Reduce stress by learning from chickens
I got an idea about stress reduction while watching our chicken Elvira in our backyard. She wanted to get out of the fenced area. She was pacing back and forth in a short stretch although the exit was clear and only a few feet away. She was obsessed by the thought that she will get out by repeating the same behavior.
Repetition of a stress-causing behavior and not finding a way to move ahead in thinking were the main factors which seem to bother journalists up during their work day. The results appeared in survey I did within my journalist networks. With the survey I wanted to identify behavior that journalists find causing stress and they would like to move away from.
(The survey is related to my class work for #calmingtech at Stanford. More about the class and project here.)
Let’s get back to Elvira. I guided her out of the cage by throwing bread crumbs on her path to the door. One bread crumb at a time she found her way out to freedom. Every step she took towards the right direction was rewarded by a bread crumb. In Karen Pryor’s words, reinforcement was used here.
Therefore, I decided to apply the same “bread crumb” method in stress reduction for journalists. With a simple small action at at time delivered by SMS, journalists start to get rid of their monkey-minds and overwhelming feeling of stress.
The method is called the Path to Calming Habits, and it takes only 14 minutes a day. It doesn’t require starting a daily or weekly meditation practice. This is something that you can do without leaving your desk.
Check out the first draft of the service out here.
