When I was walking back from the Gym yesterday, I couldn't help but notice a larger than life billboard poster with a picture of very cute little baby that read "his eyes, her nose and Gordon's Brown's debt" - it was a campaign poster from the conservative party.  It capitalises on people's current fears of lack.  I don't watch the news, but I do have my Internet browser's homepage set the BBC News page, and of course there are constant reminders on there of the severity of the economic decline in the UK.  Whilst I love the information age that we live in, there is also a negative aspect to the 'mass broadcast' of bad news.  It is a powerful medium for transmitting fear and negativity.  It is therefore really important that you learn to insulate yourself from this kind of energy. 

There are several ways that you can do this.  An NLP strategy is to do something called re-framing.  Simplistically if you look at a picture in a frame it looks a certain way.  If you were to put a new frame around it, perhaps in a different colour, with a different width and maybe made of a different material, it would give the picture a different perspective.  So for example when you read that a survey at the end of 2008 shows a frightening decline in the UK economy, you can re-frame that with 'isn't it great to know that we have a new year ahead of us to redress the balance and make a positive impact.'  Get the picture?  The other important thing will be not allowing yourself to yield to the fear.  Mass media messaging is the quickest way to permeate fear, but only if you allow it to happen.  You can either limit yourself to the media exposure in the first instance, or choose to focus on positive aspects of your own current situation, or to visualise and remember things that you know make you feel good.  If you consider how much negative energy and fear is being generated each and every day, you have big responsibility to generate more positive energy.  Avoid talking about the same things as the business analysts are talking about, and if you do, add something in there with ideas about how it could be improved.  Remember that in the midst of every adverse condition, there is always an opportunity.

Remember that over a third of the world are starving.  They don't even have enough food to put into their belly's.  The problems that they face are of true hardship and survival.  The closure of some high street stores and manufacturers is inevitable.  History tells us that recession is inevitable, just as drought and famine is inevitable.  The truth is, we don't need more consumer goods, holidays, homes etc.... we need to be grateful for what we already have and also think about how we can help those who are less fortunate than ourselves.  Start to actively seek the opportunities that exist in adversity and surely you will find them.  If you look for the cracks, you will find those too.  Now ask yourself, where is my energy best placed.  You can subscribe to mass fear and hysteria or you can choose your own positive mindset and start generating some good energy.  Remember that you can operate out of two fundamental states - Fear or Inspiration.  Which one will you choose?