From the Inside Out
WHEN THE CHIPS ARE DOWN...

Have you noticed the growing fear and panic about the current financial situation that seems to be spreading across the globe? Have you found yourself caught up in the fear and panic yourself? I know I have from time to time. Fortunately, there are some things you and I can do that will help us through the coming months of up, down, and sideways.

Following are a few thoughts on how you can ride out the current storm and find an internal state of well being amidst the turbulence. This will take some effort on your part, and especially so if you are one of those who tends to find the glass half empty.

Please forgive the blunt approach here — my premise is that your experience of well being has nothing to do with what is happening around you. And it doesn't matter how you have been impacted by the current financial situation, right up to perhaps having lost a job, a house, and virtually all of your worldly possessions. In simple terms: it doesn't matter what happens to you, as much as it matters how you respond.

Let's start with fear. Almost 30 years ago, Jack Canfield and I were teaching a seminar together and he taught me a very simple way to think about fear. It's an acronym F.E.A.R. for Fantasy Experiences Appearing Real.

Have you ever been scared by something that almost happened? Like standing on a corner, waiting to cross the street, when a car zooms by and almost hits you? Fear shows up and you can feel it in a very real way, right down to adrenaline coursing through the veins, stomach turning flips, and tension all over the place.

What qualifies this experience as a Fantasy Experience Appearing Real? Did you get hit? NO! Did you get scared anyway? YES? And why? Because you could have been hit, and might have been injured. Your brain was more than capable of supplying the scary thoughts with enough detail that your body reacted as though something actually happened.

And, even though "that was close," nothing actually happened. You might have been standing there in a perfectly serene state, and something that didn't actually hit you, was enough to yank you from serene to terrified.

Recently I was teaching a class and after about 90 minutes, I asked everyone how they were feeling. The participants responded that things were good and that they were enjoying the class. I then asked them if they were aware of financial situation spreading across the globe. Of course everyone was. I then asked who had been impacted, and just about every hand went up. From there, it was pretty easy to point out that despite what the press is calling global panic, everyone here had been doing just fine — until they were reminded about the "crisis."

So, how do you go from "just fine" to "panic and crisis?" Well, that's the whole point. What if the only difference between "just fine" and "panic and crisis" is a question of focus and what you tell yourself? That's not to say that you may not have some financial hardships ahead of you, even present right now; it is to say that, in the paraphrased words of Viktor Frankl, "freedom is that point in time just after they do something to you, and just before you choose your response." Even if something hit your bank account, or your home or your job, you can still find a place of well being.

The sources of the current economic distress may be complex, or they may be simple, depending on your point of view. I'm of the mind that there are simple reasons that play out in complex terms. It's a little late to turn back the greed clock, but it may not be too late to change the way the whole situation impacts you on a personal level.

Your pocketbook, your bank account, even your job and home may be caught up in the sweeping panic, but that doesn't mean you have to be swept along as well. I'm referring to who you really are, deep inside and not so much to all the things, as in things, that many of us tend to identify with. If this notion is new to you, please take a look at this earlier post of mine on Symbols vs. Experience.

My retirement accounts are sharply down, right along with everyone else who is still invested. Whether that turns out to be a good idea or just plain lunacy remains to be seen. However, my emotional bank account is just fine. Well, most of the time anyway. That's because I understand a very simple, although not necessarily easy to follow concept: energy follows thought.

Here's the deal: terms like meltdown, train wreck, crisis, gut-wrenching, and panic all conjure up emotions, none of them very positive. As a psychologist turned business person, I see how these kinds of terms play out in everyday life, how they can be used to manipulate other people, and most importantly, how they can distort the experience of life at a very personal and apparently very real level. These kinds of terms are part of the problem. I apologize for leading with "meltdown" myself. The intent was to grab your interest, and then refocus attention and awareness.

So, take "meltdown" for starters. What's melting? Well, besides the polar ice caps (that's another issue altogether). But what's melting financially? Well, nothing, really. Stocks, bonds, and other measures of finance may be changing, as they always do, but nothing is actually melting. If we were seeing "normal" ups and downs of 50-100 points, no one would be talking about meltdowns now would they? What's the difference between down 100 and down 700? Just degree, right? But nothing is melting. And if it goes up 500, 700 or more, what do you call that? Refreezing? Hardly.

So what's my point? Is there a difference between what happens to your bank account and what happens to you? I sure hope you can see the difference. Did you spend any time yesterday or today, perhaps having breakfast, playing with your kids, or just watching television? If so, you may well have experienced an hour or two where you were just fine. Your stomach was OK, your nerves calm, your emotions at rest.

On the other hand, have you spent any time in the past 48 hours twisted into knots because of something you read, watched, thought or talked about relative to the current financial situation?

So what changes between the times you are calm, relaxed and otherwise just fine and the times you become stressed, emotionally upset, and distraught?

My suggestion is that the only thing that changes is your focus and what you tell yourself about the meaning of the current situation. Energy follows thought.

If some part of you can be at peace, even for a few minutes, then peace is available to you despite what is going on around you. Please, do get this message. It is absolutely critical if you want to get through this current situation in a more balanced, healthy way.

You can focus on negative scenarios, on negative commentary, on your own fears and negative thoughts if you like. And, no sooner do you focus on the negative then some part of you notices your focus, determines it is negative, and cooperates fully by supplying all the necessary negative emotions to match the negative thoughts or negative focus. The peace you were experiencing recedes to the background while the object of your focus takes over. And, the next time you choose to play with the kids, etc., the peace comes right back.

Again, that's because energy follows thought.

Have you ever had a thought you wished you weren't thinking? Who noticed?

Have you ever had an emotion or feeling you wished you weren't feeling? Who noticed?

I'm suggesting that who you are is much more than thoughts and feelings. Who you are comes with thoughts and feelings, it's just not who you are.

So, if you don't like what you are feeling, change your focus, change your thoughts.

Now this gets dangerously close to "positive thinking." Please, do not confuse this advice with positive thinking. That can be a form of denial: it's hard to frame the current financial situation as positive (unless you are rooting for the fall of other people or institutions).

However, you can maintain a positive focus as you find your way through the current situation. What would that look like? You might keep reminding yourself of the difference between Symbols vs. Experience; you might notice the choices you have made that wound exposing yourself to financial risk so you can make different choices going forward; you might focus more on the quality of relationship you have with family and friends and how you can deepen or improve them.

There are all manner of ways to enjoy a positive focus in the midst of the current situation. You don't have to like the current situation, and you don't have to keep focusing on it either.

For me, I am being tested every day to see if I really can live this way of being as a practical reality, or am I just blowing smoke. The difference? Focus!

~By Russell Bishop, author of Lessons in the Key of Life,
Educational Psychologist, professional life coach and management
consultant. You can learn more at www.LessonsInTheKeyOfLife.com

Molly was rescued near New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, survived a pit bull attack on her right leg and now inspires everyone with her miraculous story.

Here's Molly in her new job at rehabilitation centers and hospitals. She's just the right height to look children in the eye! As a matter of fact, Molly looks everyone in the eye!!

Wherever Molly goes, she leaves a smiley hoof print behind because the ground surface of her most recent prosthesis is emobssed with a smiley face.