Self-Help Books Must Be Selling Well Now!
Being a die-hard cock-eyed optimist, I have felt very beaten up lately by the convergence of so many stress related obstacles showing up in my life. Being an avid self-help book devourer, I have taken to buying the used versions of anything I can find I haven’t already read. Point being….all the ones I have read got me to here and now, but I am overloaded with trying to deal with two pre-foreclosures in my own life, and an almost fatal car accident (but not, thanks to an old Buick that I was driving that took the hit for all six people!…..This, of course, is the vehicle that now has no value and is deemed a total loss by the insurance companies). Needlesstosay, since I was just crossing an intersection at a green light, not expecting a red-light runner, I am having some trouble staying “in the moment” and waiting for the best outcome the insurance companies have to offer!
OK, so back to the new self help books. I am sure they are writing new ones as fast as they can, but I am noticing that since I live in a social niche of persons who have been trying to hold on for dear life to the gains they made that almost brought them into the middle class financially, I am really needing a new kind of support right now. I seem to need to learn to disregard the obvious and still be able to focus on the possibilities that may emerge as opportunities of this downward economic turn. Also, I will need ‘opportunities’ that require no investment upfront! To even be able to create those thoughts I need positive energy and a certain lightness of being that has been seriously missing from my past few weeks!
I do find I have very little room for the negative energy of those who would give up and cave in to all the possible excuses that are so handy to clutch at right now. I know that I have to keep bringing myself back to being accountable on so many levels for the life situation in which I presently find myself. By doing that, however, I am still recognizing the responsibility I have to find my way out of it as well. So, keep those books coming! I actually get a lot of encouragement out of them.
Many thanks for sharing your story with the world. It certainly goes far in humanizing the foreclosure epidemic.
While there are countless avenues distressed homeowners can pursue to procure legal advice, credit counseling, and real estate brokerage, I have noticed a critical component of care that is not being addressed; namely the human toll of facing or having gone through foreclosure. Who is helping these people grapple with the guilt, shame and humiliation inherent in the eventuality of losing one’s home?
At the macro level, it may appear to be a result of people who have made poor decisions, been taken advantage of by unscrupulous lenders, or simply stretched themselves by buying more house than they could support, but if we take a closer look at individual situations we will find everyday people whose security, identity, sense of community, and sometimes even family unit being severely compromised by current economic realities.
I’m in the process of developing a program aimed at addressing the human toll of going through foreclosure or job loss. As a professional and life coach, I strongly believe that more important than the events that occur in one’s life, it is one’s response to those events that most strongly shape one’s future. My conviction is that even if someone loses their home, they don’t need to lose themselves in the process! I believe in being proactive in sharing the power of reframing responses in a very positive and motivating way so that this perceived ‘failure’ can become a springboard for future success. Doing nothing may simply result in one channeling their sense of loss and shame into a never-ending downward spiral from which many may never escape.
Thanks for your response, Sabine. I don’t know if this goes to you or back on my blog? Crazy, I am still getting used to this. I totally agree with you and have chosen to reframe it as a positive for the rest of my life, but fighting all the negative implications and emotions has been incredibly time and energy consuming. I am glad there are professionals addressing this because I am seeing it all over the real estate business and most people cannot afford to seek professional help right now, that’s why I think there should be blogs addressing it…I tried to move my entries about this to shortsalehostages.com, but no one is finding that so I came back to this one. I kept saying we need an online 12-step program for this one!