The web is often cited as one of the major causes of stress in the workplace, and as anyone who has tried to dial up their free internet service provider at the weekend will know, recreational web use ain't exactly a one-way ticket to nirvana either. Virtual help is at hand, though (paradoxically, from the web itself), with sites designed to de-stress you. So, next time you want to takefive minutes to relax, don't run to the coffee machine, let the web take the strain instead.
Relax-online.com has a particularly fab idea - relaxation "tapes" online. At www.relax-online.com/imageryonline.htm you can take a "five-minute vacation" or the mind-body relaxation trip I opted for. Listen via your RealPlayer as an American woman talks veeery slowly about releasing your "inner strength and releasing stress" and "letting the tension tiger out of your walled garden" (I made that one up).
It's surprisingly effective, and I felt decidedly chilled out afterwards, although nervous for the next 24 hours that I hadn't been secretly programmed to kill the president.
Mezzowave (www.mezzowave.com)is a superb example of what relatively simple web technologies (and the apparent consumption of a wheelbarrow full of recreational drugs) can achieve. You'll need Flash, but then you need Flash for any of the decent sites, so if you don't have it, bite the bullet and download this excellent free plug-in.
The results are well worth it - the site's designers use ambient music and some gentle kaleidoscopicgraphics to "chill you out". Pick the sphere you want: Space, Healing and so on. It provides "the power of animation and music in a cutting edge chi energy enhanced relaxation, chill out and healing area". Ignore the New Age tosh and just let the images and music relax your head.
Another site that offers online audio and visual relaxation techniques is the Real Time Therapy site at click4therapy.com. You can listen to them streamed online via Windows Media Player or Real Player, or download some of its relaxation guides to your computer as MP3 files so you don't have to be online to do them. The Guided Imagery MP3s are particularly recom mended, and handy if you have headphones at work and 10 minutes to spare.
Even better is the Muscle Relaxation audio file, which talks you through how to sit and relax your body at the same time. Although the soothing tones of the American woman who talks you through the process would prefer you to be lying down, it is possible to plug the headphones in and get suprisingly relaxed. Don't get too carried away though; falling asleep at work is a good way to find yourself looking for new employment.
If you want to learn how to relax by yourself, check out www.mediconsult.com. The site teaches that relaxation can be obtained in the simplest ways - breathing, for example.
This not only teaches you how to breathe properly but also how to control your breathing in relation to the rest of your body, how to deep breathe and how to use breathing to identify tension in your body.
Give Interlude a try too, it's "An Internet Retreat - a place to renew the spirit" (www.interluderetreat.com/). Despite the serious tone of the Cybermonks who run the site, and their meditation of the week, or the thought of the day, a visit is highly recommended. The meditation instructions are helpful, particularly the tips for sitting at your PC and trying to relax.
A similarly right-on vibe can be found at the excellent online Self-Help Magazine (www.shpm.com/articles/stress/slidindx.html). As well as being packed full of articles on everything from stress at work to The Four Faces of Anger, this site has a slideshow section, where you can download soothing images of sunrises, sunsets, mountains, deserts or whatever you need to chill out. It sounds corny, but the site has been around since 1994.
If you think this sounds like nonsense, and you relax best with fun and games, then the Stressbuster site is for you (www.stressbuster1.com). This site contains a wealth of fun and games.
In the Games section there are Flash emulators of games such as Space Invaders. You may have to wait a minute to load them on a 56k internet connection, but it works perfectly over a faster work connection. There are not just games like Granny Paintball either, there are online art packages, too. Splashing virtual paint around can really do the trick.
If that sounds more like your cup of herbal tea and you are tired of looking at lines of Times New Roman on your screen, then www.illusionworks.com is perfect to give your eyeballs a workout. The site is full of visual puzzles and graphical illusions that will have you scratching your head.
As well as Java and Shockwave versions of famous visual illusions such as Escher's Ascending and Descending, the site also explains how the illusions work. Half an hour gaping at this site in your lunch break and you'll be hooked, and probably unable to keep anything in focus properly. Like taking your lunch break in the pub, then, only cheaper.
