Tag: stress relief

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Staying Calm During Financial Turbulence

Financial stress can cause anxiety, negatively affect your mental and emotional wellbeing, and can even hurt you physically.  It is extremely important to find ways to be calm during hard financial times, but it can be the most difficult time in which to do so.

Meditation, Yoga and Reiki can all help with decreasing your stress levels and keep them from rising when financial hardships occur.  All three of these systems tap into the energy that flows through you and connects your mind, body and emotions together within your being. 

Meditation sometimes stresses people out because they say “I’m no good at meditation.”  Or they think they have to have their mind completely calm in order for meditation to “work.”  That isn’t the case.  Meditation, especially when you are first learning, can be helpful and doesn’t require you to “control your mind.”

Find a place that is comfortable that you can be alone for just a few minutes.  It can even be the bathroom if it is hard for you to find privacy.  Bring your awareness to your breathing.  Focus on trying to elongate your inhale, and then focus on matching the length of your exhale with it. 

Just allow your mind to flow, whatever comes in, just try to gently encourage it to flow right out again.  Try to not allow anything to take up root in your thoughts but if you find your mind spiraling about a thought, try to move your mind back to focusing on your breathing. 

This can help in as little as just a couple of minutes to calm your mind and body and help your emotions not overwhelm you. 

Yoga uses your body and mind connection to ease your stress levels.  Again, so many people say “I’m not flexible enough for yoga.”  That doesn’t matter for stress relief.  It doesn’t have to be a full workout and you don’t have to be a long-time yogi to benefit from the stress relief this can give you.  There are many videos of yoga for beginners that you can find online.    Pick one pose or a couple that won’t make you feel intimidated and that will be easy for you to do in the space you have. 

Standing Mountain pose can be done just about anywhere and by anyone.  You stand up as straight as possible, with your feet parallel.  You lengthen each part of your body slowly focusing first on your legs, then your midsection then lengthening your spine and straightening your shoulders.  You tuck your chin slightly and pull the crown of the head upwards.  You breathe slowly and deeply while holding this position and then let out a breath as you relax your body and release the pose.  This done a few times slowly can calm your system and help bring your mind to ease.

Reiki is an energy technique that allows a Reiki Master to clear your energy and aura of blockages and alleviates stress to allow your Chi to flow in a healthy way through your mind, body and emotions.  This is especially helpful if you have had ongoing financial worries for an extended period of time.  All that stress can build up and the energy blockages can even cause health problems.

Using any of these techniques consistently can help build up a higher tolerance for stress and anxiety and help to prepare you for unexpected financial stress.

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Financial Stability Through Mental Calm

Managing your finances during COVID-19 might seem like an extra challenge. Whether you took a pay cut, lost your job, or resorted to online retail therapy to fill the absence of routine activities, you might be wondering how you should take care of your finances during the pandemic.

Consider these tips and tools to help you determine how you should be budgeting and what you should avoid in order to maintain your budget.

Research Benefits 

One way you can instill a small amount of financial security amidst the pandemic is by doing your research on unemployment benefits and services. If you received a pay cut, you might actually be eligible for a certain percentage of unemployment benefits. If you still have your job and pay, research your state’s unemployment benefits anyway. You’ll feel empowered by taking the initiative, and you can create a plan if you need to use your state’s unemployment services in the future.

Prioritize Food and Home Expenses

To create a detailed budget that cuts away excess expenses, focus on what you absolutely need to get by, like food, housing, and utilities. Install a budgeting app on your phone to help you find out how much you spend on essentials every month. Once you have divided your paycheck among these three areas, you can place the remaining amount in your savings.

Reduce Clutter in Your Home

Retail therapy not only reduces the amount of money that can go toward essentials, but it also clutters your home. Use this time when you cannot see friends or family to reduce clutter from your life. Clean out your closet and junk drawers, and donate items that are no longer of use to you. Find a financial abundance mantra that will help you instill values of wealth in immaterial things, which will help you clear your mind and focus on what really matters during this time.

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Tapping Into Your Imagination To Get Through The Pandemic

Stress and exhaustion can wear on the strongest and most mentally healthy of us.  Especially now when all of our normal routines and ways of dealing with stress are not readily available to us while we are cooped up in our homes.

Things that people normally do to fight off the blues such as going to the gym, meeting up with friends for coffee, and going out on a date night may seem impossible now. 

The old ways of doing things might not be available, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t do all the things you need to do from the safety of your own home.  It just takes a little bit of imagination and creativity.  As a kid, you could go anywhere from your bedroom by reading, coloring, and imagining for hours and hours. 

Tap into what you were capable of when you were younger.  For example, if going to the gym was your stress relief, set up a workout regimen in your home.  No equipment, no problem.  Use body weight exercises to get you through this tough time.  There are loads of videos online about how to use your body weight and small areas of your home to get a really good workout in. 

Miss meeting up with your friends for coffee?  Have a virtual coffee catchup online.  There are apps and programs like Facebook Messenger and Facetime that allow virtual chats from anywhere, and group programs like Zoom that allow for multiple people to chat with each other.  Brew a cup of joe, your favorite tea or chill a glass of wine and sit down with a group of your friends online and catch up.  It will do wonders for your mental health.

Missing date night with your loved one? There are loads of options available to spend time together virtually.  Many museums and parks are now offering virtual tours that the two of you could take together, even if you aren’t in the same house. You can go online while talking on the phone or video chatting and take the tours together.  Or do something fun together like playing a video game or starting a movie at the same time and discussing it while you play or watch.  You can even set up virtual dates in some games like Animal Crossing online where you invite your beloved to your in-game museum or watch the sunset together at the beach in the game while you talk or video chat at the same time.  Bonding together in these ways can be surprisingly romantic and will give you memories you can look back on after all this crisis is over.

The important thing is looking out for your mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing and being kind to yourself and those you love while we all work on protecting each by staying safe at home.