Learn the benefits of introducing art into your office or home as a strategy for helping to reduce your stress levels and your employees too.

Imagine you're in the office, the phone keeps ringing, but you are trying to concentrate on a report you should have finished yesterday, and every time you check your email there is another batch of emails that need replies. So you stay late and a colleague assumes this is an invitation to chat to you for 20 minutes about nothing important.

Everyone copes differently; perhaps you reach for a coffee & cake, or go out for a cigarette break or enjoy a glass of wine at the end of the day. Or maybe all three?! How you react and how you handle the stresses of everyday living can determine your well being both physically and mentally. Stress has been linked to all the leading causes of death, including heart disease, cancer, accidents and suicide.

Not all stress in life comes from negative events - perhaps you have just landed a new better paying job or contract. They key is balance - learning how to relax and control your reaction to the stressors in life.

Once you learn how to relax you not only reduce you stress levels, you strengthen your entire immune system and well being. Just avoiding 'boosters' like cigarettes and chocolate and taking short 'relaxation' breaks throughout the day gives your body & mind a chance to repair. Finding what works for you is just as important as figuring out what your triggers are.

How does this link to art in the work place I hear you ask?

Well, we've all experience a moment when we've been out and about and visited a place that every time we think about it are senses are filled with a warm memory of the time we saw a sunset across the water that turned everything a pinky orange or the view from the top of a mountain we have just climbed. We can feel the wind and sun, as it was that day and smell the air.

Every time we think of it we are transported back to that moment in time. It's one of the reasons we enjoying visiting new places, stepping out of our everyday routines to experience something new - it makes you feel alive and restores your spirits.

Now imagine that you have a piece of artwork in your office that did just that. It sufficiently holds your attention so that you could 'get lost in the piece' releasing your mind and providing a sense of privacy in a busy open place office. Often that's when the best solutions or ideas are born - when your mind is relaxed.

Surely that's better than working in windowless rooms with bland coloured walls, breathing recycled air and lit with harsh artificial light?

Add to it the fact you are enhancing the look of your workspace and making an important statement about your company, its ethos & style and creating a pleasant environment. Surely that's a compelling enough reason to choose the right art for your office?