Even if you’re lucky enough be working at your dream job, you’re not immune from the occasional work stress. Inevitably, something will not go perfectly according to plan.

Whether work stress is an everyday thing or just happens once in a while, there are some techniques that will alleviate it. Learning how to release your stress and even how to prevent a stressful reaction in the first place are critical to your health, success, and peace of mind.

Here are some techniques that will help you to reduce stress at work:

1. Practice effective communication with your coworkers. If coworkers cause you stress, ask yourself, “what’s going on?” Chances are that the two of you aren’t really communicating.

* Try to better understand their point of view.

* Listen to them to find out what they need – is there a conflict. Can you do something to meet their needs? If so, the conflict is removed and so is the stress associated with it.

* Also, communicate your own needs, others are more apt to agree with your requests if you can convey them clearly.

2. Think positive thoughts. When things go south, you may be tempted to fall into a negative pattern of thinking. Sure, it’s easy to say that you hate your job, but what are you doing to improve the situation? If you adopt a positive approach, it’ll be easier to maintain the momentum you need to overcome problems at work.

* Ask yourself, is it possible that everything at work is not as bad as you think? Could you change your perspective a bit? If you refocus on what is going right, you’ll find you’re more patient, less stressed, and have more job satisfaction.

3. Care for yourself. If you’re dedicated to your job, you may lose yourself in it. If that’s the case, it’s no wonder you’re under a great deal of stress! You may feel that your job has become your whole life. In these instances, take a step back, readjust your focus, and take care of yourself.

* Take breaks regularly and be sure to enjoy something that’s not work-related during your down time.

* Avoid overtime or don’t take work home with you. If on a rare occasion it may be less stressful to stay and finish a project, then stay. However, if it happens often, you might want to work on your time management skills.

* Exercise, eat the right foods, and getting enough rest and sleep. While that sounds simple, you know you’ve rushed around on 4 hours of sleep and made it all day on a donut and a cup of coffee.

4. No one’s perfect. Accept that everyone’s human and understand that the drive to be perfect is an automatic stress inducer! Everyone makes mistakes. Yup, that means you, your coworkers, and your clients.

* Have faith that people will get the job done right. You and your team produce quality work, even with an occasional mistake. If you remain just a bit flexible, you’ll be less likely to feel stress.

5. Embrace and understand others’ points of view. If you know where someone is coming from, you’re better able to understand the situation without all the stress. An example, if you are able to understand your manager’s expectations, you can [in some instances] anticipate the requirements, you can take action to meet them, or you can convey more realistic expectations.
6. Get yourself organized. Organization can be a key element in reducing stress in the workplace. If your workspace is disorganized, it can also cause disorganization [and just a bit of chaos] in your mind. Your thoughts may become scattered and you’ll be less likely to be at 100% or think on your feet effectively, causing even more stress.
7. Take ownership. If you take personal responsibility for your actions, you can reduce stress. When you hold yourself accountable, you’re focused on excellence in your output and deliverables. Your name is all over the work product, you’ve done good work, and you know it’s worthy of your name. That’s pretty stress free stuff.

Reducing stress at work will take practice, but the results are well worth all of your effort. Adopt these approaches and you’ll quickly find less and less to feel stress about.