I’m 25, Unemployed, & Spent $485 On My Wellness Routine This Week

2 p.m. — I’m currently apartment hunting and if I’m not careful, I’ll fall down an Internet hole of constantly clicking between Zillow and Apartments.com as I get more and more stressed about finding a place. Normally, I set time limits on how long I spend each day searching online, but today, I accidentally spend three hours scrolling. When I get really stressed like this, I stop what I’m doing and focus on my breathing. I’m not a fan of instructor-guided meditation (it makes me even more stressed), so I don’t follow a set plan or anything. I take a deep breath in for eight counts, hold for two, release for eight, hold again for two, and then repeat that cycle until I feel in control of my nervous system again. I do this deep-breathing exercise for about 10 minutes and can feel the tension release in my neck and shoulders. Once I finish, I’m tempted to start apartment searching again, but instead I put all of the stress and anxiety in a mental box that I’ll revisit in the future.