Overcoming Fear and Anxiety

I trust everyone had a great holiday season. This year appears to be filled with many challenges and many of us have fear and anxiety especially where our personal finances are concerned. In this posting I want to share some ideas on how to reduce our fear and anxiety.

It is especially important for us to network with people who have the same economic interests as we do. Even though times are tough and we hear in the media that no one is making any money, there are still entrepreneurial people out there that have new ideas and are looking for good people to help make them come true. Alternatively, you may be someone with a good idea but are looking for someone to help you make your dream come true. Whatever the situation, networking helps us find the people we need to work with.

It is also a good idea to turn off the media when we find ourselves in a time of fear or anxiety. The purpose of the media is to gain good ratings and increase advertising revenue. They do this by sensationalizing the news to make it appear worse than it is. Instead if listening to the doom and gloom delivered by the media try reading a good encouraging book.

If you have a social network of close friends or associates, plan time with them as they may also be experiencing the same feelings. You can also pick up the phone and call someone. Of course, if you find yourself in an extremely difficult situation or are contemplating thoughts of suicide, seek professional help.

The country has experienced many difficult times in its history and we are still here. You may be young and have never experienced difficult times in your life however; others who are older have experienced difficult economic times in their lives. If you are younger and this is your first recession, seek out a mentor who has successfully survived recessions in their lives and ask them how they survived.

I am also opening up another blog that will contain lessons in basic economics. Most of us had economics and possibly slept through most of class as I did. However, knowledge is our greatest weapon against economic disaster so I encourage you to begin class. I will not be giving tests and you can work through the lessons at your own pace so you have nothing to lose or fear. I have provided a link to this blog in the list of links to this website so I encourage you to start class today.

Together we will come through this and be even stronger when it is over so my final word of encouragement for you comes from the Bible, my favorite encouraging book. Jesus said in John 14:27 “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid”. Others have been where we are at and have survived. Were they any different and better than we are? I think not. In fact, if you were to ask one of them I am sure they would tell you they were just as afraid and full of fear as you are now.