Talking to people about my upcoming book, Rebounding, and listening to people’s stories has really served to remind me what a universal experience it is to grieve a setback or a loss, especially one that is financial in nature. When I bring up what I’m going through, many times I see a look of relief on the person’s face as they reveal to me an experience they had, maybe recently maybe 25 years ago. An experience that they may not have shared with me otherwise. Why not? Because we tend to define ourselves in terms of our financial status – we’re successful when we are doing well financially and when we aren’t, we’re not. And we certainly don’t want anyone to know when we’re not. The relief that comes along with being able to talk about it for many people is a huge step in the right direction. It helps to bring closure and
understanding and moves them into a stronger rebounding position. Many say they have never fully recovered. Maybe it is because they have never fully allowed themselves to acknowledge that it happened in the first place and publicly made it part of their life. Shame is a powerful emotion and can stop us up in ways that we don’t even realize.
I want to encourage my readers here to share this forum with those they know that may be having a hard time responding to the current economic conditions in their life, or have recently lost their jobs, their spouse, their life as they know it. Let’s make it okay to be public with who we really are and what is really going on. Let’s remove the shame so that we can allow for a moving on that is concrete and that we share with others. Let’s make it safe to be human, to be imperfect. Sure it might take some courage at first, but I promise that the pay off is the self-respect that everyone deserves. Rebounders Unite!
