Prioritizing mental and emotional health

When the days are short and the weather is cold, it’s common to feel sluggish, listless, and low-spirited, bogged down by the “winter blues.” It’s as important as ever to take steps to counteract these feelings and to find ways to prioritize your mental and emotional well-being. Let’s recognize some of the ways your financial well-being can also improve your mental health:

Automate your finances: Consider setting up automatic payments for your bills and savings accounts. Instead of managing multiple payments each month, you can sit back and relax, ensuring that your bills will be paid in a timely manner and that your savings can continue to grow.

Factor “treating yourself” into your budget: Poor mental health can impair judgment and decision-making abilities, leading to impulsive financial decisions like overspending. It can be tempting to purchase things simply for the instant gratification and quick dopamine hit, but you may regret spending the money down the line. Consider setting aside a small sum of money for these moments, so you’re prepared when you need a sweet treat or new accessory to lift your spirits.

Be intentional with your purchases: Another way to curb overspending is to be more intentional with your purchases. Let’s say you’re online shopping and add a new shirt to your cart – consider keeping that item in your cart for 1 to 2 days before actually completing the purchase. Then, you will know if you truly like that shirt, or if you just wanted to buy something for the sake of buying something. In the same vein – don’t buy things only because they’re on sale. It can be tempting to feel like you’re getting a good deal, but if you wouldn’t consider spending the money without the sale, it might not be a worthwhile investment.

Utilize Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s mental health benefits: Did you know that HPE provides employees with a complementary subscription to Headspace? Headspace offers helpful meditation and mindfulness tools designed to reduce stress, improve anxiety symptoms, and increase productivity. Additionally, HPE offers professional 24/7 virtual counseling at no cost to you, if you feel that talking to someone would be beneficial.

Prioritize movement and activity: Staying active and moving your body is one of the best ways to combat stress, depression, and anxiety. Exercise releases endorphins, natural brain chemicals that improve your mood and sense of well-being, making you feel good!¹ Consider working a gym routine into your schedule, or finding a workout class that you enjoy. Signing up and paying for fitness services in advance can give you more of an incentive to follow through on your attendance. If you want to be active but would prefer not to venture out into the cold, there are numerous home workout videos that you can easily find for free online. Additionally, HPE offers free, on-demand fitness programs for your participation.

¹ Mayo Clinic | Depression and anxiety: exercise eases symptoms | Dec. 2023 
© 2025 FMR LLC. All rights reserved.
ERNA