Your Emotional 401K pt2.

Are you investing in your Emotional 401k? – Healthy Relationships Part 2

This is Part 2 of several posts on Your Emotional 401k – Investing in Healthy Relationships. You can find Part 1 here.  In this post we will discuss what emotional currency is.Emotional currency is the “money” we use when we interact in the relationships we have. It functions the same way real money does. We use it to pay our relationship bills and maintain our relationship lifestyles. Almost all of us are in charge of how we use it. Many of us could benefit from learning how to manage it better. Thankfully we do not have to pay any taxes on it!The easiest way to explain this concept when I provide professional relationship counseling is to ask clients to think of their bank account. If we spend more than we make, we will eventually go emotionally broke or in debt.  If we save or earn more than we spend we will be happier, be more patient, more confident, relaxed and resilient.Remember, most positive activities and experiences we are involved in are credits in our emotional bank account.  Most negative actives and experiences are withdrawals.  If we are emotionally broke or in debt we might be frustrated, angry, afraid, depressed, or running on fumes.  The next crisis will send us over the edge.  If we have been emotionally investing it will be ok when a difficult circumstance or relationship experience happens.  We will have enough in reserve to get us through it.  We will maintain having healthy relationships.Investing in your Emotional 401k, just like investing your real money, has risk. Some risky investments give us a positive return and some we lose on. How will you manage your risk?  The next post will help you understand common ways people spend their emotional currency. Originally posted at http://nathanhansenlpc.com/investing-in-healthy-relationships-part-2/ and shared here with permission from the author.