Unemployment Stress Relief

Yesterday, I addressed the stress rollercoaster that we are all on during our period of unemployment. Today, I feel it is necessary to address the ways that we can all alleviate some of the stress that accumulates during a long lay-off. Now, mind you that I am not a psychologist or psychiatrist, but these are common every day recommendations that are bound to help and not hurt.

First, you need to find a hobby. A hobby will help you relax and not think about the fact that you are unemployed or think about your job search. Find something that does not cost money, since you most likely short on funds, and preferably something that you can identify as yours. Whether that is writing short stories, bird watching, bird house building, working out, whatever, it just needs to be something that you can put your energies into and forget everything else for a time.

Second, talk to family and friends. You cannot keep the stress, worries and concerns locked up inside of you. Holding onto these issues will tear you up inside and make it even more likely that you will break some day. You need to have a couple people in your life, whether it is your spouse, best friend, mom and dad, or whoever, to speak with and tell them about your problems.
People really do understand. Just talking to other people takes some of the burden off of your shoulders. It just helps to lighten the load. If you did go to a psychologist they would make you talk about your problems. If you were to read a bunch of psychology books, they too would tell you the same thing. You need to have someone to whom you can unburden yourself and just talk to about the stress in your life.

Lastly, you need to have a balanced and well thought out job search strategy. You cannot have just one avenue for your getting a job. No matter how effective you think the career websites are or how extensive your network is, you need to balance out all of the different avenues for finding a job. Use as many of the available means to getting a job as possible.

You might ask how this is alleviating my stress. Well, no one avenue works for everyone, every time. As such, you will mentally know that you are trying everything to get a job if you are balancing out your search. The people who do not balance out their search and just rely on let’s say recruiters, when they don’t get a job in their hoped for time frame they begin to question and wonder if they were right and why they aren’t getting a job. These questions may still come in time, but if you spread out your offense as they call it in football, you have a better chance of getting an open job. This in turn means less stress in your life.

Keep your head held high, your confidence up and go get ‘em!