Stressed? just pause and play

Corporates are now using children's pastimes like colouring, tag and mystery games to help staffers unwind Deadlines, presentations and meetings may take the fun out of work but to bring back the zeal more corporates are opting for team-building and destressing sessions using activities which were originally designed for children.
From laser tag and escape games to colouring books, adults are using childhood pastimes to relax and unleash their creative side.For those looking for a bit of peace and quiet, adult colouring books, one of the biggest art trends of 2015, provides refuge. For young mother Anshu Gupta, an hour with the colouring book is her most calming activity of the day .It was her feedback that made illustrator Kanika Gupta sure her colouring books would have takers.
“Colouring helps reconnect with the inner child in us. Though some of my friends were sceptical of the intricate patterns and the idea of taking up crayons, once they got started there was no stopping them,“ says Gupta, whose colouring book `Lessons from Mother Nature' was ordered in bulk by a multinational company for a session on mental health for their staff.
To make the book more effective, Gupta worked with Mumbai-based psychologist Mukta Rastogi and included positive messages on each page. “Colour therapy is a known method of determining the working of the mind by psychologists. The colouring book can be used by patients as a therapeutic activity at home,“ says Rastogi.
While colouring is more mindful, for those seeking to de-stress within seconds, high adrenaline activities like laser tag and escape games are the way to go. With competitive workspace often resulting in faster burnout rates, corporate heads say that though outdoor group activities provide a good break, a 45-minute session of solving clues is turning out to be a power-packed stress-buster. “We wanted an activity that needed involvement of every person in the team, was not work related but at the same time expected each one to perform.
The escape games at Freeing India worked well for bonding and team-building as everyone from the manager to the trainee had to work together to solve clues to get out of a locked room,“ says Mamta Yadav, a hum a n resource executive at IT firm Red Black Tree. After a good feed back she has sent three batches of her employees to the centre in Nungambakkam. “Since firms are allocating fund s for engagement activities of employees, we want to tap into that market,“ says Murali Barathi, founder of Freeing India.It is not just a nudge from the work place which is sending adults to teenage haunts, but untainted fun.
At Laser Tag, for instance, the dark room simulating a war scene with bridges, barricades, UV lights, radium paints and laser guns is the arena of action for anyone in the age group of five to 65 years.Ditching the usual dinner outing or movie night, employees of companies such as Amazon, Cognizant and Paypal have organised meetups at gaming sites. “We have been to both the gaming centres and each had a lesson.While laser tag is more about an individual's strategy, the game of clues involves out-of-thebox thinking,“ says Shyam Venkatraman P .