Photo by loran

Let’s face it. Most of us have had a tough couple of years. Newscasters, politicians, and pretty much everyone in the country have been talking about the economic recession we’ve experienced.

“This is the worst recession since The Great Depression.”
“Unemployment figures are going through the roof!”
“Well, in THIS ECONOMY, what do you expect?”

But I have a secret that I’m going to share with you. This secret is the key to both being happy during ANY economic condition and to attracting abundance no matter what is going on. Are you ready?

Even if the ACTUAL economy is in a recession, your MENTAL economy doesn’t have to be.

I can hear you now, yelling at your computer screen. “Traci. You don’t understand. I’m BROKE. I don’t have the rent money. This stuff is REAL.”

Yes, it is. But I’ll also venture to say that millions of people who lived during The Great Depression managed to find happiness and joy despite oppressive circumstances. I’m not saying that the recession isn’t real or that it hasn’t affected most of us. What I am saying is that you can change how you THINK about it all.

Here are four areas where you choose how to “invest” your mind.

Mental Real Estate

What do you spend your time dwelling on? What takes up space in your brain? Many of us tend to dwell on the past or worry about the future. I have to fight the urge to do this all the time. I find myself remembering arguments I’ve had with people and replaying them again and again—each time thinking of better things I could have said. Or, I start to stress about the future. “What’s going to happen if…”

Mental Banking

This is another area where many of us tend to waste our mental resources. We hold on to things in our relationships with other people. “He owes me” or “I owe it to her.” By spending your time focusing on what you are or aren’t getting from another person, on what they SHOULD do, what they DID to you, and how they OWE you, or focusing on how you SHOULD feel differently than you do because you OWE it to the other person… you’re just keeping yourself in mental debt!

Mental Wall Street

How are you investing your time and energy? This is similar to Mental Banking, but is different. It's not about keeping score with another person, but is instead about how you spend your time and energy. Are you spending your time playing online games, instant messaging your sister, or watching funny videos of cats? Just like you wouldn’t invest in a stock that doesn’t give you anything in return, don’t invest your time and mental energy in something that doesn’t benefit you.

Mental Job Market

This has to do with identifying with your roles. “I’m a writer.” “I’m a mother.” All too often we form our sense of identity from our roles in life. Then, if that role is taken away, we don’t have a strong understanding of who we really are at the core. Children grow up and leave home. Marriages sometimes end. Jobs can disappear. If you’re mentally identified with a role, losing it can be devastating.

Here are five suggestions for strengthening your mental economy.

1. Watch where you’re investing your mental real estate. Direct your thoughts. Don’t give them away to somebody who doesn’t deserve it.
2. Stop focusing on what you think someone owes you or what you have to do out of obligation to someone else.
3. Focus on the things in your life that make you wealthy regardless of money. The more we focus on abundance, the more abundance grows.
4. Watch what you invest your time and energy in. Cut out the stupid TV and mindless Internet surfing.
5. Stop identifying with your roles. Who would you be if you were alone on a tropical island?
   

Once you’re able to invest your mental resources wisely, you’ll be immune to whatever the external economy does. And that, my friends, is more valuable than money.

“You know . . . opportunity doesn’t just ‘come along’ as most people think.
It’s there all the time - we have to be able to see it.”
From Russell Cromwell’s “Acres of Diamonds,” as told by Earl Nightingale