Coping with Financial Stress
There’s a twist to an old saying that goes “Lack of money is the root of all evil.” Indeed, when bills begin to pile up and debts begin to rise, financial stress comes in. Coping with financial challenges is not an easy task, but it’s not impossible either.
Seeking the professional assistance of a financial planner always helps. For individuals who wish to deal with the problem by themselves, self planning and management come out as welcome options too.
The following suggestions should enable you to cope with and beat financial stress:
- Avoid splurging cash to de-stress. A nice hair-do, a visit to the spa or a classy dinner may be feel-good activities. However, they worsen financial stress because engaging in them requires significant spending. Practical and free alternatives include reading a book, spending the weekend at home with friends or taking a relaxing bath.
- Acknowledge that a financial problem exists. It is only when you accept this reality that you are able to move past the shock and work towards correcting the problem. Denials can only prolong and worsen the toll of a financial catastrophe.
- Go easy on huge risks. Huge investments often entail huge gambles too. Being under a financially stressful circumstance is the worst time to take risks. Smaller but relatively stable investments create a sense of security that helps to ease financial stress.
- Keep loved ones posted of the financial crisis. Financial stress can cause relationships to crumble. An open discussion of the problem can earn the sympathy, understanding and assistance of concerned family members and loved ones.
- Respond to the situation systematically. The worst way to respond to a financial crisis is to panic. A productive and effective approach would be to list your challenges and possible solutions, re-assess priorities, draft a schedule, and find time to relax and sort through the mess.
The Value of a Good Plan
Studies show that good planning can significantly reduce the amount of financial stress you may experience. In fact, a good plan places you firmly on the track to progress.
Several financial planning services to this end are available today, so you don’t have to cope with it alone. You can rely on outside help to assess your situation for them and draft a plan.
Your plan may involve some of the following items:
- Measures to keep expenses lower than earnings
- Alternative jobs to supplement current income
- Loan refinancing options
- Use of debit cards in the place of credit cards
Health as a Capital Investment
At the onset of financial stress, your body takes a beating too. People often neglect their health when they become too absorbed with money problems.
Muscle relaxation muscle and deep breathing exercises can help relieve the physical impact of stress. Your body needs these time-outs.
True enough, coping with financial stress is never easy, but exercising greater control over one’s reactions to drastic events can lead to healthier outcomes. Equipped with a proactive mindset and attitude, you can overcome any financial hurdles that come along.
Produce Calmness from Chaos in Your Home
A baby cries. The dogs bark. The “man of the house” stares at the television all day, while the full volume of the TV set drowns all other noises. Moments later, a teenage son races towards the door and slams it shut. Does this home look like yours?
It’s unfortunate that many households find themselves in a similar situation. Yours doesn’t have to be filled with stress. You can do your share to foster harmony in your household. If you do, you will begin to have a real family to return to at the end of the day.
Stress is an inherent part of family life. However, you can manage the pressures and learn to keep your home healthy and welcoming for everybody. Upholding some core values and attitudes will help you get there.
They are:
1. Organization. A disorganized household is chaotic, stressful and time consuming to handle. An organized home is the exact opposite.
Consider starting small in your home. For instance, get one corner of the room fixed first before organizing the entire floor. If you chunk down your organization duties to smaller tasks instead of a grand whole, you will feel less overwhelmed about managing your household.
2. Communication. Each member benefits from proactive communication. Brush up on yours. Proactive communication can reduce misunderstandings and enable you and your household to accomplish more things. With love, acceptance and appreciation in the air, everybody will feel inspired to work together.
3. Group Meals. You’re all busy, and you could very well become strangers under the same roof when you continuously fail to make time for each other. Strive to make dinnertime an opportunity to connect with your household. You will all soon learn to integrate dinnertime into your busy schedules.
4. Group Recreation. Fun times together can help strengthen the ties in your household. Set aside time for group recreation activities occasionally. A family night or two is great. Plan for it and let your household take turns in choosing the activity.
5. Unconditional Love. Strong bonds can help your family stay intact amid stressful situations. Work on tightening and securing your emotional bonds to each other. Demonstrate unconditional love in your home.
All members want to feel accepted and welcomed for who they are, not for what they do. Make your household a loving, caring and supportive family that can forgive you when you commit mistakes.
6. Support. Do something extra for the members of your household. You might have your own itinerary for instance, but your presence at an art show will mean the world to your child. Pledge your support and show it. It’s not enough to think how much love you feel for your family. Be there for them.
7. House Rules. Set behavioral expectations in your home. These can help you manage your household systematically.
Call a family meeting. Brainstorm together what your family rules should be. Give everybody a chance to speak out. To keep everybody happy, you might need to make compromises too.
A household built on love is less susceptible to the ravages of stress. Be kind to each other. If each one of you makes an effort to fight stress and stay happy, you can transform your once-chaotic household into the warm and caring home you envisioned.
Sustaining Life Balance
Stress that comes with the daily demands of a buzzling career and a domesticated life can make the concept of “balance” a myth for many people. Everybody’s natural reaction is to get overwhelmed by both expected and unexpected eventualities.
Balance in life can be achieved and sustained. Here are a few starting points to get there:
1. Synchronized Scheduling
Families, officemates and groups of friends can help sustain balance in their life by syncing their schedules. Often, this requires little investment such as putting up a shared calendar where members can scribble their appointments, activities and needs. A group calendar adds ease and organization into group activity planning.
Attempts to synchronize schedules can teach members of a group valuable lessons on reaching compromises and give-and-take arrangements.
2. Priority Sorting
It pays to review daily routines and omit the unnecessary. People are so caught up with the thought that there’s so much to do in so little time that they fail to evaluate the activities that comprise the routine. In deciding which activity to keep or cut, asking the following screening questions should help:
• Is the activity indispensable?
• Can the activity evoke positive feelings or can it compound stress instead?
• Does the activity foster well-being?
• Who benefits from the activity: one’s self or other people?
• How does the activity relate to one’s life goals?
By sticking to their priorities, individuals can have more doable schedules that allow a healthy interplay of work duties, family obligations and recreational treats.
3. Routine and Agenda Planning
Everybody loves excitement, but having an established routine helps keep individuals from procrastinating. Routines give people a sense of direction and order in their lives. The best planned routine is one that helps individuals stay on track with their life goals.
Today, the need for routine and agenda planning is more urgent for people who work from home than for those with regular 9 to 5 jobs. Work-from-home professionals enjoy a great degree of flexibility with their schedules, but sometimes this freedom can often lead to chaotic living.
4. Vision Setting
People need more than a fixed schedule to reach their goals. They must possess the drive to want to make their dreams a reality. Vision setting is crucial in this respect. It is possible for individuals to set different visions for themselves, their career and their loved ones.
Without at least one vision to anchor their existence on, people can wander through life aimlessly and invite mishaps after mishaps. Some common visions are:
• Acquiring a new vehicle
• Authoring a piece of work
• Earning a promotion
• Getting a pay raise
• Honing a newly discovered talent or skill
• Maintaining an ideal body figure or weight
• Sticking to a set budget
• Succeeding in a business venture
• Transferring to a new home
Visions foster a can-do attitude that enable people to seek out and actually work to achieve balance in their lives.
So, is it possible to lead a well-balanced life in today’s busy world? The answer is yes. People just need to work at it.
Tis The Season to Be Tense: Five Tips for Reducing Holiday Stress
Many people don’t realize that they really are in control of many of the factors driving their stress levels, even during the holidays when these factors become magnified. The first step is to take care of yourself first, then you’ll be able to meet the demands of others.
This year, is figuring to be a particularly stressful holiday season. Between the normal challenges of the holidays, this year’s economic environment will add even more stress than usual.
As if arranging and attending parties, deciding on the perfect gifts, dealing with family obligations, holiday travel through crowded airports and roads weren’t enough, this year we are going to do it all with fewer resources and even more pressure to do more with less.
Here are some tips to help get through this year’s holiday season with minimal stress:
- Don’t over-commit to engagements – the holidays can be filled with invitations to parties, gatherings, performances, etc. There are a limited number of weekend for the season, carefully plan your outings and make sure to leave room for downtime.
- Allow yourself to depart from traditions – sometimes family traditions such as extensive decorations and huge meals can put undue pressure on you to overdo it. Start your own traditions that fit more into your current lifestyle and are manageable.
- Make alternative plans for gift-giving – The pressure to buy the perfect gift can be exhausting. Consider alternate types of gifts – such as one day of yard work or some other service. This can save money and time. Also, shop online – this can help you avoid long lines in the stores or spending your already busy weekend pushing your way through the crowds.
- Make extra attempt to eat nutritiously – You will have many opportunities to have sugary, high-fat meals which can worsen stress. Take every opportunity to fit a fruit snack into your day or add an extra vegetable to your meal.
- Carve out 20 minutes each day to sit quietly and meditate – the stress of a busy day and schedule can overload the mind and lead to mental and physical exhaustion. If you slow down and quiet your mind each day, especially at the end of your day, you can sleep better and have more energy to get you through the busy season.
Manage Workplace Stress
No matter how much you love your work, there will always be days when you feel the pressures of your job strain your mood, productivity and relationships in the office. Many individuals easily succumb to stress the moment it attacks them. Don’t be like them. You have the power to manage workplace stress and transform it to something positive for yourself.
Understanding Workplace Stress
If you think that getting stressed out in the office is an ordeal that you alone face, you’re wrong. Do you know that right now, about 25 out of every 100 people in your workplace are experiencing the same pressures as you? Some reports estimate that about 75 percent of career people consider their on-the-job stress level to be way much higher than that of their parents.
Workplace stress is an inevitable reality. It spares nobody – not even the most well-adjusted and most pleasant officemate that you know. Realizing that everybody gets stressed out too is sometimes enough to remind you that can get past the stage and start bouncing back.
Luckily, you can be proactive about stress. Even if you can’t eliminate it completely, you can reduce it to manageable levels.
Reducing On-the-Job Stress Levels
To manage workplace stress, you can:
• Keep a mental and emotional wastebasket.
• Maintain a healthy balance between work life and family life.
• Establish your own social safety net.
Keeping a Mental and Emotional Wastebasket
Imagine that you own a mental and emotional wastebasket where you can dump all your negative thoughts and feelings. Let go of your worries. Relax. Choose to approach life positively. When you make a conscious effort to stay upbeat, you can cope with stressful situations better. Note that you will still feel the strains of work life. However, you will learn to interpret stressful situations in a more positive manner. Stress does not necessarily have to be the great antagonist in your life story.
Balancing Work Life with Family Life
Don’t obsess about your career. If you focus too much on it, you might get super stressed out when the smallest inconvenience rocks your workplace. You lose sight of other equally important things too. Use your family life and personal time to keep your work life in check. Set aside some time everyday to pursue non-related activities such as calling your friend or reading a short story. Too much workplace stress can consume you, and your efficiency suffers in the process.
Establishing a Social Safety Net
Don’t make your home an extension of your office. Take the time to build your own social safety net – a group of co-workers, friends and loved ones whom you can interact with in non-office scenarios. Let these people remind you that you can still enjoy life without equating happiness to a promotion, a raise or an international business trip. Basically, your social safety net helps to keep you sane whenever you’re under stress.
Indeed, workplace stress is inevitable, but you don’t have to give in to it. Master the art of managing stress, and you can enjoy a great life – whether you’re in the office or outside it.
Stress Fighting Foods
10 Stress Fighting Foods
Stress and Your Diet
How do your eating habits affect the way you handle stress? How does stress affect your dietary preferences? Whichever angle you focus on, food and stress are interrelated. Food doesn’t necessarily have to be your only coping mechanism for stress however. You can manage daily pressures in a variety of other ways.
Three Ways that Food and Stress Connect
• Your over-eating or under-eating tendencies surface when you are under stress. Your blood sugar level takes the toll either way. Severe mood swings result, and you end up compounding the present problem as well as your stress level. Like many people, maybe you haven’t realized yet how food can harm you! Stress management begins with awareness. You must know precisely what you need to change in your food preferences or dietary habits.
• Food is not the cure, but it can help you manage your stress. Supply your body with nutritious food. Proper dieting can sustain your body with the energy required to overcome stressful experiences. Consuming fatty food and sugar-filled treats alone doesn’t really help you much. In fact, you’ll end up feeling more exhausted, more anxious and grouchier than ever. You need more than those to combat stress.
• The right foods fortify the immune system. Stressful situations weaken it. A weak immune system is more prone to contacting diseases, bacteria and viruses. Studies prove that with proper food intake, you can make your immune system healthy and strong. It isn’t difficult to see what the studies are driving at: You have to eat right in order to feel great!
Stress and Diet
The connection between food and stress is so obvious and hard to miss. The kind of foods you consume directly affects the way you feel, think and react. Poor food choices and either over-eating or under-eating subject both your body and mind to more strain. If you want to manage your stress, try starting with your diet. Evaluate what you eat, how much you eat and how often you eat. Then, gradually introduce changes to your lifestyle.
Beyond Dieting
While the right food allows you to cope with stressful experiences more effectively, it isn’t enough. Try pairing a good diet with the following strategies:
• Get enough sleep. Seven to eight hours is ideal.
• Find time to relax.
• Establish a support group.
• Accept your limitations.
• Work and live life with a plan in mind.
• Learn to say “No” from time to time.
Healthy dieting coupled with the above steps can empower you to manage daily pressures well and take better control of your life. Say goodbye to stressed out days. Say hello to a lighter, happier you.
Loosen the Grip of Workaholic Ways
If the bulk of your waking hours goes to your job, you’re in for some trouble: Life will eventually grow unfulfilling for you. Sure, you love your work, but pouring long hours over it can transform love into addiction. It’s time that you break away from your workaholic tendencies.
Identifying Underlying Problems
Underlying problems are often responsible for fueling your workaholic tendencies. While work pressures and deadlines do push you to your limits, there is a greater possibility that you’re using work as your defense mechanism against other problems and insecurities.
Examine yourself. Assess your schedule. Then answer these questions:
• Do you work so hard for the money?
• Do you work so hard so you can minimize social interactions at home?
• Do you work so hard so you can elude some issues?
Working too hard to grab financial rewards is not something you can sustain for a long time. This habit will take a toll on your mental health and physical well-being. Work hard but strive to contain it within a definite timeframe. If you can’t live with this arrangement, then maybe you should aim for a new job that pays better than your present company.
It’s crucial that you address problems plaguing your home as well. Although work can give you temporary relief, it won’t solve anything. In fact, problems don’t get resolved by themselves. You have to face them and act on them. The power to improve your situation at home lies with you.
Restoring Balance
After targeting the underlying problems responsible for your unhealthy work habits, do your best to reintegrate balance into your life. Several strategies can help you with this area.
Make room for the following:
1. Personal Time. Use this concept to place yourself (and your health) above your job. You are entitled to your own time, so when you are in the middle of a well-deserved personal vacation, do not allow deadlines to interrupt you.
2. Bedtime Ritual. Unwind and treat yourself to enough hours of sleep. Set a specific hour when you’re switching the lights off. Spend half an hour before your designated bedtime to do something relaxing. Make sure the activity doesn’t remind you of work.
3. Movement and Physical Exercises. Include exercise routines in your weekly schedule. The frequency need not be daily. You can do it once in every 2 or 3 days if you want. Physical movement helps you to de-stress from work. Exercise is good for both your body and mind.
4. Breaks. You need time away from work. It’s a given. Regular jobs usually designate weekends as rest days. Make an effort to spend your weekends not working. Don’t even try to remember or talk about your job. Just free your mind and enjoy your break.
Starting Out Slow
Breaking away from your workaholic tendencies need not be drastic. Distance yourself from the unhealthy habit one step at a time. Remember that your work doesn’t define your life. There are plenty of activities that you can enjoy, and none of them have to remind you of deadlines, quotas or reports.
Restore balance into your life today with a strategy or two. In no time, you’ll get the idea: Life outside work does exist!
