7 Amazing Tips for Dealing With Financial Anxiety
New coping strategies for anxiety can be the key to living a calmer life. A life where you do not have the urge to over-plan and constantly worry all the time. With millions of people suffering from a mental illness of some sorts, many have anxiety and don’t even know it.
There isn’t one exact way to start coping with negative thoughts or the desire to go shopping (when you don’t have any money) but there are multiple things you can test out.
Once you find one thing that works, continue on searching for others. Building an effective tool kit full of tips to help with anxiety is the best way to feel some relief from the jitters and racing heart.
Eventually you will have a list of things you say, do, and won’t do when you’re considering coping strategies for financial anxiety AKA an official GROWING coping kit.
A coping kit is essentially a literal or figurative box that you turn to when you are feeling financially anxious.
By the end of this post you will know my top 7 tips for dealing with financial anxiety, so you can start to live a calm, relaxed life.
Table Of Contents
What are signs of financial anxiety?
7 tips for dealing with anxiety
1. Interrupt your thoughts
Questions to help with financial anxiety
What is worry
How to Stop financial worry
2. Distract yourself
Breathing technique
Mindful activity
3. Aromatherapy
4. Get Moving
5. Talk to a friend
6. Complete Anxiety worksheet
7. Compassion
Before we dive into a few simple coping strategies for dealing with financial anxiety, it’s important to realize what financial anxiety looks like.
Not all of us will react the same way to a situation and that is okay. What makes financial anxiety such a widespread feeling is that it can manifest itself in our thoughts, bodies, and even our behaviours.
What are a few signs of financial anxiety?
Excessive worrying (constantly thinking of something negatively)
Increased heart rate
Feeling tense
Feeling agitated (increased sweating, dry mouth, fidgeting)
Fatigue (low energy) when pay day is near or has recently passed
Avoidance of bills or talking about money
Trouble sleeping due to worry
Irritability due to circumstances
Discomfort in chest at the idea of financial goals or needing money
Fear of spending
Inability to save or plan for financial future
Keep in mind this is not a complete list but these are some of the most common signs and behaviors associated with financial anxiety.
Sometimes it’s easier to recognize that your heart is beating faster than normal than it is to recognize you feel agitated. Or we might overlook that when pay day is approaching we start to feel more irritable and stressed than usual. But with a good set of coping tips for financial anxiety it will become easier to combat these anxious cycles.
There are also times when we might think we are experiencing anxiety but aren’t aware of how intense and how often this feeling enters our daily lives.
Although financial anxiety doesn’t look the same for everyone, it’s important to note you can still develop healthy habits for coping with anxiety.
It essentially is trial and error when implementing different tips for dealing with financial anxiety. It may take a few tries but you’ll know it’s working when the symptom you were focusing on has decreased or your awareness of the symptom has increased.
6 coping strategies for financial anxiety
Interrupt your thoughts
Overthinking looks like taking a concept (whether anticipated or having occurred) and shaping your thoughts around it.
The more shame, guilt, judgement, or even worry that we place on a particular moment, the more anxious we can feel.
When financial anxiety kicks in we are no longer thinking clearly which is why one of the tips for dealing with anxiety is to ask yourself questions.
Questions to help with financial anxiety
Would it help to think about this right now?
Is this a good time to think about this?
Are these thoughts making me feel better?
If the answer was no to any of the three questions, that is your cue to bring your attention elsewhere. You can do this by focusing on your breathing, turning on a tv show, or speaking to a friend.
If the answer to “would it help to think about this” or “is this a good time to think about this” is yes, then you can take the time needed to PLAN not worry.
What is worrying?
Worrying looks like thinking of all the possible worse case scenarios without any course of action in place or a solution.
How to stop financial worry
Step one
When you think of what is bothering you grab a piece of paper and a pen and write down the exact thought you are having.
This could sound like “I never have enough money. I am so worried about how I am going to get to work, buy groceries, and have anything left over until the next payperiod.”
Step two
Next you want to write out if your worst case scenario happens what will you do.
I will have to wake up earlier and take the bus to save money on cabs. We will have to skip the snacks and focus more on dinner. It’s uncomfortable but I acknowledge only relying on my job's income is not working for me.
Step three
Now let’s determine what is likely to happen
I’ve been in this situation before and I survived.
Finally we can determine what is the best course of action to prevent this going forward or we can sit and process how we feel after we separated our anxiety from reality.
Step four
If a lack of money is your problem, finding the time to earn more cash is your solution.
If spending is your problem, then finding ways to downsize or live below your means will be life changing. It takes discipline but no amount of emotional spending is worth your peace of mind.
Distract yourself
Once you recognize your thoughts are adding to your financial anxiety and not helping it, the next step is to find another activity to do.
Breathe intentionally
You can engage in box breathing, which is where you breathe in for 4 seconds and out for 4 seconds while pausing at every exhale and inhale.
The oxygen helps your body to regulate itself, calms your heart rate, and even promotes mind clarity.
A simple Youtube search of “Breathing exercises for anxiety” can also show you different techniques.
Keep trying until you find one that works for you. It’s always better to start with a short video and work your way up when learning tips for dealing with financial anxiety or general anxiety.
Mindfully do an activity
Nothing diverts your attention more than paying attention to body movements that feel automatic.
If you’ve ever said “breathe in” as you inhaled and “breathe out” as you exhaled in your mind, mindfully doing an activity is the exact same thing.
The next time you feel anxious begin to concentrate on exactly what you’re doing.
Check out our FREE Resource library full of helpful guides for taking control of your finances!
If you’re washing your hands in the bathroom, pay attention to how the warm water feels cascading down your hands, how you feel cleaner after using hand soap, and even notice the cold air that hits your palms when you are drying your hands.
Diverting your attention to something that is happening in real life can help you to feel less anxious.
Part of worrying over money is the desire to either get rid of the thoughts or lean into them. If you lean into the thoughts instead of practicing healthy self-care you might overspend in a store. When we are mindful this is less likely to happen.
Do aromatherapy
Over the last few months I've developed a love of scents that remind me of calmness. Some of my favorite scents to either rub on my wrist, behind mat ear, or carry around in my bag are lemon grass, eucalyptus, and orange.
Different scents are said to have different purposes.
Lemon grass for example is specifically for anxiety. But I know different people who do not like the smell of fruity oils and thus this scent does not calm them, if anything it agitates them.
When you shop on Amazon and buy different essential oils purchasing a set of different scents is always ideal. This was if it does not work you will have a back up scent to try without having to spend more money.
Like most things aromatherapy is a combination of trial and error.
I haven't found a roll on scent that I like yet but this set of six amazing essential oils were perfect for me. They allow small drops of oil to come out of the bottle so you aren't overwhelmed by oil or scent.
Get moving
Anxiety makes your heart speed up, the increase in heart rate makes your body warm up, and often this increased activity is hard to calm down.
One of the coping strategies that many people use when dealing with anxiety is to exercise.
If breaking out into 10 push ups sounds daunting you can instead
jump up and down
you can walk back and forth really fast or slowly
Break out into a dance (if you have space and privacy)
You’re doing any dynamic movement that gets your heart pumping.
By the end of your few seconds to minutes of activity your heart rate will begin to calm on its own. With this new found clarity you can continue with reminding yourself that you are safe and open your mail, keep sorting through your bank statements, or continue your researching into investing.
Talk to a friend
You can speak with anyone whom you trust.
Sometimes it helps to say “Hey, i’m feeling anxious and it would help if I could vent to you right now.” Anxiety tends to make us see the worst in every situation. By expressing you are looking for a different point of view or that you simply want to talk you may feel calmer.
You don’t have to share specific details of your salary, how much you make per week, your credit score number, or which credit cards you have unless you want to share this information.
Personal finance is personal.
A simple conversation regarding the stress you feel over bills might result in solutions or take the edge off your ruminating thoughts.
Complete a quick anxiety worksheet
When interrupting your thoughts there are different questions you can ask yourself. Sometimes when we are in an anxious frenzy and avoiding the stack of mail on the table and kicking ourselves for simply having emotions… we can’t think of questions off the top of our heads.
Which is where printing or editing a PDF for anxiety comes in handy!
This anxiety worksheet (below) was introduced to me in an anxiety workshop and I found it to be really useful. It’s a short survey that helps you to express your feelings while preparing yourself for the outcome of the situation.
We tend to feel anxious about things that have yet to happen.
So if we can enforce positive thoughts about the future, we are engaging in one of many healthy coping strategies for anxiety.
By the end of the worksheet, which can take under 5 minutes to fill out, you have opened your mind up to see the situation for what it really could be.
And you have engaged in a second coping strategy for anxiety by acknowledging what will likely happen even though your world feels chaotic or troubling.
Financial anxiety doesn’t vanish but it doesn’t have to dominate your life. If you need a worksheet to help you clear your head then there isn’t any shame in your anxiety game.
Be kind to yourself
Anxiety is not designed to hurt you.
It’s a reaction within our bodies that is designed to keep us away from danger. Every situation you have encountered is ran through your amygdala (the fear response) your brain takes milliseconds to determine whether you should be in that situation.
If you feel anxious your brain has decided (even if it is just the sight of an invoice) that this is dangerous for you.
Check out Don't Feed The Monkey Mind for a great book about Anxiety
But when we start to see danger and reasons to worry everywhere, we start to see a decrease in quality of life.
It’s not easy to recognize you have anxiety, learn new coping strategies for anxiety, and figure out what works best for you all in one day.
But once you practice various tips for dealing with anxiety, you’ll start to know how to make yourself feel better. Have patience, affirm that you are safe, and the rest will follow.
Conclusion
Having anxiety is something a lot of people deal with and learning new coping strategies for anxiety can make you feel like a weight has been lifted from your shoulders.
One day at a time you can start to feel better and reclaim your life from anxiety. Let me know if the comments what you would add to this list.
