For many of us, the Thanksgiving holiday is over and we’re back at work, wishing we were home eating leftovers instead. For millions of people, work is more a jail sentence than a joy, and their office cubby can feel like a prison cell. But it doesn’t have to be like this: The power to feel free at work is in our hands.

Here are eight simple tips to help you discover freedom at work, alleviating stress and misery, and leaving you feeling happier both in the workplace and out of it. Read the tips here:

We have so many choices in the workplace. We are free to:

1. Appreciate the positives of the situation, rather than focusing on the negatives.

2. Encourage positive supportive relationships that offer an important sense of connection and enhance our days.

3. Solve the challenges, rather than perpetuating them by complaining or allowing them to tie us in emotional knots.

4. Lighten up and not take our job so seriously that it interferes with the enjoyment of the day.

5. View authority figures and policies as guidelines rather than restrictions.

6. Seek additional education or training to enable ourselves to advance in our work.

7. Give ourselves breaks when we need them. . . take an occasional long lunch hour or an impromptu afternoon at the museum or art gallery. . .or even allow ourselves a whole day off once in awhile.

8. Seek another job when we feel incompatible with a situation, if we have outgrown a position, or if we would simply like to consider new opportunities.