Introduction
Now, my mother will be the first to tell you that I’ve always had a hole where my ability to budget should be and as much as I could argue that the hole has been since been plugged after years away from the family home, I’m sure that my girlfriend will be the first to rat me out within seconds of me making such a wildly inaccurate claim. My opinion? My sister stole all of the sensible genes.
The meaning of budget for me has experienced huge swings and roundabouts over the years and I’m sure that as my life progresses such wild change in meaning will continue (I’m expecting budget to be a big thing as soon as motherhood hits). Where the word once meant nothing but “Why can’t I get all three £40 Playstation 2 games?!” when spending my parents money, it now means the difference between having the option of organic meat with most meals or being forced to eat rice and chicken as every meal for a month because oops: bills.
Whilst we all know of the behemoth that is the “financial budget”, its cousin “emotional budget” should never be forgotten. As a student (yes that’s right, I’m back at the ol’ education lark) and anxiety sufferer, both budget tyrants are intertwined with my days, but what was important for me was becoming aware of how they’re intertwined with each other as a first step to getting a handle on both.
“The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.”
– Nathaniel Branden
The Problem?
The word “student” is synonymous with the word “broke” as I’m sure 20-somethings throughout the world understand all too well. Being a final year University student, and in England no less, I have little money to keep me afloat and I still need to pay the bills – how do I get by?
The Solution?
This seems fairly straightforward to fix though, right? Don’t have money, need money, go get a job. Totally! So in between my 400 hour individual final year project, my four other classes and keeping my flat from morphing into a scene from Wall-E I’ll go get a job.
Great! So now I’m here, with my university work, my income work, no spare time to swing a cat in and oh look, my anxiety too. My financial budget may have increased substantially but what about my emotional budget?
The Actual Problem
Well heck, I didn’t even think about that. My emotional budget has been running at half capacity for years because my anxiety gobbles it all up worrying about real things, important things, imaginary things and not so important things with equal amounts of vigor before I even set foot out of the door. With that context it’s probably not a good thing that I TOTALLY forgot about the state of my coping abilities (emotional budget) and instead tried to jump in and fix the state of my money situation (financial budget). Oh snap, THAT’S why I’ve been so stressed?!
I don’t have the emotional resources in this moment so it doesn’t make sense to expect myself to be able to work at full capacity and address all of my issues without breaking down. In my experience, you need a full tank of gas before you try and book it up that hill.
Tips on topping up your emotional budget
If this post has touched on some things that sound familiar to you, then feel free to borrow the below tips!
#1 Don’t forget about your budget
The most important thing is to be aware of your emotional budget and acknowledge that if it’s low, it will affect your ability to manage your other budgets. Such awareness is better known as a small part of a larger theme called Emotional Intelligence, for more information on this click here.
#2 Go easy on yourself
Stop expecting perfection, seriously. Ignoring the very real fact that perfection does not exist, how can you expect 100% of yourself when you’re running low on resources?
#3 Budget your time
There’s only so many hours in a day so write down a to do list and give each item a time slot, that way you’re reducing the load on your mind and increasing your productivity. With this, I find that instead of worrying about all of the things I have to do, I’m able to focus on one thing at a time.
Summary
For me, I find that in times of stress and change my emotional intelligence and budget seem as if they slip to my second priority underneath my financial budget. I have a tendency to jump the gun in trying to fix everything BUT my emotional budget despite knowing from experience, that if I only spent a little time on myself, everything else would be just that bit easier to handle.
I find that the above tips are crucial in reminding me to think about me when I need to most, and I hope that they can help you out in putting your emotional budget first too.
Featured image thanks to Higher Perspective.
Sainsbury’s Free From Oaty Flapjack Slices Product Review
A huge part of refilling my tank can be taken quite literally. Here’s a treat that helps me be kind to myself when I’m having a hard time – it’s gluten free too!
- £1.99
Introduction
Now, my mother will be the first to tell you that I’ve always had a hole where my ability to budget should be and as much as I could argue that the hole has been since been plugged after years away from the family home, I’m sure that my girlfriend will be the first to rat me out within seconds of me making such a wildly inaccurate claim. My opinion? My sister stole all of the sensible genes.
The meaning of budget for me has experienced huge swings and roundabouts over the years and I’m sure that as my life progresses such wild change in meaning will continue (I’m expecting budget to be a big thing as soon as motherhood hits). Where the word once meant nothing but “Why can’t I get all three £40 Playstation 2 games?!” when spending my parents money, it now means the difference between having the option of organic meat with most meals or being forced to eat rice and chicken as every meal for a month because oops: bills.
Whilst we all know of the behemoth that is the “financial budget”, its cousin “emotional budget” should never be forgotten. As a student (yes that’s right, I’m back at the ol’ education lark) and anxiety sufferer, both budget tyrants are intertwined with my days, but what was important for me was becoming aware of how they’re intertwined with each other as a first step to getting a handle on both.
“The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.”
– Nathaniel Branden
The Problem?
The word “student” is synonymous with the word “broke” as I’m sure 20-somethings throughout the world understand all too well. Being a final year University student, and in England no less, I have little money to keep me afloat and I still need to pay the bills – how do I get by?
The Solution?
This seems fairly straightforward to fix though, right? Don’t have money, need money, go get a job. Totally! So in between my 400 hour individual final year project, my four other classes and keeping my flat from morphing into a scene from Wall-E I’ll go get a job.
Great! So now I’m here, with my university work, my income work, no spare time to swing a cat in and oh look, my anxiety too. My financial budget may have increased substantially but what about my emotional budget?
The Actual Problem
Well heck, I didn’t even think about that. My emotional budget has been running at half capacity for years because my anxiety gobbles it all up worrying about real things, important things, imaginary things and not so important things with equal amounts of vigor before I even set foot out of the door. With that context it’s probably not a good thing that I TOTALLY forgot about the state of my coping abilities (emotional budget) and instead tried to jump in and fix the state of my money situation (financial budget). Oh snap, THAT’S why I’ve been so stressed?!
I don’t have the emotional resources in this moment so it doesn’t make sense to expect myself to be able to work at full capacity and address all of my issues without breaking down. In my experience, you need a full tank of gas before you try and book it up that hill.
Tips on topping up your emotional budget
If this post has touched on some things that sound familiar to you, then feel free to borrow the below tips!
#1 Don’t forget about your budget
The most important thing is to be aware of your emotional budget and acknowledge that if it’s low, it will affect your ability to manage your other budgets. Such awareness is better known as a small part of a larger theme called Emotional Intelligence, for more information on this click here.
#2 Go easy on yourself
Stop expecting perfection, seriously. Ignoring the very real fact that perfection does not exist, how can you expect 100% of yourself when you’re running low on resources?
#3 Budget your time
There’s only so many hours in a day so write down a to do list and give each item a time slot, that way you’re reducing the load on your mind and increasing your productivity. With this, I find that instead of worrying about all of the things I have to do, I’m able to focus on one thing at a time.
Summary
For me, I find that in times of stress and change my emotional intelligence and budget seem as if they slip to my second priority underneath my financial budget. I have a tendency to jump the gun in trying to fix everything BUT my emotional budget despite knowing from experience, that if I only spent a little time on myself, everything else would be just that bit easier to handle.
I find that the above tips are crucial in reminding me to think about me when I need to most, and I hope that they can help you out in putting your emotional budget first too.
Featured image thanks to Higher Perspective.
Sainsbury’s Free From Oaty Flapjack Slices Product Review
A huge part of refilling my tank can be taken quite literally. Here’s a treat that helps me be kind to myself when I’m having a hard time – it’s gluten free too!
- £1.99
