The Importance of Managing Stress

Five takeaways:

  1. Stress management is imperative for physical and mental health, but it is important to remember that it is not one-size-fits-all. You must experiment with what works for you.
  2. A first step is to do a thorough accounting of the stressors in your life. Starting a stress journal can help one assess their various sources of stress.
  3. Practice the four A’s of stress management: Avoid (sources of stress), Alter (stressful situations), Adapt (change expectations and attitude), Accept (the things you cannot change).
  4. Get moving and live healthily: physical exercise is a proven de-stressor. Remember, it doesn’t have to be marathon training or weightlifting. It can be as simple as taking a walk. Nutrition also goes a long way.
  5. Learn to relieve stress in the moment: this will take personal experimentation, but use of sensory techniques has been proven to help deal with stress in the moment. Take a deep breath, and focus on what you see, hear, taste, and touch– you will find a sensory experience that calms you down.

From HelpGuide
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This site may contain links to articles or other information that may be contained on a third-party website. Advisory Services Network, LLC and MAP Strategic Wealth Advisors are not responsible for and do not control, adopt, or endorse any content contained on any third party website. The information and material contained in linked articles is of a general nature and is intended for educational purposes only. Links to articles do not constitute a recommendation or a solicitation or offer of the purchase or sale of securities.

Coping with Financial Stress

Six takeaways:

  1. A recent World Economic Forum survey showed that 1 out of 4 people were experiencing financial struggles, and another survey showed that more and more people are adding debt to deal with their struggles.
  2. The first tip for dealing with financial stress that the article offers: Speak to someone. Talking to someone about your problems is a proven means of stress relief. Keeping them to yourself only makes them seem more impossible to overcome.
  3. Tip Two: Take Inventory of Your Finances. You must give yourself a clear picture of where you stand. Knowledge is power, and anxiety is often related to unknown and ambiguous understanding of a situation. Full understanding of your finances will allow you to identify patterns and problem areas. A great starting position would be to create a balance sheet listing all your assets and liabilities.
  4. Next, Make a Plan and Stick to It. Once you have a clear idea of your financial outlook, you can eliminate excess spending and make other life changes that help ameliorate your problems.
  5. Create a Monthly Budget. Not only will this help you keep your spending in the right range, but it will also alleviate stress by giving you a much-needed sense of control.
  6. Lastly, Manage Your Overall Stress. Steps like regular exercise, healthy sleeping and eating habits, and meditation are proven to help with overall stress levels and will help fortify you against financial anxieties.

From HelpGuide
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This site may contain links to articles or other information that may be contained on a third-party website. Advisory Services Network, LLC and MAP Strategic Wealth Advisors are not responsible for and do not control, adopt, or endorse any content contained on any third party website. The information and material contained in linked articles is of a general nature and is intended for educational purposes only. Links to articles do not constitute a recommendation or a solicitation or offer of the purchase or sale of securities.

Why We Should Embrace Boredom

Five takeaways:

  1. Many studies show that the constant tide of information and “pings” from our phones and devices tend to detract from the brain’s capacity for focused and creative thought.
  2. In a country where 87% of teenagers have smartphones, young people are particularly susceptible to habit-forming and dependency-forming relationships with their phones.
  3. A study by the Academy of Management Discoveries showed that when one group was kept bored/unstimulated and another given an intensive task to perform, when asked to perform a subsequent task of making up a hypothetical excuse for lateness, the group that had been left bored/unstimulated showed far more creativity in their answers.
  4. The Child Mind Institute notes that boredom can help children learn flexibility, problem-solving, and planning.
  5. Like many habits, embracing boredom can be tough at first. But resisting the urge to grab your phone the second you feel bored can reopen your perception to so much more in-depth, trenchant insight about the world./li>

From Erica Pandey for Axios
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This site may contain links to articles or other information that may be contained on a third-party website. Advisory Services Network, LLC and MAP Strategic Wealth Advisors are not responsible for and do not control, adopt, or endorse any content contained on any third party website. The information and material contained in linked articles is of a general nature and is intended for educational purposes only. Links to articles do not constitute a recommendation or a solicitation or offer of the purchase or sale of securities.

Young adults today are more perfectionist and report more pressure from their parents than previous generations

Five takeaways:

  1. New research shows that young adults are showing a higher propensity for perfectionism as they deal with increases in critical parenting and higher parental expectation.
  2. The study’s authors noted that society increasingly encourages competition and individualism, which might push parents to place greater pressure on their children’s success. A perfectionist mindset would be a logical next step for a child seeking parental validation.
  3. The study differentiates between “self-oriented perfectionism” and “socially prescribed perfectionism,” which is more common and more powerful– it arises from social cues like parental or peer pressure and is correlated to societal/cultural trends.
  4. One of the study’s authors noted that “Parents are not to blame,” as the pressure they are putting on their children is more so an anxious reaction to “a hyper-competitive world with ferocious academic pressures, runaway inequality, and technological innovations like social media that propagate unrealistic ideals of how we should appear and perform.”
  5. Various market/financial factors are contributing to another fact that will weigh upon young and early-career workers: that young people will need to work far harder than their parents, and earn much more, just to attain the same standard of living. This adds to the mental health burden.

From Beth Ellwood for PsyPost
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This site may contain links to articles or other information that may be contained on a third-party website. Advisory Services Network, LLC and MAP Strategic Wealth Advisors are not responsible for and do not control, adopt, or endorse any content contained on any third party website. The information and material contained in linked articles is of a general nature and is intended for educational purposes only. Links to articles do not constitute a recommendation or a solicitation or offer of the purchase or sale of securities.