Sometimes, when I find myself stressing about money, I go through a mental exercise, where I focus on the things that make me happy that no amount of money could ever buy. It tilts the scales and brings me a sense of gratitude and peace.
For each of us, it would be a different list of things. Some lists may be longer than others, but we all have things that bring us a sense of all's-well-with-my-world that aren't dependent on money. I know that, when people experience the loss of a loved one, this is something that comes to mind. You're struck by the irrelevance of material things and you think about why acquiring them occupies so much of our lives, when all that really matters is loving people and enjoying the simpler things in life.
Last night I was reading Brené Brown's book, "The Gifts of Imperfection", when I came across a section where she distinguishes between two types of goals - the usual ones, linked to achievements or the acquisition of things, and another type, which she calls the "joy and meaning" goals. She encourages us to sit down with our loved ones and to write down our two lists. She says that, when she and her husband did this, they realised just how much they had to be thankful for.
I'd like to end with a quote from the book:
"When we compared our dream list to our 'joy and meaning' list, we realised that by merely letting go of the list of things we want to accomplish and acquire, we would be actually living our dream - not striving to make it happen in the future, but living it right now. The things we were working toward did nothing in terms of making our life fuller. " (Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection)
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