Four tips to help reduce stress if you are an in-house lawyer (think tennis ball)

A short item in the NY Times, Dec. 1, 2007 at C5, summarizes an article that offers four stress fighting tips (nice oxymoron:“stress fighting”).

(1) Take off your shoes and massage your feet. If you can, roll a tennis ball under each foot for two minutes. If you roll the ball on the inside rear part of your instep you will relax your lower back; if you rock the ball in the area near the big toe, your shoulders will unclench.

(2) “Don’t think in absolutes,” it says, because “if you are thinking in all-or-nothing terms, chances are you are blowing a problem all out of proportion.” If you think only win or lose in litigation, your stress level will soar. If you see the negotiation as a triumph or a disaster, watch out for hyperventilation!

(3) Speaking of hyperventilation, the article recommends slow deep breaths to combat the panicky rise of stress.

(4) Get up and walk around. “As little as two minutes of physical activity can burn off stress.”

Feel calmer already? (See my posts of May 18, 2007 on stress and seven references cited; and Nov. 7, 2007 for ten tips.).