Fear is one of the seven universal emotions experienced by everyone around the world. Fear arises with the threat of harm, either physical, emotional, or psychological, real or imagined. While traditionally considered a “negative” emotion, fear actually serves an important role in keeping us safe as it mobilizes us to cope with potential danger.
When you think of student loans, do you think of them as a young person’s problem?
Think again. According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, more student debt is currently owed by people aged 35 and older than by those under 35. For many Americans the burden of student loan debt has lingered into middle age.
Consider this a modern definition of a mid-life crisis: juggling competing demands from your past and your future by trying to pay off student loans while also starting to think seriously about how to save enough for retirement.
The figures from the Department of Education show that over $800 billion in student loan debt outstanding is owed by people aged 35 or older. This includes over a quarter of a trillion dollars owed by people aged 50 and over. That’s right — people old enough for AARP memberships are still tackling a problem generally associated with millennials.
By age 50, people are often grappling with how to send their kids to college. This has created the very realistic scenario where a family has two generations worth of student loans outstanding under the same roof. Is it any wonder that older Americans generally are behind on saving for retirement?
A few things have contributed to this problem:
Full or partial deferrals of student loan payments may make the burden easier on young adults, but with interest charges it can make for a greater debt load later on. During the Great Recession, many adults decided to go back to school to try to improve their career prospects, and with rapidly changing technology and business models, refreshing skills and credentials remains an ongoing career imperative. Parents and even grandparents may cosign loans for younger family members, and then find themselves stuck with the debt when the borrower defaults.
If you are concerned with student loan debt lingering long enough to interfere with your saving for retirement — or even with retirement itself — you need a plan for systematically attacking the problem and managing debt.
Here are eight tips for older Americans paying off student loans:
Take stock of your loans outstanding. Think of this as a kind of inventory so you know where you stand. Make a list of all your student loan balances, their monthly payments, interest rates and how long you have to go to repayment.
To forgive is divine… but being forgiven might be even better. If you have a federally backed student loan, see if you qualify for a loan forgiveness program. For example, if you have been on an income-based repayment program and have been paying off your loan for 20 years or more, you may qualify to have the remaining balance forgiven. There are also special forgiveness programs for some teaching and public service jobs.
Triage your spending. Once you know the scope of the problem and whether any relief is available, look for extra room in your budget to pay down debt. Start by examining your spending. Distinguish between which expenses are actual necessities, and which are simply habits that you could break. Prioritize to find at least some expenses you could cut to make room for additional student loan payments.
Accelerating loan payments should save money in the long run. As an incentive for additional student loan payments, remember that making extra payments will not just pay your loan down sooner, but should also be cheaper in the long run because it reduces the total interest expense you incur.
Decide where student loans fit in your hierarchy of debt. While paying down student loans is important, they may be a relatively cheap form of debt compared to things like credit card debt. Put any extra debt repayments toward your most expensive sources of debt first.
Don’t let extra payments get in the way of qualifying for a 401(k) match. Deciding between student loan repayment and retirement saving is tough, especially as you move into middle age. One clear-cut choice is that if you can make 401(k) contributions that qualify for an employer match rather making than extra student loan repayments, chances are the value of that match may far exceed the interest saved from paying down your loan faster.
Evaluate refinancing options carefully. If you receive refinancing offers, evaluate them with a long-term view in mind. Refinancing options that reduce your immediate payments are likely to prolong your debt and increase your eventual interest expense.
Factor student loan repayments into your retirement planning. When you enter your retirement savings into a retirement calculator, be sure to subtract the amount of any debt you have outstanding. That debt is a drain on future income, so to some extent it may offset your retirement savings.
It’s okay to be nostalgic about your college days, but paying student loans well into middle age should not be part of reliving your past.
msn.com
You don’t need to take a flight in space or even take a white water rafting trip to experience awe. You can experience awe at varying intensities, and in your own ways: listening to a moving piece of music, seeing a giant skyscraper, or reading a newspaper story about a local hero.
“It’s how we respond when we see something new or novel that doesn’t fit with our understanding of the world,” Amie Gordon, PhD, Principal Research Scientist in the Emotion, Health, and Psychophysiology Lab at University of California-San Francisco, tells NBC.
Fundamentally, awe is about novelty and vastness, Gordon says. Physical space might create that vastness, as can someone’s talent or someone’s goodness, she says.
And negative experiences, too, can trigger awe (think natural disasters), Gordon adds — though which benefits such moments come with is yet unclear, she says.
There’s no perfect formula for what might elicit awe from you (because it’s different for everyone), but there are some things you can do to help you run into it more often:
1.Go out into nature.
Research shows that people consistently rank nature as one of the top ways that they experience awe, Gordon says. Try getting to a place where you can get a vast view of your environment (such as climbing a mountain or even getting to a the top floor a high building), she says. Or just take a walk in whatever nature is around you and try looking for something you’ve never seen before, she says.
Novelty is a big part of awe. Visit somewhere in your town or city you’ve never been. Try something new. Read about someone you don’t know much about, or a biography of someone who inspires you, Gordon suggests.
Sure, you can experience awe watching a film showing the world’s tallest mountain or listening to a recording of a symphony. But those encounters likely pale in comparison to the magnitude of awe you’d feel had you had those experiences in real life, Anderson says, making the case for taking time to experience awe in 3-D. “Your phone will never be as intense as actually being there in person.”
Take in the sites and sounds around you. And look up from your phone and other distractions.
Part of the experience of awe is that feeling of smallness that cause you to rescale yourself — or see yourself in a different light, says Beau Lotto, PhD, a neuroscientist at and founder of the private, experimental research lab, the Lab of Misfits.
Lotto and his colleagues recently partnered with the Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group to observe how the company’s live performances elicit awe and how it changes brain activity. (They’re findings suggest when people report experiencing awe mapped to changes in patterns of brain activity linked to being more willing to take risks and being more comfortable with uncertainty. The data has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in an academic journal.)
Lotto’s advice for feeling more awe therefore is to engage with the world with a more open mind, see possibilities, ask questions, and look for the impossible.
Photo credit: restless.co.uk/health/
games.quickiqtest.net
New developments in brain science have recently proven that an intentional practice of pausing for a few minutes of meditation, prayer, or other contemplative practice actually rewires our brain in ways that make us calmer, less reactive, and better able to see the bigger picture — in our own relationships and in the world events of our lives.
There are friends of mine who also struggle with mental health. These are the friends I feel like I can be vulnerable and honest with regarding different topics related to my mental wellness, whether it be seeking out therapy, the days where I struggle with my mental health, past triggers, or something else.
The best thing about these friendships is that these people can relate to what I am saying. Like all other friends, they empathize with me and my issues. However, these friends can also understand what I’m talking about on a deeper level because they have been there themselves.
There’s a mutual understanding of our tribulations, which makes our friendship stronger and more meaningful.
By Matthew Morgan for liberomagazine.com/mentalhealth/close-friendships-and-mental-health/
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Can art therapy be a solution to your problems? Sometimes, the solution to your problem just won’t come into your head, yet your thoughts are spinning at 100 kilometers an hour, and you feel like your brain is going to explode. Here are 21 different ways art therapy can help you put your thoughts together in the correct order.
It’s times like this that you could do with trying some ‘art therapy’. At its most basic, the only preparation you need to carry out for this is to grab a pencil and a sheet of paper. Then, just start drawing. It doesn’t even matter what you draw. Within a certain amount of time, your thoughts will become more harmonious and you’ll calm down.
It helps re-energize your mind and clear brain fog.
Use simple lines (the most basic aspect of an art that contains a lot of emotions) to demonstrate how you are feeling.
It helps you express yourself and is fun and calming.
Color a sheet of paper in various colors.
Coloring is a great way to relax and be happy.
paint a rainbow
It’s all about happy colors that will remove sadness from your mind.
knit something.
The repetitive and rhythmic motions that make up knitting is the key to calming anxiety and relieving stress.
So, that’s 6 of 21. To view all 21, copy and paste the link below and continue learn how art therapy can help you think more clearly.
themindsjournal.com/21-different-ways-to-do-art-therapy-and-put-your-thoughts-in-order/
By the way, there’s another art therapy resource for you to view, it’s:
100 Art Therapy Exercises by shelleyklammer.course
If you or your child experience social phobia, you know it can be debilitating. Simply thinking about a social encounter can trigger physical symptoms of anxiety including a racing heart, sweaty palms, and shallow breath. What can you do? Check out 7 powerful techniques below:
tpt.com
