These are uncertain times for millions of Americans.
Amazon, General Motors and Paramount have all cut jobs, with U.S.-based employers announcing a total of 153,074 job cuts in October, according to research firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
The government shutdown has also left hundreds of thousands of workers without wages, millions of SNAP recipients with no money to support themselves and their families, and now thousands of travelers with fewer flight options.
There are ways to deal with the financial anxiety you may be feeling without making it worse. For example, financial therapist Aja Evans recommends engaging in self-care activities that cost little or no money, such as going out and spending time with family and friends.
But people can change their minds as well.
Rather than experiencing uncertainty as something abnormal, remember that “uncertainty is a fundamental reality,” says bestselling author and health guru Deepak Chopra. “Every moment we breathe, live, and move in uncertainty, pretending it is certain.”
Let’s start with the premise that life is uncertain.
deepak chopra
Wellness guru, author
The 79-year-old recently launched a wellness platform that offers a variety of meditations, live digital sessions with him, and a Deepak Chopra AI chatbot drawn from his decades of writing and lectures that users can interact with directly.
Instead of thinking of uncertainty as a hindrance in life, think of it as an opportunity to try something new. “With every uncertainty comes greater opportunity and creativity,” Chopra says.
That creativity can lead to fresh problem-solving and solutions you haven’t thought of before in any difficult situation you’re facing.
Creativity, he says, is “new stories, new paradigms, new ways of dealing with relationships, new contexts, new meanings.”
If you feel anxiety creeping in about an uncertain future, “start with the premise that life is uncertain,” says Chopra. “When you start doing that, you welcome the unknown.”
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