Wellness in a Bailout Environment

Tough economic times create stress. We see family or friends have hours cut or even lose jobs. We see years of savings efforts appear to shrivel to near nothingness. We find it more difficult to make decisions when we don't know how far we have to stretch a dollar. We lose confidence that our jobs will be there tomorrow and the next day and the next. And this is just scratching the surface.

The point is we see much higher levels of stress during more difficult times. By now, we know a lot of the signs: We continually feeling worried, we lose patience, sleeping a full night doesn't happen enough, our eating patterns are disrupted, and we often feel physical affects such as head, back, stomach or muscle aches, or sluggishness and fatigue. This may lead to depression as well. There are a number of reputable sites to get good information about symptoms and treatments, including the Mayo Clinic, WebMD, and the Cleveland Clinic to name a few.

We can't always control the world around us. We can focus, however, on how we react to it. We have gathered some the most common ideas for stress relief. We are not acting as medical professionals (simply because we aren't) here, but rather as an old friend with some gentle reminders. That being said, here is a short list:

• Start with working at getting regular, full night's sleep.
  
• Cut down, or even cut out altogether, caffeine.
  
• Eat sensible meals, try to do so at regular times if possible.
  
• Try walking 20 minutes or more daily if you are not getting other forms of exercise routinely.
  
• Learn deep breathing and slow stretch techniques, practice them and use them when you feel stress setting in.
  
• We started with getting a full night's sleep and we repeat it. Everything listed here helps to that end. It is more important than you realize.
  

These are small personal things you can do to improve your body's ability to cope. Combine that with some planning for changes. And take a different perspective on what's next. Here is an example of what I mean. Just earlier this week I was asked if a trip I took years back on a small propeller plane was scary. My answer was along the lines of, "Well, it took a spirit of adventure!"

So make your flight plan, get yourself some rest and ready to cope, and go pilot your new adventure.

Links in this post:
Cleveland Clinic
Mayo Clinic
WebMD