Dr. Liz Zed

Stressing About Money?

One thing that is true about the current economic situation is that there will be people who will find opportunity in it. Some will actually create wealth while others will flounder. If you are inspired and in action, making the most of the opportunity that is presenting itself to you to create more wealth in your life, more power to you! You don’t need a therapist to help you manage your anxiety about the financial predicament you find yourself in. You’re already in action. If you do have anxiety about money there’s no time better than the present.

Even though it may seem circumstances are putting impassable obstacles in your path, there is a lot you can do to significantly improve, and even turn around your situation. While therapy doesn’t–as some people assume–deal only with your past, there is great merit in understanding the subconscious negative messages that you tell yourself on an ongoing basis. The reason it is so helpful to become aware of how you’ve been programmed to think about money is to learn how to turn around and hopefully prevent self-sabotaging behavior. Self-sabotaging behavior often arises out of negative self-talk which often ‘runs’ perpetually in the background and often serves to thwart our more positive conscious intention of moving forward toward the successful accomplishment of our goals.

How To Manage Your State When You’re Being Lied To

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The intuitive knowing self is a tremendous source of personal empowerment for people who are able to easily access and trust that aspect of their being. Unfortunately the process of turning away from our intuition often begins in early childhood as we undergo the conditioning of the social self.

And while we readily acknowledge a measurability of the proficiency of our other five senses we turn somewhat in the opposite direction when it comes to the ‘sixth’ sense. Thus concessions are granted for those who may find themselves ‘challenged’ to one degree or another in the realm of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. However, we barely acknowledge intuition’s existence outside of the ‘intuitive superstar’ category. And in that realm there’s often a negative connotation. If our intuition is not conditioned out of us, we may have a tendency to keep it hidden or even to deny it.

When we’re being lied to we often ‘sense’ it. But rather than feeling empowered out of trust in our inner knowing we are more likely to feel vulnerable and defenseless. Being lied to can leave us in a state that might be described as ’emotionally ambushed’. Confused, disempowered, chaotic, and inadequate, are characteristic emotions that might ensue.

Some ways to regain our emotional equilibrium and regain contact with our own power source might be found in the following:

Becoming still and going inside for guidance one could pose the question, “What is the opportunity here for me to find?
If there are current feelings of ‘loss’ showing up try to take an unbiased observer perspective to discover whether or not there really is a loss. Perhaps there is another way to view how you are feeling.

Ask yourself how this person who is lying might be reflecting back to you some ways in which you might be personally in a ‘stuck’ place of rigidity or inflexibility.

How might retaining this ‘relationship’ as it currently is, be keeping you separate from your deeper intuitive connection to a universal intelligence or energy?

What can you do to affirm your connection to this source without giving power to the person who is lying? By handing over your power to another, you are also acting as a vehicle for your own disconnection?

You can ask yourself, “Was there something about the messages that the person lying was giving you farther back in time from this incident that you might have intuitively questioned? And had you paid attention at that time would have constituted honoring your deeper self.

Asking for help in managing your state can be beneficial. Most people will recognize the disempowered and disorienting state of mind that can result from the experience of being lied to. They can usually relate.

Try to remember that when you find the way to truly honor your deeper self in this situation you will more easily transition into a forgiving and detached state with roots in your empowered self. From this deeper place the actions of another have a tendency to not really impact you at all.

R.D. Laing, from Self and Others, 1961 tells us that “Truth is literally that which is without secrecy, what discloses itself without a veil.”

Creating A Life That Works

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A common theme in the minds of people trying to unhook themselves from the tentacles of substance abuse is the attainment of a trouble-free existence. Of course, no such world exists.

It’s neither naivete nor stupidity that has people dancing with illusion. It’s just that without the skillful means to navigate the inevitable obstacles that occur in our lives we have a tendency to reach the threshold of tolerance for frustration. What often happens next is to seek out substances which will numb us to the frustration that we are feeling.

It’s just not that easy to recognize that the solution is a simple one. Just like riding a bicycle takes practice to gain skill, navigating life’s obstacles comes by building up our navigation muscles. Two key phrases to remember on this journey to designing a life that really works are Who Am I? and What Do I Want? In other words the signposts to success can be found by scrutinizing our current self-image and by deeply considering the goals we would like to achieve.

Focus on behaving as if you already are the person you want to be. Get serious about setting aside time to focus on goal-setting. Write your goals out regularly. Prioritize them. Take some action towards your goals every day. Keep your eye on where you are going, not on where you have been. Persevere through the obstacles and find new and self-nurturing rewards for your successes.

Freedom Through Imagery: Our Thoughts Create Our Future

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Psychotherapy has favored language as the medium of communication. Words are the psychotherapist’s stock-in-trade. A route less travelled in the typical psychotherapy hour however is the world of inner imagery. Here lies the true power of the mind.

This power can be tapped through bringing focused attention on the mind’s mental imagery. Expanding important dreams into waking dream imagery is one way of tracking expressions of our subconscious. In this manner it becomes possible to gain deeper understanding of conflicted urges which tend to keep us ‘stuck’.

By creating vivid visual representations of our wants and desires we are more easily able to move forward, to create goals, and to take action toward those goals. By employing guided visualizations in the therapy hour we can begin to open up the world of creative imagination, unblocking suppressed self-expression, and guiding us forward toward an expansive future.

Gratitude Makes A Difference

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Keeping a gratitude journal can serve a truly useful purpose when the blues hit. By remembering to be grateful everyday and taking a few minutes to jot down 4 or 5 things every evening that you’ve appreciated during the day you will have a reserve store of ‘goodies’ to draw from in times when you’re feeling down. The mind thinks in pictures and in the moment of appreciation a snapshot of the grateful moment is captured until it’s written down. Over time memories fade but a surprising thing often happens when reviewing the posts from a gratitude journal. Upon reading the written summaries capturing the times when we’ve felt grateful it’s as if that moment happens for us all over again, and we’re back in the ‘scene’. A depressed mood can be instantly lifted at such moments. A snapshot in time from the original scene ‘re-presents’ itself. At such times it’s possible to feel once again infused with joy.