As finance focused individuals, sometimes numbers, bank accounts, and incomes can overwhelm our minds and leave us feeling less than energized. When our minds, and our demeanors are not performing at their best, everything else in our lives suffer. Our work suffers, our income suffers because we don’t invest our best selves into our investments, they suffer as well.
As much as we believe in making a way in this world with hard work, there has to be a balance. Balance is not only a teaching of Buddha, it is an ideology that spans over a myriad of belief systems. Simply put, to do well at work you need to do well for yourself when you aren’t working. This means time spent for you.
The greatest investment…
…should be made on yourself. The reasons why are rather obvious but if we must illustrate, imagine this. You are overloaded with work and your boss is coming down on you. The kids need to be picked up from school but you have a late meeting and you just found out the sale you made last week fell through. This latter means your commission check isn’t going to be what you expected for the month.
Shall we go on? No matter what you do for a living be it trading stocks on Wall Street to selling soup at a Farmers Market, none of these occupations can be done well if you aren’t happy. So how do we get happy?
Reduce stress
Stress is a great killer of happiness and there are many ways to reduce it from jogging to reading a book. Gardening has been proven to be a terrific way to get rid of stress while also building up your motivation. Once you get inspired we recommend you check out this list of gardening stores recommended by the Backyard Boss, experts that can answer all your gardening questions.
Think about it
Literally. The simple task of thinking about gardening will redirect your mind into the now and reduce your stress. When we are carefully thinking about the task at hand, which we are almost forced to do when we are gardening, this puts us into a state of meditation. When your hands are in the dirt, digging, pulling out weeds, and creating an environment for your plants to grow as healthy as they can be, it takes our minds away from the stresses of work or school and puts us in the now, which is the best place to be when you want to find your happiness.
Express yourself
Getting creative when starting, maintaining, or revamping any garden will not only reduce your stress, it will prompt new creative ideas in different areas of your life. Have you been trying to come up with a new idea to promote your latest product but keep coming up short? Spend an hour or so planting some flowers in your garden that will enhance the curb appeal of your home for the new season. Don’t be surprised if you come up with an idea to solve that product promotion problem.
Expose yourself
To nature. Sunlight has been proven to spark a rise in serotonin levels in a person. This is the hormone that creates that happy feeling. The rays from the sun also help us produce melatonin, the sleeping hormone. The better we sleep, the less stress we have.
When gardening we breathe in all that fresh air, which is full of oxygen. This oxygen is required for the cells in our bodies to function at their best. When our cells function at their best we function at our best. When we are feeling out best, we are free of stress.
Focus
The combination of fresh air and nature surrounding us takes us away from it all. Our minds sink into the moment and when we focus on the moment our stress is relieved. We also take time away to focus on ourselves, creating food that will feed our bodies while doing an activity than will feed our minds.
Bask in the glow
Accomplishment is important for our self esteem. Building our confidence is a great investment in ourselves. By giving ourselves an opportunity to nurture a living thing from a seedling to a full grown plant that produces edibles or flowers we can see, touch, and smell we feel good about ourselves. What’s more stress relieving than that?
Get into your yard and start planting. Your productivity and your investment in yourself will be all the better for it.
I’m a personal finance freelance writer and webmaster. I welcome you to visit me at www.thefrugalpreneur.com