Why We’ll Never Get Rid of Our Money Anxieties

Money, and the issues around money, are notoriously anxiety-provoking, and our coping mechanisms are usually unhealthy  - for example, aggressive avoidance — a more slow-simmering form of agita that merely (and literally) compounded the problem.

Money doesn’t just represent safety and security and stability. It is safety and security and stability. It is also unavoidable. This means your feelings about money are along for the ride, too — no matter how much energy you expend trying to escape them.

• Figure out how you actually feel. Yes, you’re anxious, but what kind of anxiety? When do you feel anxious? Where do you feel anxious?
• Once you become more aware of your anxiety, try to pinpoint the specific financial concerns that it stems from. Then, you can start checking them against reality.
• Money — and anxiety around it — is often integrated into our lives at an early age, before we can even articulate material needs and desires. Therefore, our feelings about it are not necessarily rational to our contemporary lives.