Survive stress in the empty nest

When you are faced with your empty nest you may have some overwhelming feelings of stress.

Worrying about the kids out on their own?
What to do with your time now?
There may be money woes while figuring out how to pay for college?

A recent study indicated that some stressed-out women may be more sensitive to sounds when they are stressed out.  Wonder if that means the nagging alarm clock or annoying commercials? HA!

What does this mean for you as you try to survive The Empty Nest?

Sure, you may be annoyed by things that maybe didn’t annoy you before.  No one is denying that you are going through a transition in your life and that you will have some adjustments to get used to and that the adjustments may be a little stressful.

But,  applying some simple and and basic stress reducing techniques may help you over some rough spots:

• Accept that this is an event that you cannot control. Your kid(s) are growing up and it’s inevitable that they will leave home. It means you did a good job as a parent that they are ready (you will never think they are ready) to leave home!
• Keep a positive attitude. Look for the bright the side. Look for the silver linings. Make lemonade from the lemons. Give yourself positive messages (“I did the best I could do raising my kids, I love my kids, I want my kids to succeed”, etc)
• Stop stress in it’s tracks. As soon as you realize “I’m stressing out”, then stop. Slow down. Take deep breaths, take a walk, think about something pleasant. In other words, do something nice for yourself (and it doesn’t even have to cost anything!)

These may sound like some simple steps, and they are.  But sometimes the path to fixing something is acknowledging something is broken.  Just simply the acknowledgement that you are stressed, and then the journey to really trying to find ways to deal with it will help you find an inner peace.

OH, and the all time big help (at least for me personally) – PRAY.

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Kim Steadman is the COOP (Chief Online Operating Person) for The Re-Feathered Nest.  A portal for moms entering the Empty Nest Zone who finds they need to Re-Purpose and Re-make their lives now that the kids have flown the coop.    Kim can be found on Twitter at @kimsteadman1 and on Google+ at +Kim.