For most work­ers, the of­fice is a place for stress, not re­lax­ation, but there are ways to de­com­press and chill out in your cu­bi­cle, in an emp­ty con­fer­ence room–or even in the bath­room.

Ex­perts weigh in on the best ways to get away from it all in the mid­dle of a busy work­day:

Go for a walk in the build­ing

Even a quick walk down the hall­way at work can be calm­ing, says Loret­ta LaRoche, stress man­age­ment con­sul­tant and au­thor of Re­lax–You May On­ly Have a Few Min­utes Left.

"Just re­mov­ing your­self from your desk and strolling up and down the hall­way for a few min­utes helps you de­com­press," LaRoche says. "Some peo­ple can't sit and med­i­tate–they have to walk."

Many work­ers have the mind­set of, "I'm go­ing to sit here at my desk and not get up un­til I tack­le this prob­lem," but that's the worst way to ap­proach things.

"Don't sit there all day and ag­o­nise over what you're do­ing," she says.

Walk­ing around your of­fice hall­ways–even up and down a stair­well–is a great way to re­lax dur­ing any sea­son, says Jor­dan Fried­man, stress man­age­ment train­er and founder of The Stress Coach.

"Just a quick stroll will get you more fo­cused, reen­er­gised," he says.

Get out in the sun

Any­time you can leave the source of your prob­lem be­hind for a few min­utes, you're phys­i­cal­ly putting some­thing be­tween you and your stress, LaRoche says.

"Leave the build­ing. You don't have to go far. Just go out­side and take a few deep breaths and look up at the sky," she says.

If you're able, a dri­ve around the block with the win­dows down can al­so com­bat ten­sion.

"Dri­ving can be very med­i­ta­tive. Lis­ten to your favourite song or just dri­ve and think in the qui­et. The im­por­tant thing is that you're out in the world be­yond the con­fines of your desk."

Re­treat to the bath­room

"There's no shame go­ing in the bath­room and sit­ting on the toi­let if that's the on­ly place you can go to close your eyes for a few min­utes and breathe," LaRoche says. "Flush the toi­let two or three times and imag­ine some of your stress be­ing flushed away."

In some of­fices, the on­ly place work­ers have an op­por­tu­ni­ty to be alone is in a bath­room stall, Fried­man ex­plains.

"Who cares if you're in a bath­room? If that's the place where you know you can get some pri­va­cy, then go there," he says.

If you do use the bath­room as your pri­vate re­treat, Eli Bay, pres­i­dent of The Re­lax­ation Re­sponse In­sti­tute, ad­vis­es be­ing dis­creet.

"I rec­om­mend dis­cre­tion when do­ing breath­ing ex­er­cis­es in the wash­room –for ob­vi­ous rea­sons–but a qui­et space is a qui­et space," Bay says.

Twirl

"I tell peo­ple to twirl, to spin around like a kid," LaRoche says. "It's hard to be stressed out or ag­gra­vat­ed when you do some­thing fun and friv­o­lous like that."

In her stress man­age­ment class­es, LaRoche asks her stu­dents to say aloud what's both­er­ing them while they spin around. The in­con­gruity of twirling while say­ing some­thing neg­a­tive al­ways light­ens the mo­ment.

"Peo­ple just crack up," she says.

As for when and where to do your twirling at the of­fice, LaRoche says an emp­ty con­fer­ence room or break room is fine.

"Who cares what peo­ple think? Let them watch. Let them take a video and put it on Face­book. It's not their life, it's yours. Tell them you're re­lax­ing so that you can live longer," she says.

Sit un­der your desk–or any­where you can grab some soli­tude

"One of my clients re­port­ed climb­ing un­der his desk with his legs stick­ing out to do some stress con­trol ex­er­cis­es," Bay says. "He didn't care what oth­ers thought be­cause he be­came so much more pro­duc­tive as a re­sult. Most peo­ple, how­ev­er, have nei­ther the chutz­pah nor the lux­u­ry to do that and have to be more cir­cum­spect."

Your abil­i­ty to do this cer­tain­ly de­pends on your or­gan­i­sa­tion and its cul­ture, Bay cau­tions.

"Some peo­ple go to the wash­room, the stair­well, the com­pa­ny li­brary, their car in the park­ing lot, a near­by church, a park or an un­used meet­ing room," Bay says. "The where doesn't mat­ter. It's the re­sults that count."

Do some deep-breath­ing ex­er­cis­es

Mind­ful breath­ing can in­crease fo­cus and low­er your heart rate, says Ri­ta Schi­ano, stress man­age­ment train­er and founder of Live A Flour­ish­ing Life.

"It takes as lit­tle as ten con­scious breaths, less than 60 sec­onds, to ease one­self out of a stress­ful state. And mind­ful breath­ing can be done any­where–even in an el­e­va­tor," she says.

If you can, close your eyes for ten slow breaths, says Dar­rin Zeer, re­lax­ation ex­pert and founder of Of­ficeYo­ga.org.

"Fo­cus on your en­tire body, re­lax­ing with each ex­hale," Zeer says.

Do some sub­tle yo­ga movesor stretch­es

?

You don't have to bring a yo­ga mat to work or take an en­tire hour­long class to get the ben­e­fits from a lit­tle light yo­ga, Zeer says.

"Carve out mo­ments of zen sit­ting at your desk, in a meet­ing or in the break room. A sim­ple stretch, a con­scious breath, it all adds up. By the time you get home, you will not feel as fraz­zled," he says. If you have the time and space, try to find an emp­ty con­fer­ence room and lie down.

"Cozy up to a wall, lie on your back and rest your legs up the wall," he says. "Just breathe and re­lax. (TheStreet)