How you can beat credit crunch for a happy hour

The economic downturn has seen food prices soar and utility bills go up by 50 per cent in one year. Economies around the globe have crashed, banks have collapsed and international markets have tumbled. Millions of people across the country seem to be convinced we are on the brink of what may turn out to be an economic depression.

Here The Scotsman details a range of cheap activities to help Scots take their minds off the turmoil, without breaking the bank.

Have you fancied taking up meditation or developing an interest in classical music? Are you a poet at heart but have never found the time? Or perhaps you are a talented artist but just never knew it. Get back to your roots and take up gardening or climb Arthur's Seat in your lunch break. Or find out how Buddhist rituals can help you focus at work, and why popping out and seeing a black and white movie will transport you into a different world.

Here are a few ideas on how to change your lifestyle and re-evaluate what is important.

FILM

Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman's film critic.

Black and white films are perfect for escapism because they are so different from today's blockbusters. They help transport viewers and take them out of their present life.

Black and white films allow the viewer to just forget about everything and go to another world. Edinburgh's Filmhouse regularly shows lunch time and early afternoon black and white films. My personal favourites include:

• Casablanca – such a great story and brilliant acting. Anything with Humphrey Bogart is fantastic, but Casablanca was one of the greatest films of all time.

• The Maltese Falcon – made in Hollywood's golden era, this film noir offers an electric mix of glamour and intrigue. Orson Welles and Joseph Cotton are brilliant, but it is also the great plot, like many films from the 1940s and 1950s, that makes it so gripping.

• King Kong – the original version may look a bit dated to modern audiences, but when you consider it was made in the 1930s it is done with such artistry it is wonderful.

I would also recommend any Alfred Hitchcock film. Even though his films were in colour, the way he used light was fantastic.

Most people say It's A Wonderful Life is a happy film but, if you think about it, not much of the film is actually very happy at all. It features a run on a bank and, at the moment with the credit crunch, it is probably not the most fun film to watch.

ART

James Holloway, director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Looking at paintings is what makes life worth living. Three of my favourites people in Edinburgh can see for free include:

• John Byrne's 1990 painting of Robbie Coltrane as Danny McGlone at the National Portrait Gallery. It is one of the only paintings children and adults recognise; children know Coltrane from the Harry Potter films, and this is a fantastic picture of a fat, failed rock star holding an apple. It is incredible fun.

• Gerrard David's The Three Legends of St Nicholas at the National Gallery of Scotland, circa 1500, one of the earliest Flemish oil paintings. It is exquisite.

• Francis Caddel's Lady in Black at the Gallery of Modern Art, 1921. An amazingly stylish and vivid painting of a woman dressed in black with a fabulous black hat.

BUDDHIST TECHNIQUES

Edie Irwin, Buddhist and psychotherapist.

• The first thing people should do is try to re-evaluate what is important in their lives. Yes, you need money, but you cannot take it with you and it brings as much trouble as it does opportunity.

Having good health and spending time with loved ones is more important, so start by re-evaluating your life.

• A Buddhist exercise if you are getting stressed in the middle of the day is to go to a window and look out at the sky.

Become aware of your breathing and when you exhale, imagine that your worries are vanishing as you breathe out. Look at the sky and take it in as you inhale. See that you are part of something bigger and you will appreciate what is important.

• Another good thing to do is to take up something useful to do. I have lots of silver that needs polishing and jobs like that give you time to think and concentrate.

Buddhist techniques are taking a holiday in your mind. It will relieve stress, but they are only as good as the way you think about them. They are not magic tricks. You must re-evaluate what is important first.

POETRYBrian Johnstone, published poet and director of the StAnza Poetry Festival.

There are lots of fantastic poetry events going on all the time all over Scotland. In many cases they cost just a few pounds and are a fantastic opportunity for people to listen to poetry.

Scotland has a buzzing poetry scene ranging from loud, in-your-face street poetry to more ambient, intense and uplifting stage poetry. Lunchtime events are very cheap and you can usually get a free drink.

Poetry is exciting and will open your eyes. It is also exactly what people need to take their minds of the current financial crisis. My all-time favourite poet is Norman MacCaig, who wrote wonderfully accessible human poetry.

Also another of my favourites is Carol Ann Duffy, who will be performing at StAnza in March. She is hotly tipped to be the next poet laureate.

MUSIC

Mike Gilson, Editor of The Scotsman.

The half an hour it takes me to walk to work across Edinburgh every day ready for another day of grim news from across the world is my sanctuary.

With iPod on, the sun is out, people are in love and bus drivers smile. Take earphones out and skies darken, people rush to credit-crunched workplace and the incessant hack hack hack of pneumatic drills fills the air.

Three pieces of music which help:

• Kings of Convenience: Riot on an Empty Street (2004). Enigmatic Norwegian folk-pop duo with crystal clear voices and beautiful guitars. Download Gold in the Air of Summer. Listen and forget. It's a money-back guarantee and you don't get many of those these days.

• Belle and Sebastian: Boy With the Arab Strap. Forget the dodgy title and download last track The Roller Coaster Ride. Long and languid. Slow down to make sure you don't arrive at work before the end.

• Velvet Underground and Nico. German songstress and all-round loose cannon Nico would never have worried about minor details like bank crashes. Download Femme Fatale and understand why.

GREEN SPACES

James Lakie, external relations executive at VisitScotland.

Arthur's Seat is one of the best places to go and relax when you are in Edinburgh. You can get there in five minutes from Edinburgh city centre.

The views are spectacular and when you are up there, it feels like you are in a different place. You could be up in the Highlands and miles away from work and all your worries.

It is a place that offers a feeling of tranquillity, which Scotland is famous for; that sense of relaxing in an area of natural beauty. It is a place where you can feel totally alone and just chill out while enjoying the surroundings.

It is a symbol of Edinburgh and associated with holidays because of the fireworks and Hogmanay. So when you are up there it feels like a holiday, which brings added relaxation value.

LIFE COACH

Martin Stepek is the chief executive of the Scottish Family Business.

He is also a meditation teacher and a practitioner. Here are his recommendations:

• People should take note of what is going on around them.

There are people smiling and enjoying themselves no matter where you are, whether it is on the train, out in the street or even at your desk.

• Life goes on despite the credit crunch. Four or five times a day, I stop what I'm doing and take ten minutes to appreciate things.

Anyone can do this. Put your feet up or close your eyes and just take time to appreciate life.

In Scotland, we are so lucky compared with other parts of the world and compared with past generations.

• Through simple meditation, just taking time out and contemplating life, we can see how good life is, especially at this time of year, when the leaves are turning yellow and the weather is changing.

Also, if you just stop what you are doing and concentrate on your breathing, then you can appreciate life. Just by breathing through your nose, you feel the cool air enter your lungs.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Ken Walton, The Scotsman's classical music critic.

There is plenty of research to show classical music is not only beneficial to young children but also has a soothing effect.

Surveys have also shown that joining a choir and listening to choir music reduces stress and blood pressure.

Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities both offer free lunch-time classical music concerts. www.music.ed.ac.uk/newsevents and www.gla.ac.uk/departments/music/

If you can't attend a live concert, I recommend buying some Bach and listening to his organ work. Also, try listening to the lean, clean, musical lines of a Mozart symphony – however my favourite Mozart has to be opera, The Magic Flute.

For those who are unfamiliar with classical music, maybe now is the perfect time to discover the therapeutic benefits and the power of music.

The classical music piece that I would go out of my way to listen to is Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony.

Find a quiet corner sit back, relax, close your eyes and just let the music wash over you.

COMEDY

Susan Morrison, comedian at the Stand Comedy Club.

Comedy is obviously one of the best ways to get people out and cheer them up.

Whether a lunch-time comedy session or just going to a show in the evening, it gives people something to look forward to, as they know they are going to go and have a damn good laugh and forget about the economy.

What I love about comedy is the next day when you are sitting at your desk and moments come back from the night before. It just makes you giggle and you feel better.

The act of laughing has also been clinically proven to be good for you. Laughter releases chemicals into your blood stream and when you open your mouth and take in loads of oxygen – now that we have the smoking ban it's clean oxygen – you clear your lungs and head out. It is a physical release. If you watch someone really laugh, then you see it is a whole-body experience.

So you should cash in your gym membership and go and see some lunch-time comedy.

www.thestand.co.uk; 0131-558 7272

GARDENING

David Knott, curator of the outdoor living collection at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh.

People can appreciate gardens in two ways. Firstly they can walk through the gardens for free. They are extremely beautiful at this time of year and visitors can scuffle through the yellow leaves.

Hopefully this will encourage people to do more gardening at home. Gardening is so accessible and there are many ways that you can do it. Whether it be growing plants in window boxes or having hanging baskets, or digging flower beds, or using potted plants, people can garden on any level.

There is also something deeply stress-relieving about getting your hands in the soil. It is almost primeval and probably goes back to our forebears.