Licensed Psychologist-Services: Individual, Couples, Family, Group Psychotherapy

CRAZY ABOUT MONEY SERIES

Jesus wandered in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights and returned with renewed wisdom and strength. We as a global community are now wandering more than 40 days and 40 nights in a nightmare economy. We hear from family, friends, neighbors and colleagues that everyone knows someone who has been laid off, and plenty more of us scared that we will get a pink slip. We turn on the news and hear about how Bernie Madoff scammed Palm Beach residents who now pawn their treasured possessions to pay the rent.  Then we hear about families all over the United States victimized by greedy mortgage brokers who now live in their cars or on the street. Is this the energetic, bold, confident America we hold ourselves to be?

No, this dreadful downturn is a stranger to our optimistic national character. Those of us who are inspired to make lemonade out of lemons will take heart and thrive, while others nurse their wounds from the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” As one Buddhist philosopher wisely said, “Why waste a treacherous crisis?”

How we handle the stress of the downturn determines whether we are in the “thrive or victim” category.  Our negative emotions can be a major reason why we waste the crises. There is knowledge from neuroscience that will help us understand our emotional reaction to the losses the downturn has laid at the feet of nearly everyone we know.

Consider this—the orbito-frontal cortex (right behind your forehead) in your brain allows you to imagine what might have been, while the insula, buried deep in your brain, registers the emotions of pain and disgust.  When we imagine, our emotions react as if what we imagine is or has actually happened. Let’s say you have lost 40% of your IRA or 401 (k). We know for sure this loss makes us feel sad, mad and bad. If we say to ourselves, “If only I had seen this coming, I would have sold and saved money and pain. What was wrong with my financial advisor he or she didn’t see this coming?” Regretfully imagining better outcomes, like “if we had only known we would have….” Arouses regret, fear and disgust. 

Bombarded by bad news, we anticipate negative outcomes again and again, repeating and amplifying to ourselves how we have missed the boat. The mere thought of Wall Street floods us with negative emotion. In fact, we are modifying our brains so that it becomes more and more difficult to do any positive and creative thinking about what to do next.  Each time we try to think, we can’t avoid loud internal announcements like, “I’m a fool. My broker is an idiot. The big guys manipulate everyone else. It’s hopeless.”  That “negative brain racket” makes positive, creative  thinking really hard.  

Knowing that negative imaginings are so emotionally powerful helps us lighten up on ourselves and use the economic crisis as it eases as an opportunity to move forward creatively.

As the unemployment numbers stay as high as 9% or higher, we are constantly reminded of our already sustained crisis. Because negative emotions are so intense, real loss and anticipated greater loss may blind us to the small but steady changes over the last months that tell a happier story. The bottom line take home is: be like the stock market and think forward by 6 months.  Stop an exclusive focus on the negative and make active efforts to notice the positive. Imagine and practice the positive steps we can take to better our current and future lives. It only makes good neuroscience sense!

Klimt has a brilliant ability to visually represent core life themes. He fuses reality and decorative symbolism into evocative images through his use of color and suggestive shapes.  The colors in all these paintings heighten their emotional impact.

Klimt’s paintings express in images my beliefs about human consciousness/unconsciousness and the power of  dreams and imagination  to creatively transform a burdened mind and spirit to one of hope, freedom and abundance.

Bottom line: They are simply beautiful!

The Tree of Life

gustav klimt tree of life

Nuda Veritas

nuda veritas gustav klimt

The Kiss

the kiss gustav

La Mort et La Vie (Death and Life)

gustav la mort

Mother and Child from the Three Ages of Women

the mother

Hygieia/Medicine

We all witnessed the painful drop in the economy in September, 2008. To add insult to injury, in December, 2008 Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was exposed that left hundreds of investors including many well known institutions and charities broke.

The Great Recession of 2008, is rivaled only by the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Great Recession of 2008 hurt everyone. No one was spared. Compare 2008 with 2000 and the tech bubble burst. Those of us over weighted with technology stocks suffered dearly. A large handful of us were affected, but not everyone. The market went down but it came back relatively quickly when real estate started to ramp up. In 2001 9/11 hit and we all suffered for a short time and then all was “back to normal.”

2009 would be the year of widespread unemployment, deeply sagging real estate prices and a Dow that hit its low at 6,400, down from a peak of nearly 14,000. The surprise 4000 point gain in the Dow in the second half of 2009 squashed all the pessimist’s forecasts and even shocked the optimists. All the voices who cried that the government was taking on bad debt are now amazed that bans are paying back TARP (perhaps for the wrong reasons), but, nonetheless the taxpayers are gaining benefit. The VIX, or volatility index, is down under 20 vs. the crazy 80+ readings we had earlier. Housing prices are stabilizing or up in at least 20 major metro areas, and hiring of temporary employees is sharply higher.

Meanwhile though, there is a great divide between Wall Street and Main Street’s recovery. The unemployment rate is still at 10%+ to 17+% depending on which measurement is used. Stores and businesses have and are closing, incomes are down and we consumers are very cautious. Main Street starts 2010 demoralized and uncertain. The legal and financial professions have gone from robust to just plain bust. Those of us who are still employed (or have another income source) and are able to invest are recovering well. The depleted unemployed, the struggling business owners, and demoralized homeowners who can’t pay their mortgage start 2010 with uncertainty and consequent fear.

I don’t think we can declare victory over the economic disaster of the Great Recession, or even that it is at an end. But the latest reading of the “tealeaves” does suggest we are emerging from the worst of it.