Stress relief is something that is important for everyone to engage in from time to time. Our lives can introduce stress to us in many different ways. Sometimes stress can come from issues with money.
When stressing about finances, the last thing you would want to do is spend money on unnecessary things that you think you need in order to relieve stress. There are many ways to achieve stress relief without breaking the bank and causing more of a financial burden.
Relieving Stress Through Yoga
One of the best things you can do for stress relief is yoga. Yoga is a mentally and physically relaxing activity that has been practiced for many years. If you are trying to relieve stress without spending much money, yoga is a great option.
The main reason yoga relieves stress is because it relaxes your mind and your body. When your mind and body are relaxed, this attacks your high stress levels in order to make them lower.
On top of reducing stress levels, yoga is also extremely beneficial to your physical health. Yoga can improve heart health, increase flexibility and strength, and help with aches and pains.
Physical health is just as important as mental health when it comes to combating stress. If your physical health is declining, your mental health will follow, and vice versa. Practicing yoga improves both physical and mental health.
Yoga can also help you sleep better, which is a huge factor when it comes to stress relief. Not getting enough rest is detrimental to the physical and mental health of your body, which then causes stress.
This activity is easy to do on a budget. You don’t need any equipment to participate. All you would need is something to sit on top of, maybe a yoga mat if you have one or even a towel.
You can also go outside when doing yoga. Going outside is a great stress reliever by itself, but adding yoga to it would make your experience even more stress relieving.
Meditation for Stress Relief
Meditation is an easy and cost efficient option in stress relief. The reason meditation is great for those on a budget is because you don’t need any special equipment or materials to meditate.
You can meditate pretty much anywhere – your living room, your desk, your kitchen – even during your commute. Meditation consists of being mindful of the moment. This means letting go of thoughts about the future or past and just focusing on the present.
Focusing on the present moment is an amazing way to relieve stress because it clears your mind of unwanted thoughts about things like money problems or family issues that may be causing you a lot of worry.
Professionals recommend that you should spend forty minutes every day meditating. You could do this in twenty minute increments if you prefer. Just like yoga, you could also meditate outside for an extra boost of stress relief.
Limiting Technology Usage
Technology can easily become addicting. Scrolling mindlessly on social media apps for hours, playing games on the computer, and constantly checking up on the latest news can be a hard habit to break for most.
Using technology for pretty much everything has become very normalized in today’s world. However, some of the things you may come across online will do nothing but cause you stress.
There are a lot of depressing things online that can affect you mentally – even if you’re unaware of its detriment. Upsetting content can cause subconscious stress that is just as harmful as any other type of stress.
Limiting technology usage is also great for getting more sleep. Using your phone, computer, or TV before going to sleep can be appealing, but ultimately it can affect how much sleep you get and can lessen the quality of your sleep.
Technology reduces the amount of melatonin your body releases. Being able to naturally produce melatonin before bedtime is essential to making sure you get enough sleep at night.
Putting a limit on how much technology you use throughout the day is an easy way to relieve stress on a budget. Try to only use technology when necessary. If you use technology during relaxation, make sure you are mindful of what kind of content you’re exposing your mind to.
Getting a Good Night’s Sleep
Sleep is essential to keeping your stress levels down. It’s the only time your body can fully rest and recover from the activities you do during the day. Not getting enough quality sleep can severely affect your mood, judgement, memory, and stress levels.
The average adult needs seven or more hours of sleep every night. Some people may struggle with achieving this amount of sleep due to a variety of reasons. One way sleep is often lost is because of stress.
Stress can cause you to sleep less, but sleeping less can cause more stress. It can be a difficult balance to find for those who are dealing with stressful situations in their lives. One way you can try getting more sleep is by getting in bed earlier.
If you get in bed earlier than usual, you may be able to fall asleep at a time that would give you a beneficial amount of hours of sleep. For example, if you have to get up at 7, try getting in bed at 10 or 11. This would give you 1-2 hours to be able to fall asleep and still get 7 or more hours of rest.
Getting enough sleep reduces cortisol, the main stress hormone. Being on a good and healthy sleep schedule is a way to significantly reduce your stress levels without breaking the bank.
Reducing Stress by Going Outside
Going outdoors is a cheap and effective option in reducing stress levels. There’s a plethora of activities you can do outside that will all help significantly reduce stress in your life.
One thing you can do outside is take walks. Taking outdoor walks will be extremely cost efficient because you don’t need to go out of your way to buy any sort of special equipment.
Another thing you can do outside is swimming. Swimming is a great form of exercise, and exercise releases endorphins which reduces stress levels. You can swim in a pool, a nearby lake, or at a beach if you live near one.
If you have a bike, you can try looking for a bike trail in your area. Biking is a great form of outdoor exercise.
Decluttering and Organizing Your Space
When going through tough times, it can be easy to procrastinate tidying up your space. Stress is so physically and mentally draining that people often let their living or work space become extremely cluttered.
Letting your belongings pile up around you will do nothing but add loads of excess stress on top of whatever else you may be experiencing. Taking some time to organize your space will take some of that weight off of your shoulders.
Some may think that spending extra time decluttering could add more stress to an already stressful day. However, organizing is a short lived process that will only benefit you and decrease your stress levels in the long run.
When decluttering, try to break up your progress into parts. Taking on a bigger task without any sort of guide may easily become overwhelming and could cause you to not want to continue.
Make sure you only keep things you need. A helpful rule that many people use while getting rid of clutter is that if you haven’t used it in 6 months, it’s safe to toss that item out.
Organizing and decluttering your space is another budget friendly way to reduce stress, because it costs nothing to get rid of unneeded items that you have. If money is tight, you can also sell some of your own belongings.
How Writing Can Relieve Stress
Writing can be a great form of stress relief and self-expression that isn’t going to cost much. To write, you don’t need to buy materials that you don’t already have. You can write on a computer, your phone, or even just paper or a notepad.
Try writing about the things that are stressing you out. Putting your feelings down on paper may help you release that stress from your mind and clear all of the negative thoughts.
You can also try writing about things that you enjoy. Maybe you really love cooking. Write down some ideas for new recipes you could think of. Doing this will help you keep your mind focused on things that bring you joy, which will release endorphins and lower stress levels.
Spending Time with Others
When people get stressed and overwhelmed with things like projects for work, it can be easy to push spending time with those in their personal lives away. However, spending time with friends and family is crucial in decreasing stress levels.
Your personal life and relationships are just as important as your work life. Maybe you feel like you haven’t been spending enough time lately with the people in your life because you work too much or are out of town often.
Whenever you have free time, try to plan something fun and lighthearted you can do with your family or friends so that you can all spend time together doing those activities. This will help you keep your mind off of any stress and will also help strengthen relationships.
You could plan to do a movie night at home, a hike, going to a free museum, or going to a park. All of these things will cost little to no money, making them perfect options for spending time with loved ones without going out of your budget.
How to Create a Home Spa for Stress Relief
Many people turn to getting massages and facials at the spa when dealing with stress. However, going to the spa isn’t always the most budget friendly activity. Learning how to create your own at-home spa will save money while still giving you that self-care you need.
Set up your space to look spa-like. Making sure your surroundings are fit for relaxation is an important step in creating a home spa. Play some relaxing music and light some candles to really get that spa-like environment.
Next, whip up some DIY face masks. There are a ton of recipes out there including ingredients most people have at home such as avocado, oatmeal, yogurt, egg yolk, turmeric, honey, and even milk.
Another thing you can do for your home spa is to create a hair mask. Many people swear by using ingredients like coconut oil, mayonnaise, egg, apple cider vinegar, and yogurt in their hair to make it softer and promote hair growth.
You can also take a nice warm bath. Baths have been shown to reduce stress and anxiety by calming the nervous system. You can also throw in a bath bomb or some bath salts if you happen to have any lying around.
Deep Breathing to Relieve Stress
One form of stress relief is deep breathing. Practicing deep breathing can be done at any time, at any place. Professionals say that taking deep breaths has been shown to reduce stress levels significantly.
Deep breathing is so effective because it replicates the way you breathe when you are not stressed out. Feeling strong stress or anxiety, and even anger changes the patterns of your breathing.
Changing your breath pattern to longer inhales and exhales will trick your body into believing that you are already calm and free from any of the anger and anxiety you may be feeling during a stressful situation.
When doing deep breathing, it may help you more to be in a quiet environment where you can really just focus on getting your breathing right. Going outside, even for a short break, to practice deep breathing could help you even more with decreasing stress. Getting fresh air flowing through your lungs has been shown to reduce stress, and oxygen has been linked to increasing serotonin.
