Next to a death in the family, getting a divorce is one of the most stressful occurrences in a person’s life. It’s stressful for nearly everyone involved from the spouses to the children, even if it is an amicable divorce. Even so, there are certain things that you can do to minimize the stress that comes with a divorce.

A divorce can bring up many negative emotions and hard feelings between everyone involved. Some of these emotions cause us enough stress to interfere in our everyday lives and our ability to function properly. The best thing you can is learn how to relax, let go of the stress and just go on with your life. Focus on staying active, healthy and moving forward instead of staying backwards or worse yet no where at all.

All it takes is being good to yourself. Recognizing and dealing with stress is an important aspect everyone’s life. It just becomes that much more important at a time of divorce. Here are a few ways of handling the stress associated with divorce.

• Listen to your emotional needs – You’ll be surprised with how much you can feel after just talking a little bit. Doctors and psychologists recommend talking to someone whenever you are starting to feel overwhelmed. It can go a long way emotionally for you. Try talking with your family or a friend and if that doesn’t work, find a support group or therapist to talk with.



• Stay physically fit – You’ll want to stay as active as possible. There is nothing worse than sitting around moping. Start and keep to a regular exercise routine. It’s been proven that our emotions bounce back better than physical activity by relieving stress, anger and anxiety.



• Let yourself feel – It’s ok to feel emotions. It’s perfectly normal, even if they are negative or positive. It’s how we handle those emotions which influence our quality of life. Avoid activities which include anything to do with drinking or drugs when trying to deal with your feelings. You’re not helping anyone including yourself with destructive tendencies like that. Don’t let your feelings overwhelm you and make you want to seek revenge, play the victim or become abusive.



• Make time for fun things – It isn’t healthy to be sad and depressed all the time. You still need to laugh and play. Make plans to do things that make you happy and then regularly participate in them. Develop a circle of friends you are close with and socialize often. Never isolate yourself from others.



• Take care of yourself both emotionally and physically – Do things that are for you only. Take time out of your life to try activities that give you a feeling of good self-worth. Try reading a book, sleep in once and awhile, start taking long, hot baths, eat healthy and nutritious foods, and surround yourself with positive people.



• Change your expectations – You are not going to be able to control someone else’s actions or emotions. While you may have thought that during your marriage you had a little bit of control but now that there is a divorce in process you have even less control than before. You need to let go of trying to control what your spouse may feel. You need to learn to accept whatever might happen.



• Let go and move on – Take some time for yourself and use it to heal from your divorce and all those feelings of loss. Most importantly, you need forgiveness. Forgive yourself and your spouse.