One of the best things to do for stress is to incorporate some kind of physical movement into your day, like simple desk stretches for SLPs. Even small, short things, like stretching, can help you to reduce some tension, physical and mental, that leads to stress.
Your body can give you big insights into the stress you are feeling, and can sometimes cause you to feel tension. In yoga, you’ll often hear the teacher talk about “holding tension in the body”. They usually are referring to something in the shoulders or hips, that holds to more tension throughout the rest of the body.
- Tension in your shoulders could lead to tension in your neck, upper back, jaw, or even chest. Think of sitting at your desk and having your shoulders scrunched up by our ears, and the discomfort this usually brings. This can cause headaches, back aches, and overall achiness that can lead to physical tension, which then creates more mental tensions.
- Tight hips (huge muscles that connect to a lot of other areas in the body) can cause lower backaches, hip flexor tightness, knee pain, and, well, achy hips. This can create more physical aches and pains, as well as mental stress.
The trick here is that the physical stress can cause the mental stress, but the mental stress can cause the physical stress as well.
- Stress causes you to tighten your shoulders and clench your jaw
- Stress causes you to slouch and sink into your hips, causing your back to feel tense.
So what to do?
If you are stuck at your desk, and feeling tense (hello working in teletherapy or doing paperwork and reports), stretching while at your desk is key.
You might not have time to get up and move around, but you can sit back for a moment, in between sessions or notes, and stretch these key areas. Which causes you to reduce that tightness, take a breath and pause, and maybe even deepen your breathing while you do so, in turn reducing your stress even more.
My favorite stretches (as an SLP, someone working from home and in teletherapy, and as a yoga teacher) are ones that:
- Stretch the hips
- “Wring out” the spine aka gently twist
- Relax the shoulders
- Stretch the neck and shoulders (and upper back)
You can try some desk stretches for SLPs on your own when you have a chance, or check out the guided Mindful Movement audio download, “7 Stretches to Do at Your Desk”, available exclusively in the SLP Toolbox.
Not a member? You can subscribe below to this FREE resource full of SLP Stress Management tools created for SLPs by an SLP.
For more stress management, check out these CMH/CEU Professional Development webinars:
- Work from Home for SLPs: Create a Less Stressful Work Day During Stressful Times (1 CMH)
Rethinking Your Daily Routines to Reduce Stress on SpeechPathology.com (1 ASHA CEU Hour .10 units) - 3 Common SLP Stressors and How to Manage Them on Xceptional ED (1.5 CMH Hours)
- Managing Common SLP Stressors before Burn Out Occurs on Northern Speech Services (2.5 ASHA CEU hours .025 units)
- 3 Biggest Stressors for SLPs and What to do About Them on SpeechPathology.com (1.5 ASHA CEU hours .15 units)
- SLP Stress Management: Using Mindfulness to Reduce and Manage Stress on SHAV Webinars (1 ASHA CEU)
Much Love,
