FEAR OF LOSING MONEY
Many people come to my office because they have anxieties connected with money; yet they don’t necessarily find themselves in difficult financial circumstances. Even people who earn a good salary, or have plenty of savings, can keep going round in circles, perpetually asking themselves: Will I be able to pay my bills next year? Will I be able to feed my family in the future? What if I go bankrupt? What if I can’t pay my employees? And now – in times marked by corona – thoughts like these are more present and most oppressive than ever before ...
With an anxiety of this nature, there are four steps on the path to freedom:
- Acceptance: First, I must recognize and accept my anxiety, and not suppress it any longer.
- Reflection: Do I really believe what I am thinking? Are my thoughts based on actual facts, or do they bear no relation to reality? What can I influence? What action can I take? Where are my limits?
- What is the situation right NOW?! Am I jumping so far ahead of myself with my thoughts that I’m forgetting the present, and perhaps also losing an opportunity to influence circumstances and take action? Are my anxieties paralyzing me so that I’m not doing NOW what I need to do to be safe in the future? We can only ever influence the present – never the future – so we need to learn to concentrate on the present.
- Worst-case scenario: What’s the worst thing that could happen if your fears came true? And what would be the worst thing about THAT? People don’t like confronting thoughts like these ... but at the end of the day, they’re only thoughts – and have as little in common with reality as the fears themselves. Here, guided role play can really help because sometimes the answers can be surprisingly liberating. And if you are prepared – with my help – to look these answers in the face, you can be truly liberated from these thoughts ...
