How to Prioritize Self-Care and Minimize Mental Fatigue During a Divorce

Divorce Takes an Emotional Toll on Everyone Involved, but there are Useful Ways to Reduce the Strain on Your Mind and Overall Health.

By the time a divorce begins, couples are typically emotionally and psychologically exhausted from the friction of disagreement, despair, disappointment, and other powerful feelings. Though divorce may seem like the only resolution, the process can take an even more significant toll on all involved: spouses, children, and support members. Even when both parties agree that divorce is the best option, the ending of a marriage is heartbreaking, and the legal process only adds fuel to the fire of high emotions.

Balancing Grief, Finances, and Adjusting to a New Reality

The mental fatigue of going through a lengthy, often contentious legal process that requires your time and attention while maintaining your job and family obligations can be overwhelming. You may never go through another such taxing experience as divorce. You must juggle your responsibilities while still forging a new path alone, burdened by new responsibilities that your spouse formerly shared with you, dealing with grief and financial burden, all while caretaking others and keeping your job.

Understanding the Importance of Self-Care Amid Divorce

Caring for yourself is the most essential action you can take during a divorce. Mental fatigue can lead to devastating mistakes that dearly cost you and your loved ones. Thus, consider steps to lessen your mental burden. Every bit of self-care helps when you need to endure a divorce. Consider your eating habits, physical fitness, daily obligations, decision-making, rest, and support without overwhelming yourself.

How Food Supports Your Focus During Stressful Times

The truth is that you are what you eat (and drink). People grab quick, feel-good foods, like salty or sugary foods, when stressed. They eat to excess to feel satisfaction or drink alcohol to cope. Eating healthy takes conscious effort, but the rewards pay off with a clearer mind and higher energy level. You should run any diet by your doctor, but healthy eating can become a habit with mindfulness, a food log, or an app to help guide your food decisions and proportions. Your doctor may have some advice about your diet, too.

Physical Activity for Relaxation and Overall Wellness

A healthy diet and regular exercise are critical components to de-stressing and well-being. Feeling overwhelmed with all you have to handle, you may drop your exercise routine when you need it most. If you run, do yoga, or work out at the gym, you may need to do those activities even more in times of high stress. And if you do not regularly exercise, simple activities like walking can increase your heart rate without overwhelming your system and your motivation. Any exercise within reason can relieve physical and mental stress.

Simplify Your Life to Navigate the Exhaustion of Divorce

However, if exercise becomes one more obligation you must handle, keep that walk or gym workout brief. Taking on more obligations during a divorce may increase mental stress. Sure, you must take the kids to school, make sure they do their homework and work, and feed yourself and your family. However, consider which other activities and obligations you can give up or put on hold until after your divorce. Too many projects, favors, or volunteering may increase your mental fatigue. Prioritizing your time and energy helps reduce it.

It is not unusual to feel overwhelmed by the number of decisions you must make in a divorce. So many choices affect your future and your family’s. Limit the number of decisions you make during the divorce process when able. Some decisions outside the divorce can wait. Those involving divorce can be overwhelming, so get help with important decisions. Hire a family law attorney to ease the decision-making burden.

Leaning on Support to Ease the Mental Burden of Divorce

A support system is crucial to easing mental fatigue. Divorce is lonely. It may feel like your world is crumbling, and no one understands how hard it is to endure. Call on trusted friends, a counselor, or a support group when you need to unburden your heart and mind. Commiserating with others may lighten your load and your mental fatigue. A lunch with a friend, a support meeting, or an appointment with a therapist may be the break from your day that you need. More importantly, take a break and rest throughout your day.

When you suffer mental fatigue, you cannot think clearly to make those critical divorce decisions. You are also more prone to conflict, engaging in fights with your ex or losing your temper with others. Though you have more on your shoulders during a divorce, do not sabotage yourself with unnecessary stress and negativity. Keep optimistic and focus on getting through the divorce with a clear, energized mind. Work with an attorney to determine what you must do or decide when.

Ensuring Your Family’s Future with Sound Legal Advice

A divorce stretches your tolerance and mind to consider your and your family’s needs now and in the future. An attorney can help you think about some things you may not realize are important, like the evolving emotional, psychological, and financial needs your children may need. You must also think beyond your children’s growing up and your retirement, all in the context of the assets, debts, and resources you have now.

With a family law attorney who has navigated numerous divorces, you can avoid arguments with your spouse over the divorce, consider future needs you may have that must be addressed in the divorce, and come to creative solutions to disagreements. At such an exhausting time, you want to lean on a professional who will handle the divorce paperwork, court hearings, and financial investigations to uncover marital assets.

Don’t Let Divorce Drag You Down. Our South Jersey Lawyers Can Help.

Child custody and support are most often contentious and emotionally draining. Having a lawyer at Bronzino Law Firm work with your spouse or their attorney can relieve mental fatigue and buffer some friction by working out compromises or fighting for your parental rights in front of a judge. We can also get you financial support for yourself and your family with successful alimony and child support motions.

When you trust a legal professional at our family law firm to handle the legal divorce process, including advice and guidance on your decisions, you can clear your head of some pressing matters. In that way, you can focus on your daily obligations without fear of losing ground in your divorce. You will feel less tired. For immediate assistance in Sea Bright, Manalapan, Lavallette, Middletown, Rumson, Belmar, Seaside Heights, Monmouth Beach, Berkeley, Ocean Township, and along the Jersey Shore, call a family law attorney at (732) 812-3102 to help you with your divorce.