Choose Gentler Path in Financial Crisis
By John-Robert Coleman, MPA.
Imagine that you are in the midst of serious financial troubles. You lie awake at night wondering how you are going to pay your bills; your income is not enough to cover everything so you are falling further and further behind, and your anxiety and fear continue to grow. When you‘re stuck in a situation like that, your dominant thoughts will probably be something like this: “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I feel so powerless. I feel so scared about my financial future. I need to come up with more money but I don’t know how. Terrible things could happen if I don’t get this situation straightened out fast!” Obviously these kinds of thoughts are disempowering, which keeps you feeling stuck. Solution:
A life-changing gradual approach can easily be used no matter what your level of crisis. I encourage you to start from where you are right now and then consciously choose a thought that makes you feel just a little bit better.
Let‘s use an example so you can see this method in action involving choice, that is, thoughts that make you feel a bit better rather than those non-supportive negative thoughts we trump up. A good idea might be,“ I believe that eventually everything will work out OK!” or my favorite lyric from Pheobe Snow’s Poetry Man, “You (will always) make things all right” or “this too shall pass “.
Keep repeating and breathing that thought for several minutes, and you will find that you will begin to feel a bit more hopeful and less frightened. Then you could choose another statement that makes you feel even better, like this one: “I am still alive and I have made it through tough times before, so I‘m sure I can do it now too.”
Once again, stay with this thought for several minutes until you notice that you‘re starting to feel stronger. Then choose still another statement that makes you feel even better: “I do believe that things are going to work " Now keep going like this until your fear has been completely subsided by optimism, hope and courage.
This method usually works extremely well because you‘re not trying to force yourself to leap straight from a negative state of being to one that’s positive. By using this gradual self-talk approach you avoid feeling like you‘re lying to yourself, like I covered in my prior article, “Positive Power of Affirmations.” .
The best part about this approach is that consistent practice will give you more control over your thoughts than you could ever believe possible – eventually and dramatically boosting your confidence and sense of well being.
Resist the temptation to let your thinking race ahead and worry about what may happen, what it might mean for you. All of those are merely perceptions – not necessarily what‘s really happening.
Thus, when choosing gentler, better thoughts, remember to consciously breathe slowly and deeply to calm these reactions. This will aid you to mentally stay in the now and those once fearful scenarios will fade easily.Have they subsided by now?
John-Robert(JR)Coleman, Hawai‘i based teacher, self-published poet/author
of his work entitled, “Pearl Drop of Aloha.”(www.pearldropsofaloha.com).
As an artistic entrepreneur, John-Robert has pioneered and now implements a newly formed inspirational, educational card-product entitled, “The Heart Cards: Your Self-Guided Companion to Inner Wisdom and Empowered Relationships.”
Currently John-Robert manages Heart Card Productions LLC. (www.heartcardproductions.com)and consults by partnering with affiliate-kindred therapuetic non-profit agencies and private business to enhance their awareness and fund-raising objectives.
He holds a BA in Social Sciences and MPA, Masters in Public Administration in Organizational Development with the California State University, East Bay. He is a competent communicator with Toastmasters International and is available for speaking engagements and personal consultationsand mini workshops.(info@heartcardproductions.com)