By Rachael J. Avery
Loving yourself is easy when you’re lounging on the beach sipping inspiration with enough money in the bank to shop at Whole Foods, but what if you’re caught in financial hardship and you have to choose between a bottle of wine and toilet paper? Can you still maintain your loving thoughts and self-care even through the toughest financial lessons?
If you feel like you are walking a humbling financial tightrope or have ever been financially strapped for cash, then you know being kind in your thoughts is a challenge.
Often, during financial distress we get so down on ourselves trying to figure out what we did wrong and how to fix it that we start verbally abusing ourselves with thoughts like:
Why did I do that?
I shouldn’t have bought that!
What was I thinking?
This is all my fault.
I certainly can’t be successful now. I’m a failure!
I’m not attractive to anyone like this. I’m a loser.
Blaming yourself for financial decisions unleashes resentment, regret, and quickly sets you in a tailspin of attracting more of what you don’t want.
How can you stand strong in a loving firm stance in the middle of a financial hurricane? If you can manage to love yourself through a financial hardship it can make the difference between a brief financial setback and a recurring theme of financial victimhood. Indeed, learning the art of loving yourself through financial hardship will be your greatest testimonial to self-love.
Your soul is here and has the strength to stand by your side no matter what during this human experience.
Look yourself in the mirror and accept this loving strength here for you now in your own eyes.
As crippling as it is to face homelessness, to be without food, and stare down the hole of an empty job market, if you are unwavering in your loving self-care you will unearth the richest moment of your existence—having your own back in your greatest hour of need and choosing love not fear.
Furthermore, don’t abandon yourself; rather, care for yourself and it will feed you into the loving arms of the law of attraction and offer opportunities for overnight and miraculous financial solutions.
To help love yourself through any financial hurricane, get out your usual self-care plan and start creating an even more powerful one to catapult you directly over the floodgates of worry, regret, and fear.
Make these six adjustments to your self-care routine to stand in love rather than fear during a financial hurricane:
Write it all out—the disappointments, resentments, anger. Write out what your current self-care activities are and make changes. Write everyday. Write until the fear is gone. Writing allows you to get stuff outside of your body and onto to paper, revealing deep-rooted issues at hand.
Write down your adjusted self care plan—Take your existing self-care plan and replace all practices you need cash for with self-care activities that don’t cost you anything. Examples of free self-care activities include calling a friend, reading, being in nature, requesting alone time from the family to just be, taking extra care preparing nutritious meals, taking baths. You may even find some new self-care activities you like better than the ones you needed money for!
Share your self-care needs with friends and family to collaborate solutions. Get others involved on innovative ways to care for yourself. People love offering creative solutions to loved ones.
Continue with self-care practices that don’t cost anything. It’s easy to forget to care for yourself when you’re freaking out about bills, but do not waiver. Identify the things you currently love to do that don’t require money. Consider that the only way to make it through is to indulge in self-care.
Use Nature as your cheapest form of self-care. Come on now. There’s always somewhere to walk, bike, paddle, skip, run, and play. Get your butt outside and tell the trees some of your worries. They are great therapists!
Ask friends and family to buy a self-care gift for you. Use this humbling time to practice asking for your needs and trust that people in your life will say yes because they really want to help you and give you a gift. Now, more than ever, is the best time in your life to practice your receiving muscle and a simple “thank you” is all that’s needed. Remember, as humans we love to help each other out so stop judging yourself, give yourself a break, and just receive what the universe is providing you.
Just because finances can leave our bone marrow chilled in fear doesn’t mean there isn’t a power greater to offer us relief. Financial hardships are only hard when we’re not letting love in. Let more love in during financial setbacks by using the mantra, “Help me receive miraculous amounts of love right now.” (This is the one I use most to conger miraculous financial relief.)
Circumstances come up in life. If it›s not finances, it could be loss of a loved one, a move, or the completion of a relationship. If life ever starts feeling crazy, self-love is your ground zero to get things back up and prosperous again. Offering yourself loving thoughts and having the sense of knowing you have your own back and love yourself no matter what you do or where you are in life is your zipline to empowerment, peace, and love. In this space, you can co-create a different financial reality than the one you›re experiencing through your bank account.
Just do one loving self-care act now. Even if it’s looking in the mirror to say,
“No matter what, I have your back!”
Be kind. Be loving. Even in a hurricane.
Rachael J. Avery is a freelance writer living bicoastally between Tampa, FL, and San Francisco, CA. She has published in local and national publications and is the author of three books. Rachael spent 2015 as a free spirit gypsy, giving up her physical belongings to find a deeper part of herself immersing in programs like HAI, Tantra, and OM. She is the co-owner of Sex and Talk; love and intimacy workshops. She chases whichever state has the most sunshine. For more information visit www.sexandtalk.com.