Being in debt has an impact on your emotional and mental health . Mostly commonly there are feelings on worry and anxiety if left unchecked or the debts problem persist or increase, the levels of anxiety increases, our minds become “conditioned” by similar thought patterns.
All anxiety is future directed, as are fears and hopes. Our thoughts play out scenarios about the impact of being in debt, ranging in thoughts about not being able to afford lifestyle to losing your home or even its impact on your family, self esteem and social circles.
We identity with our thoughts and through the simply action of identifying with our thoughts causes the thought to become compulsive, not being able to stop thinking, which in turn gives rise to negative emotions such as worry or anxiety, which triggers similar thoughts again. This endless cycle is a common feature in most of us of us and therefore we think it’s normal and can not be stopped.
This mental noise is what we experience as debt stress or debt anxiety. Like any other form of stress, stress caused by being in debt will impact not just your health but your family and friends, your relationships and your confidence and your behaviour.
To equate thinking with being is a major mistake in our understanding. By identifying with our thoughts our mind, we create a “clouded” screen of concepts, opinions, labels, images, judgements and definitions that actually blocks our true identity.
We are not our minds, we have a mind, just as we have a body or emotions, our thoughts change constantly, our emotions, mood change daily as does our body, yet we remain the same. The recognition of this can have a profound and healthy impact on our inner sense of peace and well-being.
Our thoughts, hence our mind is either playing a fantasy of a future or replaying something in the past, living in the future or the past inevitably means we have lost the present, the only real experience that we actually possess. We find it difficult to switch our minds off and therefore are at the mercy of our thoughts. We are unconsciously identified with our minds.
Meditation is the ability to cultivate Present-moment non-judgemental awareness that enables us to “witness” our thought patterns, including the destructive or negative thoughts that create destructive emotions such as anger, hate, greed and unhealthy attachment.
Mindfulness is learning to focus our attention on the one thing that is always with us, our breath. By learning this simple yet powerful and effective technique you are able to experience present moment awareness, clarity and a state of calm.
MEDITATION EXERCISE
Victim to creator exercise (by Dav Panesar)
