The Financial Diet blog:
Hey guys it’s chelsea from the financial diet and today i’m going to talk to you guys about taking care of yourselves post inauguration like many of you guys i imagine i was pretty devastated when trump got elected and in the past few weeks all of the terrible news and the chaos coming out every single day makes it feel almost impossible to just go through your
Day and do your work i found it’s been very very hard to stay productive and stay generally positive in my life and as you can also see from my surroundings i have moved in this time so since the inauguration i have had a move i’ve had several personal issues and a minor health crisis which is now luckily resolved so needless to say it’s been very important for me
To set some rules and strategies so that i can stay productive and stay positive during a time when nothing feels certain the truth is that yes a lot of terrible things are happening right now but the good news is that we all have control over ourselves and how we handle it and the stronger and more productive we are as individuals the better a chance we have to
Come together and fight so here are the big strategies that i’ve been using to stay sane and productive post inauguration number one has been setting aside specific times to read and digest news it can be very easy to fall into a spiral of refreshing twitter or the front page of newspapers or whatever you might follow to get your news because you feel like every
Other second something terrible is happening it can often feel like following stories in real time is the best way to stay informed and resist but the truth is that obsessively following the news will just burn you out in a matter of week and this goes double if you’re prone to things like anxiety or depression so i recommend picking out one specific time per day
Where you go through the news stories filter out the top things and figure out how you can personally have an impact the rest of the time you should be leaving breaking news aside trust me if there’s really something that urgent you’ll find out about it my second strategy has been dividing the news i read into three categories number one is issues where i can take
Steps to help myself now two great examples of this are attacks on women’s health care that means i should make appointments for things like an iud or contraceptive prescription if i want them while they’re still affordable and available or things like trump repealing dodd-frank which includes the rule that retirement advisors have to act in your best interest in
That case it means it’s my job to become even more informed about how i’m handling my own retirement and don’t worry we’ll be doing a video on that soon the point is these are things where i can take steps to help and to protect myself the second category is issues where i can do things to help others now whether that means stuff like the so-called muslim ban or
Legislature attacking lgbt people or simply supporting other organizations that are fighting trump now these are things where i can do something very tangible to help others even if it means just going to a protest or donating a few dollars and the final category is things i can’t control and these are things that are super important to separate from the rest things
Like rumors swirling about trump using nuclear weapons or him destroying relationships with australia or things that are happening on such a grandiose and chaotic level there are things that in the day-to-day you can’t do much to control now obviously there are things you can do such as going to general protests or rioting congresspeople about removing steve fannin
But on the whole dedicating time and energy to worrying about things like are we going to be in a nuclear war in a year doesn’t really help anyone and it paralyzes you from working on the many things that you actually can help focusing strictly on the places where you can have an impact allows you to better dedicate your resources and to not feel burned out number
Three is attending political meeting now obviously protesting posting online donating money these are all aspects of resisting but you can’t just resist you have to build something better so it’s up to us to find political action organizations or parties that are doing ground-level work where we can help build and create alternatives for example on a member of the
Dsa which is the democratic socialists of america probably the most famous democratic socialist being bernie sanders and i go to both organizational meetings and more fun things like happy hours and events with the group so we can all work on different sub projects and help strengthen the community here in new york there are d essay chapters all over the country as
Well as other great political organizations that could use your help and the great thing about these organizations are twofold one it’s a wonderful place to meet people dedicate your energy and feel really fulfilled but two it’s incredibly inspiring to see all of the people who’ve already been doing this work at the ground level and all of the different projects
That can use your help where you can jump right in for example the dsa has projects for everything from financial justice to racial justice to environmental justice to whatever you can think of and all of these areas have ongoing projects as well as sometimes candidates that need your support if you want one hour of your time to go really far find an organization
That will help you do that number four has been taking care of myself physically one of the unfortunate symptoms of my anxiety disorder is that i experienced periods of insomnia which compound each other to the point that i can go days or even sometimes up to a week with almost literally no sleep it quickly erodes my mental health as well as my physical health and
Leaves me almost completely unable to do even my basic work in the past i’ve had a lot of issues with admitting when i need to take medication or see someone or both but this case i said to myself there is too much going on i do not have time to take any risks as my health so i immediately made an appointment with my doctor got a prescription for two matapan and
Largely because of that and also living a healthful lifestyle i’ve been sleeping very well and that’s enabled me not just to do my regular work and be a functioning decent human being that people want to be around but also to do the work of resisting if you’re not taking care of your basic health and that means things as simple as drinking enough water and taking
Your vitamins you’re of no use to the revolution number five has been focusing more than ever on savings particularly as a woman there’s never been a more important time to have control over my financial future and my options in life with all the financial deregulation that’s already coming down the pipeline if you are not knowledgeable about your money and have
Enough of it to be able to protect yourself you’re in some serious trouble building a very solid emergency fund and knowing exactly how best to allocate your savings is of the essence we need to be very financially literate and more importantly have enough savings that’s something unexpected such as an accident without great insurance or having to move unexpectedly
Are not the end of the world following these strategies has helped me immensely to not only do my regular work but also feel optimistic about the future it’s up to all of us to treat our own bodies and our own time as the precious resources they are and if we’re not taking care of ourselves we can’t take care of anyone else so as always thank you for watching and
Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and to go to the financial diet.com for more bye
Transcribed from video
5 Ways To Stay Sane & Productive Post-Election | The Financial Diet By The Financial Diet