Attitudes and experiences around money impact mental, physical and spiritual life. Money is a part of living, yet money is not often integrated into our lives, and not talked about in a holistic way, if at all.
Financial stress accounts for missed work and other ailments. For example, we all know folks that throw out their backs when worried about money. Or people who are so preoccupied by money it becomes the focus of their career and life to the detriment of their whole being. Or the other extreme, individuals so dependent and present in the spiritual world that they do not take care of themselves in their human capacity. All in some way forget that money is a tool that must be used properly in the process of finding a fulfilling balanced life.
There are those who flow through life happy and fulfilled but money is neither the issue nor the problem. Like Annette, a woman who runs her own gardening business and makes a modest living. She is always grounded and happy. When asked the secret of her content, she says, "I love where I live and do the work in this world that comes easiest and brings me joy."
This holiday season weave some solid changes into your life by starting a new system for your holistic health. If you want a better financial life:
First, is making the decision to improve your finances.
Second, have gratitude for where you are at and what you learned so far.
Three, enact a plan to improve one way of handling your finances.
Initially, the above will take time. Consider it investing your time for a better long-term financial picture. When your finances are sick they need extra time devoted to them. Once they get healthier, they need less time devoted to them. A consistent plan makes finances healthier.
Think of it as your health. If you are sick, it takes days in bed to recover. Once you are better there is still a slow upward curve as you struggle to full-fledged wellness (or back to normal.) This struggle and the timeline are in direct relation to how sick you are. There may even be a relapse.
The wellness part applies as well. If you do not take regular care of your health with the basics: sleeping, eating healthy food and exercising. Then, of course, you are not going to stay healthy. For the most part you maintain the semblance of order in your health life with the proper food, vitamins, stress relief and exercise. In order to maintain your financial health, you must pay your bills, have an income, review your expenses and maintain your checkbook with a regular routine.
The law of physics applies in finances: For every action there is a reaction.
Your past actions made your financial life what it is today. If you do not like it, you can change it with action.
Take one of the steps below today to move toward a healthier life:
Check your credit report.
List all your debt with the monthly payments and interest rates.
List all your assets from cash, to home, to investments
Start a daily gratitude list
Once you get in the habit of reviewing your finances, you will find a system for you. Then, like a client said of her handwritten monthly list of the assets and debts and debts, “It is so satisfying and simple.”
Personal finance does not have to be complex. See the list above and my blog for ideas. Try a new approach and gain some health in the process.
With gratitude for your reading each month. I am off to pay a bill. What about you?