Relationship with money and anxiety

In the last few years, there has been much talk about the state of the world economy. Financial concerns have grown from the business community to the economies of nations and from there to the finances of individuals. From my psychotherapist's view, I have noticed that while, the economist in the media proposes financial solutions and strategies, there is a silence in the mental health sector about the psychological relationship with money. Money’s concerns are, for the majority of psychotherapy services, considered as mere contributors adding to the list of modern life's stressors. The money issues are then just another aspect of anxiety, in these times of uncertainty.
In these unpredictable circumstances, most people tend to review their spending habits and make major adjustments to their priorities. One opportunity rarely considered or discussed, about these changes, is the exploration of the complex emotions we all have about money. What is overlooked is the meaning we unconsciously attribute to money, as we negotiate these challenging economic times.
Well before this market instability, the majority of people had an anxious relationship with money and even regardless of their actual financial situations, either in wealth or poverty. This uneasy relationship will not leave even after the uncertainty has been dispelled, and prosperity returned again to an apparent stability in the personal, national or global economy. For the majority, that anxiety will persist all the time. It will not abate, not by itself nor by practical resolutions as by reviewing assets, securing bigger savings, looking for better jobs or by reassurance from the media that there are better times ahead.
What can help reduce this state of anxiety may be exploring this feeling inwardly, in the world of our emotions and meanings. When money issues become an anxiety problem, counselling and psychotherapy can help our psyche-soul to evolve and improve our relationship with money. In other words, by changing some believes in our mind, we could change the simple things in life into the most valuable. By shifting our attention to our personal relationships for instance; we could review our priorities and reduce our need to possess and consume. In understanding our drives for money, we may distance our emotions from speculative gains that turn needs into vulnerability and instate enable us to value what we already have and saved turning gratitude into strength. But, those strategies that we may implement in the “real world” can be maintained only by changing our values and meanings of who we are and what we have in our “inner world” thus generating healing and transformation. Unfortunately, without realizing it, those believes that we are unconscious of, we dismiss or don’t acknowledge, will drive us and even undermine us eventually. This prospect should be enough reason, why the quest for healing our relationships with money could be the most determining step to overcoming unnecessary anxiety and stress, in the pursuit of a satisfying life.