The "Bad" Economy: Where's the Good News?

Everyday the news reports on what’s wrong with the American economy.  Whether it is about the stock market crashing,  the housing market plummeting, large financial institutions such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Merrill Lynch going under, consumer confidence being low, or unemployment increasing, the news is letting us know how bad things are for the American people.  

I can’t help to feel discourage when I listen to all that’s wrong with the economy.  There is an internal conflict that goes on every time I hear how crappy things are.  The struggle goes something like this.  The monologue from my conscious, logical and rational self says: well Deborah, things are gettting worst and there isn’t anything you can do about it.  It is bigger than you, you might as well accept the enevitable and start changing your course of action.  No need for hope or optimism, the economy is what it is and there’s nothing you can do that will make it better.  However, contrary to my conscious self, my spiritual self vehemently refutes this and label it as noise.  It refuses to allow me to give in and just accept the way things are.  Actually, it doesn’t allow me to hold on to this thinking for more than a minute.  My spiritual self keeps reminding me that there is always hope, there is always another alternative, and there are choices.

So I ask what choice does a person has who is either facing foreclosure, has no retirement, no health insurance for a sick love one, or no money to feed, cloth and keep a roof over their children’s head?  How do you convince them that they are choices, alternatives, or even opportunities, especially when they are in the mist of a crisis?  I may not have the right answer, but there is something to say about a person’s will to survice, a person’s faith in something bigger and more powerful than themself, something that goes beyond their own rational thought and reason, something that can transform systems and people, something that perform miracles when they need them the most.

And that is what we do in times of dier need and despair, we keep the faith, we create our own good news and we look for the smallest blessings in our lives and be grateful for them.  We look for guidance from within and don’t put much emphasis on the Bad News that keeps bombarding us.  And if we are the victims of such bad news, we look for the one small good that is in it.  Whatever we do, we don’t give in and we don’t give up.  We hear stories of people defying the odds, people that have survived horrible situations.  The two common elements in these stories are they never gave up, or a miracle happened.  You know, it blows my mind everytime when I hear there are survivors of a plane crash.  The only explanation in my mind is a miracle. 

It’s okay to feel discourage, even hopeless, but we shouldn’t give in to these feelings and allow them to control our actions.  We can begin to make better choices with the little resources we have and begin to tap our creativity for new ways for living a better life.

The current economy is a living nightmare for some of us, but we can control some aspect of that nightmare by making better choices everyday.  We can eat out less, find natural health remedies for our sick love one, spend less on entertainment outside of the house and introduce some of our childhood games to our children.  Read more, watch less television, turn off the light when we leave the room, drink more water instead of fruit juices and sodas, buy in bluk, open up a window instead of turning on the AC, or cook more meals at home. 

You may say, this is a simplistic approach to complex problems and I may even agree.  I’m not saying this will change the economy or your situation now, but it gives you choices, however minute they are, which may place you in a stronger financial position in the long-run.  

So have I taken some of my own advice?  Yes, my husband and I agreed to eat out as a family only once a week, and he is now taking breakfast and lunch at least three times a week to work.  We’ve cut at least $70 off our weekly expenses, which amounts to $3640 per year.  We are taking a prevention approach to our health and is undergoing a natural cleansing for 30 days.  We are also reading more with our son and finding creative ways for us to have fun as a family without spending lots of money.  We buy what we need and reward ourselves accordingly.  We are simplifying our life in drastic ways, resulting in less dependency on the economy and less burden on our planet.

And even with feelings of discouragement when I hear all this bad stuff at times, my faith lives on and I create my own Good news.

I would love to hear how you are couping with the “bad” economy, post your comments here: