Five Ways to Practice Financial Self-Care (and Find More Bliss in Your Budget

Magazines tout bubble baths, pedicures, face masks and massages as the keys to a more centered and balanced self. However, true self-care often entails taking care of the aspects of our lives that we tend to ignore or avoid - finances included.

Many of my clients feel scattered because they don’t have a good handle on their finances. They feel a mental burden rippling out and impacting their work, relationships and physical health.

When we tend to our finances as a form of self-care, we can lift that mental burden and heal our relationship with money. This healing ripples throughout our lives. We gain confidence to charge what we’re worth (or to negotiate that raise). We feel more stable and secure in our relationships and are more present with friends and family. We’re able to reduce stress and anxiety, improving our mental and physical health.

How can you begin to practice financial self-care?

Notice Your Thoughts Around Money

“Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.” - Upanishads

We all have stories and inner dialogue when it comes to money. Maybe the story is “I’m bad with money,” “I don’t deserve money,” or “It’s hard for me to make money.” We tend to manifest what we think in our lives. The good news is we can change these stories. First, notice when these stories arise. Then tell yourself the opposite. “I’m bad with money” becomes “I’m good with money.” Even if we don’t believe the new inner dialogue at first, over time these positive thoughts become our words, actions and habits.

Create a Ritual Around Your Money

Think about the money task you most dislike. Maybe it's paying bills. Maybe it's tracking your spending. Maybe it's bookkeeping. Take that task and turn it into a ritual.

Light a candle. Turn on soothing music. Brew some nourishing tea. Put on your favorite fuzzy socks. Then do the task (pay the bill, log your expenses, etc.).

Creating a ritual begins to nourish our relationship with money. Instead of looking at money as our adversary, we begin to look at money as our partner. We may even start to look forward to completing that money task we used to avoid.

Slay Your Money Vampires

Money vampires might be lurking in your bank account. That box subscription you never use, the streaming channel you subscribed to just to watch Game of Thrones and forgot to cancel, the gym membership you keep even though it's been nine months since you went to the gym, or those pesky annual subscriptions we forget about every year until they hit our bank account.

Log into your bank account and look at the last two to three months of expenses and see what vampires might be feasting on your funds. Slay those suckers!

Spend Intentionally

I'm a child of the '80s. There was no online shopping. My parents had to PLAN to spend money. Spending money involved leaving the house and intentionally going to the store for a specific item they had thought about purchasing.

Today, everything we could ever want is just one or two clicks away. It's extremely easy to spend money, and easy to spend money without any real intention behind it.

One way to begin practicing intentional spending is to delete your saved credit card (or debit) card information from virtual retailers. Then, when you go to make a future online purchase, you have to find your wallet, take out your debit card and enter your information. Adding time back to the purchasing process gives your brain (and body) the chance to ask - "Do I really need this thing?"

Budget. Budget. Budget.

Although the word “budget” sometimes has a bad reputation, it’s the best way to find clarity and empowerment around your finances. I like to think of a budget as a “spending plan.” Budgets give us a clear picture of our cash flow and make sure our money is “working” for our financial goals and not against them.

 

 

 

Rachel Peavy is a money coach at Blissful Budget. She helps her clients get a handle on their finances through money coaching that combines the soulful and the practical so that they can optimize their income and ditch financial overwhelm for good! She lives in Decatur, Ga. with her husband and daughter.