Health/Psychology: "The Secret" Guru Reveals How to Cut Back on Indulgent Spending

How to cut back on your expenses dramatically by controlling the emotional component revealed by Hale Dwoskin, author of "The Sedona Method" and featured teacher in "The Secret."

Hale Dwoskin, featured teacher in the book and film The Secret and author of The Sedona Method, has revealed how to cut back on your expenses dramatically by (finally!) controlling the emotional component.

Between outrageous gas prices, job insecurities and a slowing economy, finances, or a lack thereof, are on many people's minds. As a result, close to two out of three Americans said they planned to reduce indulgent spending in 2008, according to a survey by HSBC Bank USA. Another four out of five people said they wanted to increase the amount they save this year. Yet people saying they want to reduce spending, and actually doing it, can be two entirely different things.

"Cutting back - even in times when money is tight - can be a difficult thing to do for most of us," says Hale Dwoskin, CEO and director of training of Sedona Training Associates. "This is because most of us, at least to some degree, are spending to try to get away from uncomfortable feelings."

Indeed, from "having to have" that daily Starbucks or two to "needing" to drive to the store versus walk, so much of spending is emotionally based. Aside from sorting out the basic "wants" versus the "needs," spending can be triggered by a laundry list of feelings like:

• Stress
• Boredom
• Sadness
• Low self-esteem
• Having a really bad day

One study by Jennifer Lerner, Ph.D., director of the Emotion and Decision Making Lab at Carnegie Mellon University, even found that people are willing to spend more money after watching a depressing movie, compared to a revolting or neutral one.

"It's also common that out of insecurity or lust we will buy things that we don't need or which we already have too much of," Dwoskin says.

So people need to imagine what would happen if they took control of emotional spending - the expensive dinner out on Saturday nights, the 52" high-definition TV they "deserve," the regular manicure and pedicure one "has to have" for work. Living expenses would go down, just like that.

Obviously a splurge at a favorite clothing store after a fight with a spouse is an example of emotional spending. But it can occur much more subtly than that. Impulse buys at the grocery store, for instance, can add up big-time if someone is not careful.

So how can people cut back without feeling like they're giving everything up?

"The best way to manage a tight budget is to allow yourself to release your lust and fear," Dwoskin says. "As you allow yourself to release the feelings that are motivating you to purchase things that you may not need you will find yourself more able to simply get what you do."

According to Dwoskin, releasing the self-sabotaging feelings of fear and lust is well within everyone's ability when they learn The Sedona Method. The best part is that no matter what's going on with the economy, once someone masters the process of releasing, they'll have the financial security they crave.

"Another thing that you can do to support yourself on a tight budget is to allow yourself to cultivate the inner feeling of 'I have enough,'" Dwoskin says. "When you come from the feeling of 'enough,' good things happen. You feel more satisfied with whatever you do have and you also can have more of what you truly need and desire."

So the next time anyone is about to give in to a whim and buy something they really don't need, they should ask themselves the three questions that make up The Sedona Method. They'll feel the urge to spend emotionally melt away, replaced by a feeling of financial freedom that's truly priceless.

Sedona Training Associates is an organization that teaches courses based on the emotional releasing techniques originated by Hale Dwoskin's mentor, Lester Levenson. Dwoskin is an international speaker and featured faculty member at Esalen and the Omega Institute. For over a quarter century, he has regularly been teaching The Sedona Method techniques to individuals and corporations throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Visit www.Sedona.com.

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