A Life Crisis Can Take Many Forms: Tools To Help During a Crisis

When you're in the midst of a crisis, it is difficult to think clearly and make rational decisions. That's why it is important to have the right tools to help you get where you want to be.

A life crisis can take many forms.

You might be dealing with a long-term illness or disability.

Or your marriage might have ended.

You might have joined the ranks of the unemployed.

Or you might be suffering the devastating loss of a spouse.

Sometimes the crisis happens so quickly that you have little time to prepare.

That's when you can thank AARP for its well-thought-out escape plans. Use them. They really help. I know.

For more on stress management or grief, visit 50somethinginfo.com.

Managing Job Search Stress: Ways To Manage The Stress Of Finding a New Job

Author and psychotherapist Mary Jane Hurley Brant provides 6 suggestions on managing the stress of a job search:

1. Don't consider job loss as a personal failure. Many good, loyal, hard-working, intelligent people lost their jobs. Don't internalize it into your personal identity.

2. Concentrate on what you do well.

3. Properly grieve the lay-off as you would any loss.

4. Evaluate the old job--what you miss, what you don't want to undertake again.

5. Get through the anger and possible depression so it doesn't undermine for job search/interviews.

6. Stay healthy. Get some rest and relaxation.

Also, consider upgrading your skills and improving your resume.

Kiss Stress Goodbye: How You Can Reduce Your Stress

Remedy stress by looking at a landscape.

Researchers have shown that students facing an open window were less stressed than others facing a blank wall or even a nature scene on their computer screens.

Nothing beats the real deal.

Go outside over an inside gym. Exercising in a green environment puts you in a better frame of mind.

Fetch some live plants for your work area. Plants improve a room's air quality by increasing the oxygen and decreasing the pollutants.

Calm your nerves with herbal scents. Those sniffing lavender not only felt less stressed, they also enhanced the antioxidant activity in their bodies.

For more on stress and stress reduction, visit 50somethinginfo.com.