Some 70% of Americans know the feeling: Some time during the workday, the stomach tightens. The heart races. Palms grow damp, breathing becomes shallow.

Job pressures are the No. 2 cause of stress after financial worries, a recent survey shows. And while most of us struggle to manage the stress of a demanding boss or a mounting workload on our own, more employers are trying to help. Efforts include earnest-sounding techniques like "mindful communication" and "cognitive behavioral training" as well as office designs featuring leafy, plant-covered walls.

At Vertical Screen in Warminster, Pa., hundreds of plants try to lower stress. Vertical Screen

Such stress-busting attempts may have some rolling their eyes, but recent research shows they can actually change the way the brain and body react to stressors. Researchers are using brain imaging and hormone-sampling technology to measure the techniques' physiological impact.

One of the most effective stress-beaters, research shows, is a training program called "mindfulness-based stress reduction," developed years ago at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, but adapted in recent years for the office. Numerous studies link training in the technique to increased activity in regions of the brain involved in self-control and the ability to pay attention and process sensory input.

That is, assuming harried employees can find the time for it. The program, which typically involves eight, two-hour weekly sessions, plus a final full-day retreat, teaches meditation techniques like breathing and bringing thoughts back when they wander, says Diana Kamila, a senior teacher at the university's Center for Mindfulness. Participants also learn stretching, yoga and "body scans"—noticing their responses to stress, softening their muscles through breathing and tuning in to the feelings and sensations of the moment.

Employees learn to practice periodic "check-ins" while working, walking, driving or eating. And they are encouraged to blend the techniques into their daily routines, at their desks, in meetings or during talks with colleagues.

At Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, Mich., researchers recently tested a seven-week version of the program, delivered via a one-hour weekly Web conference, workbook and online exercises, for 90 managers, administrators and manufacturing-plant workers. Employees were coached on accepting daily hassles without judgment. If stuck in traffic, for example, they were encouraged to appreciate the sights, sounds and smells around them without stressing out, says Kristin Levanovich, a partner in the Petoskey, Mich., corporate-health research firm, The Aikens Approach, that developed the program.

To reduce the stress of boss interactions, they were also taught "mindful communication"—visualizing themselves in the meeting while focusing on breathing, paying attention to what is being said, and asking questions rather than blaming, criticizing or becoming defensive, says Kim Aikens, a physician and lead researcher on the project. Researchers are still measuring the effects on stress and health. Dow Chemical's chief health officer, Catherine Baase, says preliminary results are promising.

Older stress-management programs like teaching employees to close their eyes and count backward from 10, or holding "self-guided group therapy" sessions to vent "were naive and didn't work very well," says Kenneth R. Pelletier, director of the Corporate Health Improvement Program at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.

Recent research says the best ways to manage office pressure include mindful breathing, positive thinking and a healthy dose of greenery. Robert Neubecker

Another emerging tactic involves training employees in cognitive-behavioral skills, or the ability to screen out negative thoughts and focus on hopeful or positive aspects. In a 2008 study in Brain Imaging and Behavior, swimmers watched videos of themselves failing in Olympic races. Then, they were coached to regard the failure as a learning opportunity. Brain imaging of participants before and after the coaching showed a decrease in activity in regions linked to sadness, and greater activity in brain areas that help regulate emotion.

At railroad company Union Pacific Corp . in Omaha, Neb., employees recently tried telephone coaching and online training in cognitive behavioral and other skills to try to reduce stress, in a test run by Healthways, a Franklin, Tenn., provider of health and wellness programs. In the six-month test, 680 engineers, conductors, mechanics and trainmen were encouraged to identify a compelling life purpose, such as being a good parent or staying healthy into retirement, and ask themselves throughout the day whether their actions were helping or defeating that purpose, says Jim Purvis, a Healthways vice president.

Coaches asked employees how they talked and thought about themselves, exploring whether negativity and self-criticism were holding them back. Some workers carried an index card through the workday, making a mark every time they noticed themselves saying or thinking something negative, Mr. Purvis says. They also did exercises to replace negative thoughts with hopeful ones.

The experiment led to a reduction in stress. Participants who said yes to the question, "Did you experience happiness yesterday?" rose to 94% after the program, from 79% previously, Mr. Purvis says.

And at some offices, the house plant takes on a bigger role. The thinking: research shows that exposure to nature can help lower blood pressure, pulse rates and levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

At Vertical Screen, a Warminster, Pa., maker of employment-screening programs, natural light streams through the building's three glass walls; 900 plants adorn a "living wall," a kind of indoor vertical garden; and an outdoor employee cafe sits at the edge of a five-acre meadow of wildflowers. Senior account manager Jacqueline Smith says she could almost feel her blood pressure rising one day recently. Going to the cafe for a few minutes to watch butterflies in the meadow, she says, "really does change your mind. It alleviates all that pressure."

Of course, there are limits. "These techniques aren't going to make up for having a jerk for a boss," says Patti Johnson, chief executive of PeopleResults, a Dallas human-resource consulting company. "When you're under major stress doing three projects at a time, the meadow and meditation aren't going to help with that."

And some companies, without easy access to the world of wildflowers and butterflies, are simulating it. At American Specialty Health in San Diego, employees can retreat to a "relaxation room" decorated with large tropical-beach photos, a trickling fountain and herbal aromatherapy scents. Greg Lane, a manager there, says he uses the room about 10 times a month to meditate. He says his shoulders drop, his breathing deepens and tension drops away.