Stress is a normal part of life. Stress happens to every person at some point in their lives. Stress can be caused by several things, such as moving to a new place, feeling overwhelmed, or exhaustion.
If you are feeling stressed due to an upcoming move, or maybe you are in the middle of a big move, I invite you to read this article as a way to help you manage your stress levels and reduce your stressors.
Table of Contents
What Is Stress?
In order to understand how to overcome stress and manage it, you must first know what is stress? Stress is when events or stressors put high pressure on your mind or body. The pressure from stress causes your physical and mental state to break down, which can lead to a physical injury, illness, or emotional breakdown.
Physical stress while moving could come from overworking. Moving a whole house is a lot of work. You have to pack up each room, load everything up, unload, then unpack all of your belongings. This can be too much for one person to handle. Moving can definitely cause physical stress on your body, which can lead to you getting hurt or sick.
Mental stress while moving can be just as concerning as physical stress. Moving is a constant timeline of back and forth with deadlines and things to do. The combination of being overwhelmed with lack of sleep, food, and alone time can push you to the brink of a mental collapse.
Emotional stress can often happen when you are moving because you have memories of a place that you may never see again. You may be moving away from your friends and family or your favorite activities. These factors can cause you to be upset and make you emotionally fragile.
How To Deal With Stress While Moving
Dealing with stress is important for our physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Without a way to overcome stress we break down and become vulnerable and sickly. Take time to read through each of the following ways to help you overcome the three types of stress while moving.
Overcoming Physical Stress While Moving
As we learned above, physical stress is when our bodies are pushed to their limits. Reducing physical stress can be as simple as doing the following:
Hire A Moving Team
One of the best decisions to make while moving to reduce your physical stress is to hire a professional moving crew. This will free you from having to lift heavy furniture and endless boxes back and forth between locations. A professional moving team will assist you with packing up your belongings as well!
Just be sure to hire licensed and insured professionals that you trust.
Ask Friends and Family To Help
If hiring a professional team of movers is not an option then ask your friends and family to assist you. Having a group of people you know, love, and trust can help the moving experience be lighthearted and fun. With everyone working together as a team, it lightens your load and helps the time go by quicker.
Don’t Move More Than You Can Handle
If you can’t handle moving more than a few boxes per day, then don’t! Don’t overwhelm your body with countless boxes each day that enhance your stress levels. Simply move what you can, when you can.
Use Tools To Help
There are many tools that can help assist you while moving. These tools reduce the weight of your items and are overall easier on your physical body. Use a dolly to help load larger items and heavy boxes or a ramp to get the items into the moving truck.
Pack Light
Minimalism is all the rage these days, right? Who says that when we move we have to take our old lives with us! If you are making a big move, maybe you should consider packing light! You don’t need your sleds and winter coats for a move to Florida!
I highly recommend decluttering your home as much as possible before you start packing things in boxes.
Overcoming Mental Stress While Moving
Mental stress can be avoided by taking proper care of yourself while moving. You can help ease the complications from mental stress by doing the following:
Get Plenty of Sleep
Sleep is a crucial part of self-care. Without proper sleep, our bodies become deprived and weak. We get cranky, irritable, and unable to think clearly. The night before a big move, be sure that you go to bed early and allow yourself to get a full night of rest.
Eat Healthy Meals
Many people forget to eat on moving day. They are so busy with everything else going on around them that they skip meals and deprive their bodies of much-needed nutrients. Hunger is something that can weaken your mental state.
Do you know the term, hangry? It is a real feeling that happens when your body needs to eat. Always prepare yourself something to eat on busy moving days!
Take Breaks
Moving is an event, not a race! No one is timing you at the finish line making sure that you got everything done as quickly as possible. Take breaks when you feel mentally overwhelmed. Listen to music, read a book or exercise.
Whatever you need to do to calm yourself in times when you feel mentally exhausted, do it!
Go At Your Own Pace
Do you remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? Long story short, going at your own pace will get you to the same finish line as everyone else.
If you are the type of person who moves at a slow pace, then continue at your pace while moving. Don’t overwhelm yourself with trying to force speed, this will only cause you to become frustrated.
More importantly than trying to go fast is to be consistent. Try to finish a few tasks every day, whether that’s booking the moving truck or packing your candle collection. You’ll be surprised how much you can accomplish in a week by just being consistent each day.
Be Mindful
Always remember that stress is normal, what makes your stress different from everyone else’s is the way that you handle it. Always be mindful of your stress and go easy on yourself. Life isn’t linear, we have ups and downs with many new paths to explore.
Overcoming Emotional Stress While Moving
Emotional stress is triggered by the thoughts of losing something or someone that meant a lot to you. Moving can trigger emotional stress, but you can limit the amount of emotional stress by practicing the following:
Look At The Big Picture
If you are sad because of a big move to a new place, try to remember the big picture.
Life is a journey of experiences and you only get certain opportunities once in your lifetime. If you become emotional thinking about your past, try examining life as a whole and remember that none of your experiences last forever, which is what brought you to your next life event.
Remember Your Purpose
Our purpose can get lost in the shuffle of life while we are moving. We become fixated on what we are losing and forget that something bigger is on the horizon.
Allow yourself to remember why you are moving in the first place. Maybe you are going for a new job that helps catapult your career, or you are going to immerse yourself into a new culture to learn a new way of life.
FaceTime With Loved Ones
Sometimes all we need to do to help our emotions is to see someone that we love. If you are moving away from your loved ones and it is upsetting, do a quick video chat. Video calls are so easy with today’s technology and your loved ones are only a click away.
Meditate
Meditation can help you resented yourself and bring your emotions back to a calmer state of being. As much of a roller coaster moving can be on your emotional well-being, meditation is a great way to help calm yourself and allow your mind to be at ease.
Create A Plan
Planning is a great way to help your emotional needs. If you are moving far away from home, create a plan for people to come and visit you or for you to visit them. Set up vacations where you can all meet together or other ways to stay in touch with each other.
Creating a step-by-step moving day plan can also help you manage what needs to be, in what order and help you keep perspective on what is left that needs to be done. This can help alieve not only emotional stress but mental stress as well.
Final Thoughts
Moving stress is normal. Everyone will feel some type of stress during the moving process. Physical, mental, and emotional stress can wear you down, but if you follow these methods to help you deal with your stressors it will help make your move easier and more productive.