Posted by Mary E. Ramos | Divorce
Divorce hurts. It can be damaging emotionally, psychologically, financially, and any number of other ways. As painful as the divorce process is, life will go on without your ex-spouse. Here at Ramos Law Group, we have prepared advice on steps you can take to ensure that you experience recovery from your divorce as quickly and easily as possible.
Here are a few tips for navigating the various stages of divorce recovery with confidence so that you are in the best position financially, physically, mentally, and emotionally long term.
Financial Divorce Recovery Tips
Your finances may understandably be one of your biggest areas of concern when it comes to recovering from your marital breakup. One of the most important steps you can take to protect your financial status post-divorce is to avoid living beyond your means.
To do this, you’ll first need to create a new budget based on your new household income following your divorce. Making the transition from a two-earner household to a one-earner household, where you are the sole breadwinner, can be quite a shock to your system. This is especially true if you’ve got legal fees, credit cards, a mortgage, and education expenses on top of your utilities and other regular expenses.
The sooner you create an accurate budget, the more quickly you can adopt new and responsible spending habits. And the better off you’ll be long term. After all, even though living within a budget may not necessarily feel fun and freeing per se, living beyond your budget will only bring you more stress and financial bondage down the road.
Look at Your Portfolio during Your Financial Divorce Recovery Process
In addition to revamping your budget as part of your stages of divorce recovery, it’s a good idea to also take a good look at your investment portfolio. That’s because you may need to update your portfolio and your asset allocation overall based on your post-divorce financial situation as well as your long-term monetary goals.
Remember that in addition to updating your investments during the divorce recovery process, you’ll need to adjust your portfolio if you end up switching careers, re-marrying, purchasing a new house, addressing a medical crisis, or entering retirement. A financial advisor can help you to make sure that your asset allocation is in alignment with your current time horizon, objectives, and risk tolerance.
Physical Divorce Recovery Tips
Taking care of your physical condition is another important step among the stages of divorce recovery. You can do this first by getting regular exercise. You don’t necessarily need to be a gym member, as simply going for a walk each day can be immensely beneficial to your health. You can also dance, do yoga, or go swimming if you prefer these forms of exercise.
Exercising is such an important part of the divorce recovery process because exercise helps the body to generate endorphins, feel-good chemicals in the brain. Exercise also boosts self-confidence, enhances your sleep, and decreases symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress.
If possible, try to work out with a friend or family member who can serve as your accountability partner. With his or help, you may find yourself motivated to exercise rather than lounge around from one evening to the next.
Divorce Recovery Should Also Involve Improved Eating Habits
Working out time and time again won’t help you to stay healthy in the long run if you also don’t watch your eating habits following your divorce. The truth is, if you’re feeling sad about your divorce, it’s easy for you to either gain weight or lose weight depending on how you respond to stress.
For instance, if you tend to overeat when you’re feeling stressed, you may find yourself gaining 100 pounds in the aftermath of your divorce. Meanwhile, if stress typically takes away your appetite, you may lose 50 pounds.
As a general rule of thumb, try to eat three wholesome meals per day. Also, try to combine carbohydrates, protein, and fat. Doing this will help you to stabilize your blood sugar and thus prevent dips that can lead to unwanted cravings.
In addition, avoid consuming excessive amounts of alcohol or caffeine, salty foods, artificial ingredients, and sweets. The good news about eating healthier following your divorce is that it can affect your mood in a positive way. Like exercise, healthy foods can ease depression as well as calm anxiety. If you drink lots of water as well, this can further decrease your stress hormones.
Mental and Emotional Divorce Recovery Steps
Feeling grieved following divorce is normal, but you can take steps to protect yourself mentally and emotionally post-divorce as well.
For example, consider joining a support group, which can help you to more confidently navigate the divorce recovery process. Through this type of group, you can receive encouragement and education from other people who are also going through a divorce.
Counseling and psychotherapy and also help, as you can vent your emotions to a therapist who is trained to listen to you and to provide you with invaluable guidance regarding managing your stress, self-defeated thinking, and grief.
Protect Your Best Interests As You Go through the Divorce Recovery Process
Divorce is never an easy ordeal to get through financially, physically, or emotionally, even if you were married for a relatively short time. However, going through these stages of divorce recovery can help you to bounce back from your divorce as quickly as possible.
Get in touch with us at Ramos Law Group to find out more about how we can help you through the divorce recovery process. With our help, you can be well on your way to living your best life following even the most difficult of divorces.
Last Updated on February 7, 2023 by Mary E. Ramos
By submitting this form, I understand and agree that an attorney-client relationship with Ramos Law Group is ONLY established upon entering into a written fee agreement. I acknowledge that this submission is not a request for legal advice, and any information received in response will not constitute legal advice.
I also consent to receiving text messages from Ramos Law Group. I can text ‘STOP’ to opt out of text messages at any time. Please visit our SMS Terms of Service and Privacy Policy for more details.