Five Things to Do with Money Fears

12 Jul Five Things to Do with Money Fears

There are at least five things to do with money fears, and we’ll tell you about all of them so you can avoid becoming like “The Man Made Made with Fear” by Gustave Courbet. (He only looks temporarily “mad,” which is why I like this image.)

What Are Five Things to Do with Money Fears?

We thought you’d never ask. This post was inspired (again!) by Darryl Burks’s comment to last week’s post. (We are taking this post in a different direction from his comment, but still, he inspired it.)

There are (at least) five things to do with fear of money. We will tell you what they are, and then we expect you to go forth and heal your fear of money–if you have any left!

Note: These are listed in order of how helpful we think they are.

1. Give In

You can become (or remain) a nervous wreck and let money fears take over your mind. (See the image accompanying this post). I don’t like it. I don’t recommend it. But some do choose it.

It’s always an option. But there are others. And ultimately, they are a heck of a lot easier on you than this one.

2. Ignore

Bury your fears of money.  Spend freely, throw caution to the winds, and don’t save a dime. Never, ever, think about money and definitely try to outspend others and buy what the World is telling you you need or should want.

This may work for a brief while, but it’s actually a very subtle way of doing #1, although it is more fun.

3. Work Out

Address your fear physically. Literally, work fear out of your body through exercise. Regular exercise helps a lot of people with a lot of things. So does a clean diet. Toxicity in the body increase fear and decreases the bodymind’s ability to bounce back from fear–resilience. I do a very simple set of exercises every day and I must say I enjoy them, which is a huge change for me.

Taking this approach–which can be combined effectively with #4 and #5–has a positive feedback effect: less fear in the body now = even less fear in the future.

4. Entertain

Cultivate a friendly relationship with your fear. “Entertain” it from time to time: give yourself a few minutes each day, or a nice long chat once a week with your money fears. Take them for a stroll. Let them write you a letter or have a talk with you. Take notes. If anything remotely rational or helpful comes up in the conversation, make use of it.

Then remind your fears they’ve had their due, and you intend to move on now, thank you very much.

5. Redirect

This is a bit like #4 in that you develop a working friendship with your fears, and allow them to suggest useful ideas and tasks to you. Then you try out those ideas and tasks and find out if they are really useful. You talk with your fears about what was and wasn’t useful, and together you continually redirect fear into action, which can include prayer, contemplation, poetry-writing, affirmations, reading and long thoughtful walks as well as what is normally understood to be action, such as (since we are talking about money): earning more, spending less, saving and investing more, collaborating with others to reduce expenses, researching money matters, using time to have money, and the like.

Thoughts?