Note: The following article is not intended to tell you that it is easy to overcome feelings of anxiety. On the contrary, it is meant to serve as an inspiration to help you take the first step if you are inclined to do so.
There are many definitions of anxiety. There are regular meanings, clinical meanings and personal meanings. They all have one commonality. None of the definitions have any positive meaning or usefulness associated with them.
If you took all of the things that get in the way of financial success and could only get rid of one – anxiety is the one you should choose. My definition of anxiety is: “Fear of the Future”. Anxious thought is always in the future.
“What should I wear?”
“What will they think?”
“Who will be there?”
“How much should I spend?”
Who? What? When? Why? How?
Any time you try to project into the future you are setting yourself up. After living as many years as you already have, you should now be certain that you have little control over almost anything. So why give it any of your time?
In my practice, I see chronic levels of anxiety. It is present no matter how much or how little someone has. That makes it easy to dispel a lack of money as a root cause of anxiety. For if only lack of money caused anxiety, rich folks wouldn’t be anxious. I find that rich folks are more anxious than poor folks are. So does having money make you more anxious? Maybe. I think it depends on how much of it you spend.
You didn’t come here for a thesis so let me simplify anxiety for you. It’s no good. And it’s bad for your finances.
Are you anxious? You know if you are.
If you are, it is possible that you may have forgotten what it feels like to be free. Good decisions, financial and otherwise, come from a free mind.
A free mind is a present mind. Would you like to be free of anxiety? Then live in the present. You heard me. Right now. Live here. In this moment.
How? Well, its simple but not easy.
Frankly, you don’t have to do anything. Just stop thinking. When your mind is without thought, it is free to enjoy the present moment. You won’t miss anything that is happening now while you are thinking of what you will be doing later. And since whatever you think you’ll be doing later is going to be different than you thought anyway, you won’t continue to fantasize your life away. Meditation, guided imagery, tai chi etc. are all good studies to assist you with this. There are many other things you can try as well. Get curious. Try a few things. Enjoy the process!
So what does this have to do with money?
If you are a regular reader of mine then you know the answer.
Everything!
If you start to spend your time thinking about being grateful for what you have, you will see that you probably don’t need much more. You probably already have much more than you need. Once you realize that you already have everything you need, your mind becomes free of wants. When you want less, you have more. Does that make sense?
No. Well how about this? If you already have everything you need and you don’t want much more, then what will you do with your money? You know, the money you used to spend keeping up with the Smiths. The money you used to use to comfort yourself when you had a bad moment or two. The money you spent out of guilt, or obligation or habit. That money.
I’ll tell you what you’ll do. You’ll save it. You’ll invest it. You’ll help others with it. You’ll give yourself and your family financial security. You’ll have money for your retirement so that your kids won’t have to take financial care of you. Instead, they’ll be able to take care of themselves because they had a mom and dad that took the time to free themselves and their kids from anxiety. Do you need a better reason than that?
