Landmark Education program leader Deb Beroset recently appeared on leading cable station WGN on its News at Noon broadcast to speak on the topic of dealing powerfully with the current economic recession, particularly for those in relationships. Here is the interview, followed by a written excerpt.

Host: I read just yesterday that divorce filings are already up and they are predicting that this is because of the financial stress on marriages. How can you help to work together with your spouse for some of these, this financial turmoil?

                                                Deb Beroset: Yes. Well, it’s important to recognize first that’s its normal to notice some sense of resignation or anxiety or powerlessness. But, we have a great exercise that we offer our seminar participates in Landmark education that allows you to really look at what is happening with you and then what you can do about it. So, for example, we invite people in our seminars to consider that the quality of your life is determined only 1% by what happens and 99% by how you react to what happens.

                                                Host: That’s amazing, those percentages. And so, in thinking about that and saying, “Okay, this is the way that I’m going to react to this.” You have specific points. One of them is just get clear about the facts, so you’re not finger pointing at other people, you’re not blaming your spouse or others around you, just really have the facts straight?

                                                Deb Beroset: That’s right. So, we encourage people to sit down with a pencil and paper and just write down, okay what’s actually happened here? You know, “Have I lived, I’ve been laid off or I know some people who have been laid off or I paid some bills late and my interest rate when up and my credit score went down.” What are the facts?

Host: Don’t beat yourself up about it. And then you say, “Share what you’ve added.”

                                                Deb Beroset: That’s right. So you want to look at when people have something happen in life, it’s not just about what happened, we add meaning, our interpretation in our story about what happened. And then we operate like that is what’s real. So, you want to look and see for yourself, “Okay, well what happened is I was laid off and what I made up about that is that I’m a failure or I’m bad with money because my credit score when down.”

Host: Sure.

                                                Deb Beroset: And when you can get clear about that, it makes all the difference in the world.