“Your eyes have actually improved since your last visit,” said my eye doctor yesterday. I immediately hoped that this improvement in my lifelong near-sightedness and astigmatism was the result of all the kale I’ve been eating recently. “Nope,” she said. “It happens as you age.” (She’s impossibly young, of course, obviously younger than my youngest child).

Never mind. I’m thrilled with the improvement, one tangible benefit of getting older. I just realized another benefit, too: I’m old enough to have lived through all the recessions that are being cited nowaday (the 70s, 80s, 90s, early 2000s). I didn’t starve; I didn’t become homeless. The fact that I’ve survived those difficult times and thrived in the meantime gives me much hope in face of the daily grind of bad news.

Just the other day a client contacted me to say he’d been laid off that morning, the Monday after Thanksgiving. For the rest of the day after receiving his e-mail, I was fearful: The recession now had a new new face on it. Then I remembered that I, too, had been laid off on the Monday after Thanksgiving in 1990, and as a result, I launched my business.

“Lurched” is probably more like it for the last 18 years. In spite of all my mistakes, I’ve learned a few things that will aid my survival in these times: Trim the budget; market like crazy; accept every contract and rejoice in the work; live in gratitude; help others. I did these five things yesterday and slept deeply. I feel much better today. I’ll make it through this, and I’m grateful for my age and experience.

What do you do to overcome the financial fear when it paralyzes you?