Mental stress has become an integral part of modern-day lifestyle. One of the key factors which is responsible for causing a lot of mental tension in our daily lives is job stress. A little bit of work related stress is not bad at all. It helps you to keep your focus on work and perform better. Problem arises when you are unable to keep the stress level under your control. Too much of stress will affect your performance as a professional. It may ruin your personal relationships. Above all, it will take a toll on your health. To avoid any such consequences, coping with stress at work is very important. How to Cope with Stress at Work For stress management, proper mindset and correct approach is a must towards any given situation. Here are a few suggestions in this regard: Identify the Cause. First of all, you have to identify all those issues which are responsible for your workplace stress. It could be an underlying fear of losing the job, an irritable co-worker, your project deadline or anything else. Once you have identified it, analyze the problem and find out a suitable solution for it. Organize your Work. Quite often, it happens that you try to handle so many things at a time that you end up putting a lot of pressure on yourself. Prepare a list of your daily responsibilities and then rank them as per their importance. Then, finish the high priority work first and, if time permits, only then put your hand on less priority tasks. Otherwise, postpone low priority tasks for the next day. Thus planning in advance is helpful in tackling stress at work. Keep Realistic Expectations. You may or may not agree with me, sometimes, we expect too much from ourselves. When we fail to meet our own expectations then we feel guilty, frustrated and that increases mental stress. When you know your limitations and work within that parameter, then handling stress becomes much easier. Keep a Positive Frame of Mind. When things are not going in your favor, then negative thoughts are bound to crop up which will make you feel bad all the time. Discard all such thoughts from your mind, and think of the positive aspects of the situation. How to Relieve Stress at Work Now, when you are already stressed out, you look out for some effective stress relievers. Here are a few simple techniques that can be used for stress relief at work:

• Always keep a stress ball with you. Whenever you feel that you are under stress, squeeze the ball as fast as possible. You can feel relaxed after sometime as the tension is released from your body.
• You can play some stress relief games. Keep a small basketball hoop inside your cabin or a dart board. You can try out other options as well as per your choice. Take a break from work and play for a few minutes. It will make you feel better.
• Music has a soothing effect on our senses and is an excellent way of relieving stress and anxiety. If you love music, then listen to your favorite music for half an hour. It will ease off the tension from your nerves and you will feel relaxed in no time.
• Laughter can cheer you up in a matter of few seconds. So, try to get rid of the underlying tension by laughing out aloud. Keep a collection of joke books on your desk. When you feel a bit stressed out, read out one or two jokes from them and you can see that stress is out of your mind.

I hope the solutions provided in this article will help you to minimize stress in your daily life. Before I conclude, I would like to tell you that dealing with stress at work becomes easier if you maintain a healthy lifestyle with nutritious diet, regular exercising and 7-8 hours of sleep at night.