This month, we are continuing to focus on the work of Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar in his book Happier No Matter What: Cultivating Hope, Resilience and Purpose in Hard Times (2021) with a focus on how best to deal with stress, a common request of leaders everywhere.

Since it is highly doubtful that any of you have the luxury of meditating for eight hours a day, there are some other sensible ways to release your stress and live a healthy and happy life. It happens as you build in downtime within your busy days. This downtime, whether brief or extended time, serves to energize you, recovering from the high levels of stress.

Dr. Ben-Shahar says that stress recovery takes three forms: micro, mid and macro. In this article we will focus on some micro-recovery methods that will serve you right in the midst of your busy day.

According to Dr. Ben-Shahar, “Micro-level recovery, as the name suggests, is about taking time out in short stints. It could be taking a fifteen-minute break every two hours for a cup of coffee, a meditation, or a walk around the block. Or it could be scheduling time to read, blocking an hour for exercise, or listening to your favorite music in between meetings.” While you may be thinking – “Really, I’m going to block out time to exercise or listen to my favorite music in the midst of my busy day?” Read on, there are other ways to recover from stress.

Dr. Ben-Shahar says, “For the recovery to trigger your antifragile system, making you stronger than before the stress, it has to be real. Taking a break for lunch while also making calls and answering work emails on your phone—that’s not real recovery. That’s simply more stress.” Sound familiar?

Since we now know that stress is not the problem, rather the problem is lack of recovery from stress, what if I said to you, “I’d like for you to take a 15-minute break every two hours to relax your mind and take some deep breaths – meditating.” Could you do it? If we were sitting together having this conversation, you might actually laugh out loud and say, “Take a break every two hours? What planet are you living on?” That might not have been the exact reaction from workshop attendees from a New Your City trading firm meeting with an expert on stress. However, their responses were like the one expressed above. It sounded more like this:

Traders: “No way can I take a 15-minute break every two hours!”

So, a negotiation began.

Professor: “How about five minutes? Can you take a five-minute break every two hours?”

Traders: “No way! We even eat our lunch at the computer.”

Professor: “What about 30 seconds every two hours? Can you do that?”

Traders: “Yes, we can do that.”

And so, the agreement turned into a type of research study. Here is what the professor and expert on stress wanted the participants to do. He said, “Every two hours, take thirty seconds and during those thirty seconds, I want you to close your eyes and take three deep breaths. Five or six seconds in, and then five or six seconds out. Three breaths. If you want to go wild, indulge in four breaths. But, I’m asking you to do it consistently. Every two hours, every day. Not just today and tomorrow because you remember that I was here, but make a ritual out of it.” All the participants agreed and stood by it.

The traders took three to four deep breaths every two hours and reported back how those breaths impacted their lives. They reported that it made a real difference in their overall experience—their wellbeing, productivity, creativity, and energy. Why? Because those thirty seconds of deep breathing served as a recovery for the stress they were dealing with.

Here is one more quick method for micro-level recovery. It’s “just walk.” Ever had someone come to your office and say, “Come walk with me.” You ask, “Where are we walking?” They might respond, “Just walk.” How remarkable – to get up and walk for 3 minutes to release the stress hormones and build your Resilience 2.0 or antifragility.

So, what is speaking to you about the 30-second break? Or maybe you are after the five-minute break, and even a quick walk? What have you got to lose, other than bad stress.