I got to practice changing my self-talk yesterday, after I picked up my scooter from the shop. When I arrived, what I thought was a $500 set of repairs and a tuneup turned out to be closer to $700. That was a lot more money than I had hoped to pay.
During the scooter ride home I started to freak out a little about it: "$700 is a lot of money!… I'm going to be unemployed soon…. Why didn't I hold off on getting those repairs done?… Why didn't they quote me an accurate estimate of what it would cost?…Why am I so helpless about mechanical things?"
Later on, I calmed down and assessed the situation and was able to put it in a better frame:
"Yes, it's a lot of money. But it's to make sure my primary means of transportation can reliably and safely take me from place to place. That's not something to go cheap on."
"I trust my shop to only do necessary work. They have never tried to cheat or upsell me before."
"I'm glad I got this done while I still am employed and earning income. It would be much more painful to get this work done if I had no income coming in."
Small victories.