how do you cope with stress in recession?

How do you guys cope with stress in this recession?

do you have any tips for moi ? high gas prices are stressing me out.

Fuel prices are high, no doubt about it. But, having been thru two different sessions of NO fuel (or very little), meaning gas lines, gas rationing, odd and even fuel days, working graveyard shift, going to court all day, then sitting in gas lines for hours every other day, just to get enough fuel to make it back and forth to work for a couple more days, I am not all that stressed out now. Sure fuel is expensive, sure I am retired and the state of CA doesn't give out COLA raises very often (I just got my whopping $20 raise, first in two years), sure my ex gets 44% of my retirement, but at least I ain't sitting in those damned gas lines...

my favorite method of dealing with stress is to [edited due to inappropriate subject matter] a few times a day, or go out with one of my swords and show the local shrubbery why it should fear my wrath.

I cope by economizing, paying off and/or avoiding debt, and exploring the various low-cost and free alternatives.

This also works on a psychological level. Parks, forests , museums and libraries are all free, quiet, relaxing, and a good place to meet people. If you trade services or work special offers right you can get free coffee at many local coffee shops and can take a date for coffee and a danish for all of about $2 and spend a relaxed evening sipping coffee on the veranda.

Using a bicycle is low cost and good exercise. The exercise is a good counter for stress. Cutting cost removes pressure from the wallet and this further cuts mental stress.

Riding a bus is also good. Instead of stressing out over traffic riding gives you time to think, meditate and read. It gives you a chance to decompress and meet people.

Meeting a wide cross-section of the population also relieves stress. Sure there are the occasional dorks and duds but the great majority of people, of all colors and class, are decent. This removes a lot of uncertainty. Seeing a huge, rough looking biker dude patiently and politely holding the door for the frailest old black lady I have ever seen tells me that people aren't stereotypes. That even scary looking people can have a good heart.

I don’t get stressed out by things I can’t change. No point to getting wound up because it changes nothing.


Action cures lots of problems like this, make extra money to offset the fuel prices. Sell things on e-bay, handy with your hands and can build craft items? Make something you can sell. Or if you have a marketable skill, use it.


Extra money from a few hours work goes a long way to solving the higher fuel prices.


Developing these skills now can pay off down the road if it ever hits the fan. Bartering your abilities to make things or fix things can get you items you could use.


I do a lot of bartering now. I also make a lot of things for a local lumber yard that they don’t have the time to do themselves.

I have always been able to make my hobbies support themselves and then some.

First off don't sweat the big stuff, you can't change it. Sweat the details and keep them from becoming the big stuff.
I like playing video games and going shooting at the range, both stress releivers for me. Both cost money. By frugally spending money you keep a flow of it going into the economy, which helps it. Reward yourself for your hard work. Want that new cd? Buy it. New movie comming out that looks good? Go watch it.
Allocate a little bit of scratch for "mindless endulgence" if you can. Something as little as 20 bucks a week can go miles as far as doing things or buying stuff that can help in releiving stress.

-Bill Liptak

well exercise is mine way to get rid of stress, fitnes at work, bicyle, running and climbing in mine own time.

But thats not stress due to finacieel problems...

And if you think gas prices are high, well we are paying the equivilant of 10 US dollars a gallon here. Good thing i don't own a car and mine boss is paying for mine public transport and i can get a car and diesel to drive it from the boss when i need to drive for work.

i'm not formiliar with you situation, but there are many ways to reduce the cost of transport and some bosses (like mine) offer good alternatives. And you can also find many ways to safe money yourself, by using less fuel or selling stuff on ebay.

I am experiencing financial ruin, business failure and likely home foreclosure; it comes with a lot of stress. Here's what I tell myself everyday:

Take a moment to identify, and fully own and acknowledge, your stress. Indulge your irrational fantasy about the horrible possibilities. Rub it all over yourself; roll around in it. Experience it fully. Tell yourself the truth about it; tell a trusted friend if you can.

Then tell stress to go to the back of the bus, to the far end of the board table of your advisors, that you'll get back to it later - or maybe you'll just permanently fire it. Or whatever way works to remind you that stress is a reaction you are choosing and you can make a different choice right now,.

Meditate, get in touch with spirit, or pray or whichever of those are working at the moment. Open your self up to help and your own strength to let your stress go for now, give it like a true gift to the universe or deity to mind for you for a while - maybe forever.

Then, humbly, but playfully, with minimum ego return to the path of your life. Give the gift of yourself where that works. Invest in your close relationships; go out of your way to share a laugh - especially at your stressed self. Post on a couple websites. Think about what a great story this character building experience will make later.

Be sure to include movement, physical and otherwise, in today's routine. Walk, run, fish, take a drive, ride your bike, play golf, go bowling, go visit a friend or the mall.

Remind your self that you are a member of the dominant species on the planet, that you have incredible power over your environment, and that chances are you live better - whatever your circumstances - than 99% of everyone who lived on the planet before you.

Don't worry, you can create plenty of stress later if you want - and there are plenty of others who will seek to visit stress upon you. It is not yet an endangered species in your life, but maybe it should be!

It didn't work? Stress still there? Forgive yourself for being human and, when you are ready, work at it again. It's a survival skill; it's no surprise you're going to have to practice, is it?

Exercise regularly and vigorously. Makes a big improvement in soundness of sleep.

Do improvement chores around the house. (Painted it during job search following layoff) Improving things feels good.

Play guitar. Cheap comfort. I already have it and changing strings is pretty cheap. Internet guitar lessons are pretty much free depending on what you choose to work on.

I definitely feel the stress of the economy. I have 17 week old baby boy. (Can't wait till he is old enough for camping!) You want to talk about a drain on finances when your wife isn't working for several months. ;-)

I just try to budget very very carefully. I tried the cutting everything out bit, but that didn't work. I agree with BillLiptak in that you need to put aside a little bit of "play" money to help keep your sanity.

I like to play video games myself. Play some old titles online for a bit of freshness. I will pick up some new books I want to read. Relatively inexpensive as far as things go.

Last night my little grandaughter had to be care flighted to the childrens hospital in Ft. Worth. She is only a week old and was born 3 weeks early. She is going to be ok but watching them put her on that chopper without her parents made the price of gas seem like nothing. Take the time to put your life into perspective and live life 15 minutes at a time. I just spent the last 15 minutes not buying gas, not paying bills, not worring about anything, instead i'm just sitting here breathing a sigh of relief that my grandaughter is safe and getting the help she needs. She's going to be ok!!!!

kill small furry animals, works for me.

Angel, glad to hear your granddaughter is going to be OK. Your right a serious illness or injury to a loved one seriously focusses your mind on your priorities.

My little one is terminal and every now and again she likes to remind us, normally results in blue flashing lights and that horrible wait until you find out what's going on. Fuel prices don't matter when that happens. Now results of course in ridiculous debt, but she is still here.

LOL Woodchucks are fun to shoot.

May you both wake up to a skunk in your tent.

We had a grandson born on the 31st of last month. Healty as can be, lucky us. I can not imagine having to put him on a chopper. Glad yours is going to be OK!!!

"...My little one is terminal..."

I am not usually at a loss for words, but all I can come up with is, I am so sorry.


"...but she is still here..."

Enjoy every minute...

I work from home and so far business doesn't seem to be slowing yet (for me). I did refi my truck and that saves $. I was even able to shorten the length left on the loan and my rate is less than home financing It's not stressful yet, but it may get that way end of this year / early next unless something starts turning around PREPARE

OBG, Congrats on the little one. May he always be healthy and happy.
Johno, all I can say is , with God all things are possible and I'll always include you and yours in my prayers. Share as many moments as possible with your family and make every moment count.

Thanks. Little sucker came into the world with a full head of dark hair too...

Have you made him up a baby BOB yet. Never to early to be prepared.

His dad is a former Marine, they are big into camping, hunting, fishing, etc, so I don't think I have to worry about that too much...

Stay sober. (Alternate definition: Devoid of speculative imagination. ) What you spend time thinking of directly affects how you feel and you do have the choice of what you spend time thinking about. It's impossible to worry and get stressed out if you are focused on how great your life actually is. (More than half the people on this planet subsist on less than $1,000 per year, have no access to indoor plumbing and are highly unlikely to have the opportunity to change those facts.) Taking things for granted is epidemic in the western world but developing the skill of being grateful is well worth the effort.

Eliminate speculative imagination and nurture creative imagination and gratitude.

Many thanks to you Angel and all the others who have sent best wishes.

OBG, I've been enjoying every minute with her for 14 years and hope to spend many more. She has allowed me to change from a couldn't give a damn drunken single soldier to a well rounded quite contented and mostly happy father and soldier. I wouldn't be where I am today without her and her mother.

Good advice dweste.

Acknowledge it and move on.

I think of a story about Britons during the bombing of London.

Even though bombs are falling and people are dieing there is a wisdom of "business as usual". (Tea time at two, or whenever the bombs slow down a bit)

Keeping up normal routines (or something similar) such as getting up at the same time, etc helps keep stress down.

Keeping one's focus on the here and now.

The one-day-at-a-time idea. During a very stressful time in my life, I was just focusing on one hour at a time. Had my watch set to chime on the hour and when it did, I stopped whatever I was doing and just focused on breathing for five minutes, then went back to work...

These are skills we all can practice recession or not.

Practice positive coping skills even when not under stress and they will be easier / more automatic when the stress/ crisis hits.

Maintaining Emotional/Mental health - Good lessons for all of us to learn given our interest in disaster preparedness.

By living slightly below my means all the time, not taking on any debt and keeping a positive flow of cash to savings (including investments) when bad times come as they always do, I have a great fall back. Other than the price of gas, I haven't noticed any issues.

High gas prices are with us, deal with it -- cut back on driving. I'm pulling the mountain bike off the rafters in the garage and getting it ready for more regular use. New road tires, brakes, et al and it should be good to go. I weighed the cost of having a bicycle shop do the work vs doing it myself and then I saw that REI has a Comprehensive Bicycle Maintenance course. So I paid the tuition and will do the work myself and learn what it takes to keep a bike going for the long haul.

Don't obsess about stuff. I was plenty content when I had less. I may shed a lot of weight in the form of material things, just give it to Good Will, AmVets or the Salvation Army.

Same as others, living well below my means, and keeping debt down.

I would, however, say that our economy is cyclical by nature, and this isn't close to a recession. The 80's were particularly bad for oil, and that was a fun time trying to get a job. This economy is much better than that was.

Picard, I'm not familiar with the economic situation in Canada, though I know yous guys are feeling the gas price hike too, but here in the U.S., there isn't a "recession". We're suffering from gas prices and housing market woes (to minor degree), but overall, the economy's relatively strong.

The "news" media can convince of many things. If they said over and over again, in their subtle and subliminal ways, that we were all afflicted with a cancer and would die within 6 months, we surely would, cancer or not. One of the best ways I can think of to deal with this "economic" stress is to stop listening to those that would prefer you were stressed and pay attention to what the economy is really doing.

Here's another thought:

How would you like to be paying TWICE what we pay over here for gas in France? Or England? And they've been paying almost twice what we pay for a long time. Mostly that's because their governments tax the gas unrealistically....just like here.

Another thought on the media:
Why is that we hear, ten or twelve times a day, what the current gas price is? Do they think we're so dumb we can't remember the price as we drive by the gas staion marquis? (Answer: yes, that's why they do it. They correctly KNOW we're (n)umb enough to succumb to their subliminal messaging)

They do the same thing with housing prices, war statistics, "corporate" salaries, and, of course, the ever-more-evil "big business". The more stressed out you are, the more you'll want "change". What kind of change? ....doesn;t matter, just give us change! We're "hoping" for it.

I turn off the news, Picard, and I turn off those who believe and repeat the mantra. I try to keep a positive outlook and be thankful for what we have. My stress then comes from job pressure and dealing with bad people. I manage it the best I can with exercise and spending time with positive thinking people.

I plan on taking a nice book, papers from work, or even household bills I need to pay to make better use of my time if stuck in gas lines. I also plan on filling up on company time as I use my personal vehicle for work.

IMHO, stress is what we make it.

I can only wish her, and your family the best. Words fail me in posting my wishes for you all.
Stu

I do not know what to say to you Johno, other than I'm sorry.

My prayers are with her, you and your family.

My oldest daughter had a 10% chance of survival when she was born 3 months early. Now she is 22 and working to sell her first novel to an agent. She is a good example of the power of prayers. Like you, she turned me from being a drunken sailor to being a fairly responsible Dad. She does tell her friends that her Dad is Crazy (ha)!

All you can do is pray and never waste a moment that y'all have together.

Your family and your daughter are now in my daily prayers as well. Isn't it strange how a little girl can get a big strapping man (Dad) so tightly wrapped around their little fingers, so tightly and so quickly?

Good Luck my friend and hug those kids every chance that comes along!! Bo

You have touched us all. I, too, pray for you and your family.

I just got a reminder of this today, been up since 3:30 am. My dad had a heart attack and we all spent the day at 2 hospitals.


Outlook doesn’t look good, he’s had a 5-X bypass in 1994, a triple bypass in 1999 and a heart attack this morning, all his attires but one are blocked 100%. His heart rate keeps jumping up & down. They say another bypass is an unlikely option because there is no safety net if the last artery clogs up during any operation. There is a specialist that is coming in from the Cleveland Clinic in the morning to see what can be done. I just came home to send out a few e-mails to people to let them know what is going on (don’t have the phone number for all my dads friends around the country, but do have access to his computer that he uses on the net) let the dog out, take a very quick shower, get something to eat and heading back to the hospital for the night.


Enjoy the time you have, never know when time with family can be taken away.

I'm sorry to hear about your dad, my prayers are with you and yours.

Sorry to hear that. More prayers...

Prayers for your Dad. It's rough, the waiting/watching. Dad spent from September to last month in and out of Hospitals and Nursing homes

Once again thanks to all for their thoughts and prayers. As always the members of this forum humble me with their kindness. Guys who I will probably never meet have shown more thought than some people who live along the street.

Wildman, never a truer word typed, good luck to your daughter in her literary career. Never knew how guys my size could get wrapped around such small fingers, but they manages.

BobS best wishes to your old man, I hope the old bugger pulls himself out of where he is at the moment.

hmm, WHAT recession?

Sorry to be insensitive but I happen to live in the one area of North America that is enjoying HIGH growth with nominal GDP almost doubling in the last few years. We are enjoying the perfect storm of high commodity prices for all our major exports at the same time and the forecast is for more of the same for several years. Unemployment is down, pay cheque is up. If eastern Canada is getting you down, then come out west, young man, come out west!

We've endured many Many MANY years of being "next year country" and "holding on" until things turn around. Well, finally they have. During all those dry years, we didn't give up hope, never gave up the belief that things could improve. When my parents and grandparents have had to survive the depressions of the '30s where there was better than 50% unemployment, prairie folk developed a thick skin and a lot of resilience. We suffered through the high interest rates of the '80s and negative economic & population growth. We watched and listened while everybody else took pot shots and jibes at us, took it all in stride while they laughed all the way to the bank. "What goes around comes around" so when I see 3rd world countries with a 75% inflation rate on the most basic of human needs - their food largely because of the West's desire for biofuels, my heart goes out to them.

I is poor. I always poor.

I laugh at the was rich folks whining.

*grins*

If money was a major motivator in my life, I'd have a very different kind of life. I have enough to pay my bills and buy a few toys and still set aside a little each month. Not going to worry about much more than that.

"...I have enough to pay my bills and buy a few toys and still set aside a little each month..."

Far as we am concerned, that is all you need. We have more than some folks, much less than others. Everything we own came from working, budgeting, pinching pennies, saving in order to pay cash, etc etc etc. In our opinion, one of the biggest problems facing our people today is the desire for instant gratification. No waiting for anything, just rush out and buy it on time, paying monster interest, in the end paying twice the original purchase price. Most of our kids had CD's, DVD's plasma TV's, and more, long before we did (still don't have that plasma). But they are in dept up to their eyeballs...

Mine comes from being single. It's cheaper.

"...I have enough to pay my bills and buy a few toys and still set aside a little each month..."

It's worth considering that 80%+ of the humans on Earth would trade places with you, no questions asked. Anything above "day-to-day survival" is "wealth." We in the West are so much wealthier than we realize, both in resources and opportunity; but I think a lot of us have lost sight of that, to an alarming (and perhaps self-destructive) degree.

"hmm, WHAT recession?

Sorry to be insensitive but I happen to live in the one area of North America that is enjoying HIGH growth with nominal GDP almost doubling in the last few years. We are enjoying the perfect storm of high commodity prices for all our major exports at the same time and the forecast is for more of the same for several years. Unemployment is down, pay cheque is up. If eastern Canada is getting you down, then come out west, young man, come out west!"

- - - - -

It's true, Western Canada is in a massive boom. We need people with trades and technical skills, and people with a strong work ethic. There are professional and service industry jobs unfilled. Not much tolerance out here for slackers, drug-heads or welfare-types (assuming you're able-bodied).

This boom is drawing in people from across the globe. Eastern Canadians, Americans, Europeans, Chinese, Phillipinos, Mexicans, you name it. It's a regular United Nations these days. If you're willing to put your shoulder to the wheel, you're welcome here.

'Course you Americans will have to leave your handguns at home. But frankly, you won't really need them up here. Our motto is "Peace, Order and Good Government." I think we do a pretty good job of that.

~~end of sales pitch~~ :-)

What about the idea that there is No recession going on? Technically speaking anyway. The Definition of a Recession is Two straight quarters of Negative economic growth. This has not occurred.

Interesting segment on the Today Show this AM, including a panel of experts such as Steve Forbes and Jim Cramer. One panelist suggested a recession, like most things, has some good long-term effects such as bringing prices down due to reduced demand. Cramer said dump the ethanol program - all it's doing is driving up the price of every food product that is corn dependent, including meat and poultry. He said we should exploit natural gas: we've got incredible reserves, and the technology is here now to use it in cars and trucks.

As for dealing with the stress brought about by economic worries, I re-read Adrift by Tristan Jones. It restores my perspective on what "down and out" really means.

I'm in the process of teaching my kids and grandkids the concept of "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without" They have never had to worry about money before so before they do, I thought it would be wise to get back to the basics. They are starting to see my point. It's working pretty good so far. With the exception of emergency room runs for the baby, we have cut our gas consumption in half by coordinating our grocery trips and car pooling. We only live 3 miles apart but instead of going back and fourth visiting during the week, we spend the whole day together on grocery day, you'd be surprised at how much it saves. Since my new grandaughter requires so much attention, I've been keeping my 10 year old grandaughter a few days a week and I've been teaching her how to shop and cook. We have 2 rules for cooking, it can't be nuked in the microwave and it can't be an instant meal. Everything has to be from scratch. She's loving the attention and the learning.

Beg your pardon, BigDaddyTX, although there was 30% unemployment in Canada as a whole (not sure about what it was in America so you may be correct as well), the U/R was 66% in Saskatchewan which is where I'm from. Total income in the Province dropped by 90% from 1928 to 1933. When I said 50%, that was the general number used by the old timers that they tell us "youngins" (hey, I'm 48!)

When I looked it up, I was surprised that the actual figure was even higher than what traditionally told to me!

By comparison, today's rate is 4% (Note: You can't compare US and Canadian rates because of differences in how unemployment is measured in the two countries and because the US has a higher incarceration rate than Canada. The current US U/R is 5.5% but a more realistic comparison would be 7.0-7.5% once the differences were accounted for).

My personal method for coping with the stress of the recession is self improvement.

That means going back to school, and taking training for a new career path, hopefully one that's more recession-proof.

It also means getting back into better physical condition. I've started a walking/hiking program and by next Spring hope to be taking weekend hiking trips to our state parks. That's largely responsible for my renewed interest in wilderness skills, which is how I found this site. I've also started studying Kali, which is kind of hard on ankles that are bearing about forty to fifty pounds too much weight. Hope to have that off by Christmas (just in time to start packing it back on, lol).