More Money Podcast - How to Manage Your Anxiety with the Stock Market & Pandemic - Money Minute with Jessica Moorhouse

Episode Date: April 3, 2020

It's totally normal to feel anxious about everything going on right now. Just like you, I've been battling with my anxiety for the past several weeks, but I've started to do a few things to manage it better. It's no good feeling worried and anxious for weeks or months on end, so here are some things I'm doing to control my anxiety so I can live a relatively normal life until the stock market stops being an up and down rollercoaster and there's a solution to this health crisis. Set up a new normal routine (shower, dressed, breakfast, to-do list, etc...) When working from home, set up a dedicated work station Take breaks, such as using the Pomodore Technique, which involves working for 25 minutes (set a timer) then taking a break. https://francescocirillo.com/pages/pomodoro-technique Limit your info intake each day from the news and social media Exercise daily Journal each day or week Meditate Sleep at least 8 hours per day and have a set sleep schedule Socialize online Avoid/limit alcohol and drug dependency Think of life in 1-2 week chunks (or day by day) Accept that anxiety and fear are normal for what’s going on right now Be careful with "What Ifs" Get professional help if needed Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, and welcome to another Money Minute with me, Jessica Morehouse. For this episode, I want to talk about how you can manage your anxiety during this market decline and this pandemic because we are all going through it and it doesn't look like things are going to be resolved anytime soon. So in this kind of new normal that we are kind of having to adjust to, what can we do to manage our anxiety? Because we are all worried. We are all anxious. We all have no idea what's going on, what our futures look like.

And that can be a lot. And so I want to kind of share some things. I've done some research on what are some helpful things that we can all do ourselves to kind of minimize our anxiety and feel more in control of our lives during these uncertain times. So here we go. Number one, set up a new normal routine. And that could look like, okay, get up, shower, get dressed, have a nice breakfast, make your to-do list, and then have a specific time. If you're working from home, this is your time to stop working. If you're self-employed, you should know how to do this already, though I'm terrible at doing this. I work typically late, but make sure to have a cutoff time for when you're done working. So then you can actually have some time to do some other kind of self-care things like work out or make a nice meal for dinner or, you know,

do some meditation or watch, you know, Tiger King because we're all watching that and it is amazing. It is crazy. It is crazy. Anyways, so that is tip number one. Tip number two is if you are working from home, make sure to set up a dedicated workstation at your home. So even if you're in a very kind of tiny apartment, don't basically make all of your apartment your work station. Because believe me, I've done that in the past. It is so bad for your mental health because it kind of feels like every room is work. And so you need some sort of barrier, whether that's a physical barrier or a mental barrier to be like, okay, the couch is where I relax, but the dining table is where I work. Having that system. For me, whenever I work at my couch or in my bedroom, because I'm kind of lazy, I'm always less efficient, less effective,

less motivated to get work things done. So if you have a dedicated space, then there you go, make a dedicated workstation. It is a very important thing to do. That being said, tip number three is to make sure you are taking breaks. No one can work an eight hour day straight. Like that is just not possible. It just doesn't happen. And it is important to actually take breaks. So you can have that moment to just like let your brain just take a beat. And there's so many great things that you can do. There's one technique that I know so many people do called the Pomodoro technique, which involves working for 25 minutes. You set a timer and then you take a break once that timer goes off and take a break for like two to five minutes. And then you go again. But there's some

other kinds of techniques. So you have a system in place. So you're not, you don't feel guilty whenever you're taking a break because you shouldn't feel guilty about taking a break. I'm also telling myself this because I'm bad at this. Tip number four is to limit your info intake each day. So I'm talking about news, Twitter, social media. That is what will get you. That is what's going to make you super stressed out. So there's a couple of shows that I typically watch every day because I'm super lame and watch The View every day because I like learning about American politics, getting their perspectives. But I need to take a break from it because honestly, it's making me too anxious because all they're talking about is COVID-19 and I can't handle it anymore. I'm getting too much of

that and everywhere else. So I'm limiting, you know, kind of things that I usually check up on every day. And I typically just like look at Twitter once in the morning in the news section. And then for news, you know, I'll look online to see what's going on maybe once or twice a day. And that's it. Tip number five is to make sure that you are physically active every day, whether that is, you know, making sure you're exercising several times through a week, going for a walk if, you know, you're in a place where there's not a ton of people. For me, I mean, I swear there are people everywhere. I mean, I do live in Toronto, which is a very populated city, but it's just like, you guys

stay home so I feel safe to go out on my house and just like walk around the block. But no, but anyway, it's a whole other story. So anyways, tip number five, make sure you exercise or you're physically active every day. You don't want to become just like glued to your couch because it will affect your mood and your mental health. Believe me. Tip number six is to journal. One thing that my husband has been doing for a little while is he has a gratitude journal and he says it's actually been very, very helpful. But you could just do a normal journal like once a week or once a day and just write

your thoughts and just like get it out on the page. So it's not kind of, you know, just taking up all the space in your mind. Number seven, meditate. I'm very bad at this. Um, but I want to be better because there's so many people that say, Oh my gosh, it changed so much for me. It's so, so helpful. So I would, I would highly recommend if you've never tried it or if you've tried it and failed like me multiple times, try it again. Find an app. There's, I think, a few apps that are currently offering some free, like either a free trial or they're just giving it away for free or something because they're realizing a lot of people need some mental health help.

So meditate. Make that kind of your goal to get better at. Tip number eight, sleep. Get some quality sleep, at least eight hours per day, and have a set sleep schedule, which means you have a specific time you're getting up, a specific time that you were going to sleep. Sleep is so important because we all know if you have a crummy night's sleep, it affects the rest of your day, and we do not want that to happen. So make sleep a priority. Number nine, socialize. Now, obviously we can't really do that because we

can't in the normal way. We can't really go out anymore and hang out with friends like we used to, but luckily we have technology. You have a phone. You have, you know, Google, what's it called? Hangouts. There's so many freaking ones that I can't remember. I usually use Zoom, but there's FaceTime, there's Google Hangouts. There's all these different ones. And most of them are free. So make sure you're setting kind of like your social calendar and hanging out with friends online and video chat. I did that recently on the weekend with my family, like all my family from different, you know, parts of Canada, we all had dinner together at the same time and just caught up for an hour. And it's really nice. So make sure you are actually like reaching out to people, setting that, like scheduling it into your

calendar so you can look forward to it. And so you don't, you know, you're not alone the whole time. Number 10, if you can, please avoid alcohol consumption. I know there's so many memes out there of like people just like, you know, drinking wine from the bottle. And that's super funny, but there's so much stats out there that say that, well, it's not good if you do that all the time. It is temporarily, but then you'll become dependent and it does, uh, you know, affect your mood. So just limit how many times per week that you have that glass of wine, um, because you don't want to, you know, it to affect your mood and then you have a bunch of other problems. Anyways, moving along. Number 11, think of life just either day by day or in two or one week chunks. This has been very helpful because whenever I start to think about the future,

like one month or six months or what's the rest of the year look like, I start to spiral and freak out and just feel like a failure and all it's not good. It's not pretty. So since I did not personally cause the pandemic, which is something that I also need to remind myself often that I did not cause this, but this is the situation we're all in. I'm just trying to live my life as best as I can day by day and week by week. And it actually honestly has been very, very helpful. Number 12, accept that anxiety and fear are normal for what's going on right now. Don't feel bad that you are anxious or you feel kind of afraid because that's a very normal reaction to this situation that we've never

experienced before. So don't feel guilty. Don't, I mean, there's a lot of people that I follow online that I'm probably going to unfollow because they're living like in a very different life than I am as if it's not affecting them. And it just kind of seems inauthentic to me. So for me, I'm just like, you know what? It is totally normal that I feel anxious. It's totally normal that I'm kind of afraid right now because we're in a pandemic. Okay. This isn't the time to like just double down and hustle. Okay. Don't feel bad that you don't feel motivated that you kind of are just having a really rough time because that's actually the most natural feeling to be feeling right now. Two more. Number 13, be careful with what ifs. You know, the game. What if this happens? What if this happens?

It can go dark really fast. So again, I'd kind of go back to number 11, where you're just living day by day and not playing the what if game, because it can be a dangerous game. And last but not least, if you need it, get professional help. I, for me personally, I think I've shared this on the show before, I am seeing a therapist again. So I did see a therapist several years ago when I first moved to Toronto. I was having a really hard time adjusting to my new life here. And well, it seemed like a great time to start seeing a therapist again. And it's funny, actually, I booked my therapist and had my first session before all of this happened. So it's kind of funny and timely. But I'm so glad that I have some professional help that I can talk to about my, you know,

fears and anxieties. So if you want someone to talk to, I would highly recommend don't be afraid, reach out to a counselor, a therapist, or someone, you know, who is an expert in that field. It is money well spent. And if you're still working, see if you can use some of your work benefits for that. But honestly, it could be a real, real important thing in your life. So I highly recommend it. Well, those are my 14 tips on how to manage your anxiety during this market decline and pandemic. I hope it was helpful for you. It's helpful for me. I'm probably going to listen to this episode just to remind myself on the weekly, hey girl,

this is what you should be doing. So thanks for listening. I will be back next Wednesday with another interview episode of the Mo Money Podcast. Have a really great weekend. Take care of yourself. Talk to your loved ones and stay home. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.