Love your debt!
I am totally going out on a limb with this one, but stay with me…
You have all this debt. It’s depressing. You stress about the payments. You can’t have any fun because of the havoc the payments are having on your budget. You beat yourself up for making wrong decisions, for giving into your impulses, and for relying on credit to get you through the hard times. STOP!
Whew…ok, pause….take a deep breath…and let’s look at this from a different angle….
Why do you have this mountain of debt? At some point, the use of credit was serving you. How was it serving you? What need was it filling?
Maybe you had an interruption on your income for some reason and it enabled you to put food on the table, pay your mortgage, or car payment, or utility bills.
Or perhaps you had some unexpected expenses, like travelling for a death in the family…or some major issue with your home that needed attention, and the only way to get through it was to rely on your credit.
In some instances, none of those things happened and you just had a good time…credit was your friend. You spent, you traveled, or bought stuff that made you happy, perhaps you wanted to impress that certain someone, or you just wanted to make your kids feel oh-so-special.
I am not, for one minute, justifying going into debt to feed your impulse..what I am trying to do is paint a picture for you of “the other side of debt”. We tend to get hung up on the negative aspect of debt – the repayment – and we forget about the reason the debt came to be.
So…what if you were to ‘appreciate your debt’? What if you were to ‘thank your debt’? What if you were to..gasp…’love your debt’?
I know it’s a stretch but I want to make the point that your credit became your best friend at some point. And you relied on it. Abused it even. And now that it is asking for something back, you are resentful. There just could be another way to approach your debt. And maybe, if you offer it a little respect, and a little love, you might just find a way to deal with it, instead of fighting against it constantly.
I know, it’s a stretch, but try it on for size. See how it fits. And notice how it makes you feel. There is a direct correlation between how you feel and what you get in return. So fighting and struggling against your debt will give you more opportunity to fight and struggle. Loving your debt just might open up new possibilities. 🙂
Wishing you Happy Healthy Finances!
Mary Ann
aka Dr. Debt
Related posts:
Becoming Financially Conscious
