The science behind positive thinking at work

(UPI) -- Annoying colleagues and incompetent managers can make work a negative place, but psychology expert Richard Boyatzis says doing simple things like taking coffee breaks and doing yoga can help paint things in a much more positive light.

According to Boyatzis, these simple exercises have the power engage the parasympathetic nervous system -- the function responsible for relaxation and slowing the heart rate -- in order to promote compassion and creativity.

"Strain causes a person to be cognitively, perceptually and emotionally impaired," Boyatzis said. "If you're under pressure and stress at work, then you can't think outside the box because you can't see the box."

Boyatzis believes high stress levels can cause the body to defend itself by closing down.

"You have to engage your parasympathetic nervous system so that you change your hormonal flow," Boyatzis said. "If you're having a horrible marriage, or your teenage kids are dissing you right and left, you get to work and it's very likely that you are just a bummer."

Others don’t think it’s quite that easy.

Reut Schwartz-Hebron founded the Key Change Institute, an organization that focuses on workplace behavior. According to Schwartz-Hebron, too much positivity can be a bad thing.

"There's certain things that have to be challenged," she said, "certain things that have to be improved you can't just constantly think that everything is going to be fine and positive."

Schwartz-Hebron thinks the key to workplace happiness is "to rewire your brain" and engage the two different cerebral systems: the explicit and the implicit memory. "If you want to instigate behavioral change you need to engage the implicit system which operates in the subconscious realm," she said.