5 Ways to de-stress

When you find yourself in a tight space financially it can take a toll on your health, physically, mentally, and spiritually. It is important to take time out of each day to support yourself during this time.

Exercise

Take time each day to exercise. This does not mean a gym membership, unless the health insurance you have comes with perks of paying for that membership or you can get a discount at like the YMCA that fits within your budget. Could be as simple as doing YouTube exercise videos, going for a walk or walking the dog. If you are low on time then try and incorporate the exercise with activities you would normally need to do. Like when parking at the store park far away to get in more walking. Maybe getting to where you need to go you can either walk or ride a bike.

Chill Time

Take time out of your day to meditate or just sit quietly with relaxing music and focus on something other than all your worries. I sit and focus on designing something in my head while listening to relaxing music. It is good to get into a relaxed state each day to help reduce stress. I think all too often we do not put enough attention on this and keep plugging away. You can design your chill time to be as long or short as you need it to be. You want to make sure that you pick something that you enjoy doing that will get you into a state of relaxation. For some this might be walking, reading, meditation, yoga, or geeking out on a spreadsheet 🙂 Whatever floats your boat.

Action Plan

Create a plan of action: for me the best way I can take the stress level down a notch is by having at least one plan plus back up plans on how I will work on the issue. This can be a plan of action on how to spend less through budgeting or it could be whatever the latest issue or stressors is in your life. If you have kids it could be how to pay for Christmas presents. In the past I have brainstormed on ideas on how to accomplish this feet without going over budget. Some of my ideas are making items, looking through thrift stores, and my favorite sales + coupons + store incentives. On the other side of the budgeting and spending less is how to earn more and coming up with earning ideas. I will talk more about that in the blog series on earning money. Most importantly is once you have come up with your ideas is to take those and identify the steps you need to take to reach your goals. It is best to ensure these steps have time lines and well defined deliverables so you can check in with yourself on your progress.

Reading/Listening to a book

Read a good book – one that is either uplifting or helpful to take you out of the stress that you are currently feeling. I have books on meditation, how to design your life and other self help books along with the fantastical mindless ones that take me to another place temporarily. A lot of my books are on line so that if I do not have the time to read I can listen to them. Just make sure you are not listening to meditation books while driving 🙂 The public library is an excellent source of both physical and online books. Yes, you can access books online – on your kindle using free software and checking out the book from your local library. Visit your local library for details.

Tribe

It is so helpful to have someone or more likely more than one person in your life to help support you through this difficult time. Tribe that you can bounce ideas off of, someone to hold space for you, or someone that can help you sort through everything physically and mentally.

If you do not have a tribe yet do not worry, keep searching for them. In the meantime, you can utilize a variety of ways to sort through everything. I find it is helpful to brain dump to then look at everything to get an idea of next steps or maybe to see what really matters. To assist with the brain dump of ideas you can use a mind map or another technique to help organize all the information. I find writing a journal and self-reflection to be very useful. I have used these techniques through many tough times including divorce and loss. If you find that these are not enough and mentally are in need of assistance you can find out who your health insurance might pay for you to see. Also researching therapists online and seeing if they have a sliding scale to accommodate your financial situation. If you are not sure you can always ask your primary doctor and who they would recommend.

I have found a lot of help through prayers and meditation. So if you are religious you might also want to look to prayer and religious counsel to help during the difficult times.

Over all the most important message here is to take time out of your day to take care of yourself.