The Blame Game

Banking failed. Banks were meant to save us, help us or throw a raft to us when we are drowning. Banks were supposed to manage risks or the risks in the marketplace. Instead they were undone by them. Can similar smoke come up your chimney?

Though you are besides yourself with rage or even if you are a rat in the public outrage against the bank, the truth is their failure has smashed up everybody else massively. The scale of wealth destruction by banks both to it's owners and market capitalisation capabilities has the latter on a bed of nails.

Employees have not been spared.Though those at the helms of banks could be driving those behemoths,the mass of the industry's staff sit in branches or centres or at some desk.The pain has been savage. Half a million jobs have been lost in the immediate wake of the financial meltdown and the crumbling and tumbling is still in it's throes across countries and assets. Evaporated trust, dried up credit has made many reel under or feel the ship's sinking.

But the threat hasn't gone away despite all hands on the oars. Governments themselves are deeply embedded in the banking systems.

What would your asset book look like in the future? Now is the time to prepare a raft. Let go of the corporate hand-holding you have been told to trust, parental coddling or a lifetime of reliance on being guided. Being right doesn't mean you are gonna get somewhere. Embark on a new course. Change your business model. If you are an entrepreneur, there's no time to be lost. Take action now because there'll be no one to bail you out if and when you fail.

A Time Proven Business Practice

Unpack your imagination.

Anxiety Self Help

Studies show that teenagers who smoke a pack or more of cigarettes a day are more prone to anxiety disorders as young adults. The study goes on to link that teens with anxiety disorders were more likely than those without anxiety disorders to become heavy smokers as adults. Other research implicates cigarette use as a possible cause, rather than a result of problems with anxiety and depression. An expansion of the study found that generalised anxiety disorder, panic attacks, agoraphobia (fear of public places) were much more common in those who had smoked heavily as teens.

If and when anxiety or stress floods your emotional world or the pace of life threatens to spin out of control, here are three ways to ward off the kamikaze attack:

Do nothing: At least once during the day take five or ten minutes to sit quietly and do nothing. Focus on the sounds around you, your emotions and any tension in your chest, arms. Just sitting quietly counters stress's blitzkrieg. It can change your perspectives and increase your sense of control over events. The past is done, the future has yet to arrive. The only thing we need to control is the present moment.

Laugh out loud : Keep something handy that makes you laugh. It could be a collection of your favourite comics, television comedies or even your own humorous or funny stuff in your scrapbook. Turn to this every so often during your day. Good laughs throw stress napkins out of your systems and to the winds.

Think happy: Focus on someone or something you feel deeply about for anywhere from 15 seconds to five minutes. Picture scenes of blue skies, rolling away meadows, lily fields or even words, phrases, quotes that lift you up or stir you on. Anxious habits and stress flood us with negative emotions - anger, hurt, revenge and grudge. Thinking the other way can have an opposite effect.

Manage stress or suffer.Don't take your troubles to bed.Any one of the steps above could, if practiced often enough, turn the tide back on the tormentors if you want to call anxiety that.

Financial Anxiety?

Cally Rao