Experts will tell you that there are certain life events that cause you the most stress – they are death of someone you love, divorce, moving, job loss and serious injury or illness. Perhaps it’s easier to understand why death, divorce, job loss or illness/injury can be so stressful. But moving? What makes it so traumatic and nerve-wracking? If you’ve moved your home, business or office you’ll certainly know what the feeling is.
The solution is to adopt certain processes and techniques that keep you in control, and make you feel less anxious and tense.
Why Is Moving So Stressful?
Whether it is moving to the next street, across the country or to the other side of the world, moving causes major anxiety. Let’s unpack this emotion and get to the root of it.
The underlying anxiety in moving is loss of control. You feel that you are leaving your comfort zone where everything is known and familiar. Fear of changes in geography come with worries about a new location, neighborhood, environment, perhaps weather and climate, meeting new people, discovering and identifying stores to get your groceries, if you have children, settling them in a new school and their issues with making new friends, finding the healthcare support you need and a hundred other such details.
Moving can disrupt your finances for better or worse. Both experiences can cause anxiety as you negotiate either upscaling or downsizing.
The logistics of packing and moving all your stuff, ensuring that it is loaded safely, and arrives intact and in time at the destination is time consuming and stressful. If you haven’t moved in a while, you may have collected a lot of items that you decide you don’t want and this results in its own decision-making worries. If you’ve lived in this area for a long time, leaving friends or family behind causes high levels of separation anxiety.
All these factors together contribute to making you irritable, tired, burned out, frustrated and a bundle of nerves. In short, your fight or flight reaction kicks in with full force.
Top Five Relaxation Techniques To Beat Moving Anxiety
Apart from the mental and emotional feeling of anxiety, your body too reacts to the stress with headaches, sleep disturbances, eating disorders, exhaustion, memory or concentration problems, poor judgment, negative thoughts and depression. Existing health issues may worsen, leading to further anxiety and delays. Take charge with these relaxation and calming techniques:
- Change Your Focus: Make time for self-talk. This helps you to develop the right approach and attitude towards the move. Tell yourself why, where, how and when the move is going to happen. Involve your family or anyone else who is involved. Talk about how you will keep in touch with things, experiences and people you leave behind. This creates an atmosphere of teamwork and cooperation and an air of relaxation because people feel more in control.
- Get Organized: Begin preparations well ahead. Create a time-line working backwards from the date of move to the present day and add a to-do list against each date. Declutter, make arrangements for things you plan to sell, discard or give away. Separate things that have to be packed and shipped, things you can carry in your car, or on the plane/train. Arrange a reliable firm of movers and packers and compare prices, quality of service and read reviews before you sign up. Deal with bank accounts and other paperwork early.
- Self Care: Make sure that you take care of your health, fitness and well-being. It is easy to neglect these aspects when you’re in the middle of a hectic move. Shift to a nearby Airbnb or hotel for a few days so that you get your sleep and food. Don’t forget to exercise, practice relaxation techniques such as yoga, meditation or tai chi. Make time to connect with friends and family and get all the help that you need to make the move smoother. You will find out more about Rest and Digest wellness resources such as relaxation, yoga, breathing techniques and self care here.
- Digital Detox: As far as possible stay away from social media and your phone. Take only essential work-related or personal calls. Avoid scrolling mindlessly through your newsfeed. You may think that these things help you relax, but in fact they have the opposite effect and make you more tense and hyper.
- Work on Alternatives: Rarely do things go exactly as planned. That’s why it’s wise to have a few Plan B’s in mind when you chalk out your moving strategies. Staying calm and flexible is important because there could be delays, breakages, missing items and more. Check beforehand about insurance and compensation from the movers. Remember that the stress doesn’t disappear immediately and you need to work on settling in and creating a new home. Allow your rest and digest response to kick in with deep breathing, stretching and positive thoughts.
We hope you found this blog post Top 5 Relaxation Techniques To Help You With The Stress Of Moving Home useful. Be sure to check out our post Making Moving More Exciting by Removing Stresses for more great tips!
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