Let's try a quick experiment.
You ready?
When I say the word money, what physical reactions do you notice in your body? What thoughts run through your mind? What emotions do you experience?
How about when I say savings account, emergency fund, taxes, or retirement?
I bet that you felt something come up when you read those financially-loaded words. I'd also put money on many of you having reactions to these words that were… less than pleasant. (Puns fully intended in both of these sentences).
Why do I imagine that you had these reactions? Because money is an emotionally charged topic for SO many of us.
Maybe you live with the dread that at any moment the rug could get pulled out from under you and you will be broke. Maybe you're just “not good with money" and often spend beyond your means, ending up with overdraft fees and a boatload of shame. Maybe you have those 3 AM moments where you lie awake spinning out with thoughts like “WTF is the difference between a 401(k) and a Roth IRA and which one is best for me and is it too late for me to start saving and will I be eating beans when I retire?"
Any of this sound familiar? If so, let me ask you - if money is such an emotional topic and something that most of us think about on a daily (or constant) basis - who do you talk to about it? And if you have a therapist, do you ever talk to them about your emotional relationship with money?
If your answers to the questions above are “nobody” and/or “never," think about the reasons behind that. Many of us carry a ton of shame and anxiety around our finances. We don't want to admit that we're in debt, have limited knowledge about how to invest, or seem to keep living paycheck to paycheck despite making a decent salary.
If this describes you, I want you to hear this: you can (and in my opinion, totally should) talk to your therapist about your emotional relationship with money. We're so here for it. We may not be financial advisors, but we are expert shame-reducers. And we, too, need money to survive - so many of us have our own money stuff to work through. In short, we get it.
Brené Brown says "If you put shame in a Petri dish, it needs three things to grow exponentially: secrecy, silence and judgment. If you put the same amount of shame in a Petri dish and douse it with empathy, it can't survive."
I want all of our Petri dishes to get that douse of empathy. In order to get it, we have to talk about things that make us feel shame. This is your invitation to bring up money stressors with your therapist (if that happens to be me, hiiii I'm ready for you!) Don't let shame hold you back from healing those money wounds. Because you deserve abundance and freedom and prosperity.
Have any questions about money mindset work that I do with clients? Reach out - I'm here for ya!
Until next time, my friends - may you be abundant. May you be prosperous. May you be free.