work.  You should feel more in control, less stressed or at least slightly fresher in mind than before.

Look after yourself on a daily basis and you will hopefully not suffer with too many aches and pain.  If you do start to get pains or over stressed do something about it.  You really don’t want it to build up to such an extent that your body shuts itself down in an effort to protect itself. Have regular massages/reiki treatments to maintain a healthy body and mind.