The other morning, I had a stressful money incident.
Do you ever have these?
As a life coach, it’s one of the most common topics for my clients.
So I know the brain spits up very similar thoughts whether it’s $50, $500, $5,000, etc.
The zeroes may change, but the thoughts do not.
My monthly health insurance bill is going up about $56 per month next year.
(To be clear, I’m a privileged white woman with plenty of access to resources.)
But this $56 per month sent me into one of those thought spirals about money that sounded something like, “That’s too much! How am I going to pay for that? Ridiculous!”
In the past, I would have been feeling stressed and anxious.
Then, I would make decisions from that space.
And as a high achiever, it would have sounded like, “Okay, I know how to hustle. I’ll take care of this. I know how to pay for this. I’ll make a plan.”
That ALMOST sounds healthy, doesn’t it?
But it wasn’t. It was taking action from stress.
So then I would generate new income, but a few months into that, I’d be stressed about not having time for myself. Then I’d have to de-escalate some commitments.
It was a vicious cycle. All because I was taking action from stress or anxiety!
What do I do now?
I pause. I can hear the chatter from my brain reacting to a feeling in my body.
I don’t entertain the thoughts. I breathe. I feel the feeling in my body. I let it pass on its own timeline.
And I commit to not making any decisions from stress or anxiety.
Decisions are made from quiet contemplation and stillness these days.
(Well, as much as I can. Don’t let me sell you on perfection over here.)
That’s the step-by-step process of how I interrupt my old patterns.
What else helps you when you start to feel stressed about money?
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