How mindfulness can help us cope with our financial anxiety

Canadians worry about money. No matter how much we have, our relationship with money is often challenging. People are prone to have unconscious emotions and behaviours about money that can often lead to suffering.

How serious an impact does financial worry have on Canadians? A startling 44 per cent believe their financial situation negatively impacts their mental health, according to a recent survey by Credit Canada and Capital One for this year’s Credit Education Week. And when it comes to personal finances, the stakes are incredibly high.

One in five Canadians would go to relatively extreme lengths to avoid their personal finances, including an uncomfortable dinner with an ex, getting stung by a bee or sitting through a root canal. Millennials (29 per cent) are much more likely than the national average to endure the above indignities over a simple review of their finances.

Meanwhile, more than three-quarters of Canadians have already missed out on special experiences and events in order to save money, including forgoing vacations as well as personal grooming.

Another type of fear is FOMO (the fear of missing out), which is as pervasive an acronym one can hear these days. The anxiety that an exciting or meaningful event is happening elsewhere (and we’re not a part of it) is continually driven by posts that people — especially young people — see on social media. FOMO is often intensified by seeing what other people have acquired in terms of material goods or symbols of achievement — vacations, cars, new houses, dream weddings, clothing and the list goes on.

Long before the internet and social media infiltrated our daily lives, acting on this FOMO sensation was referred to as “Keeping up with the Joneses,” a continual striving to acquire status goods and material items in an effort to feel adequate, safe or equal.

It’s one thing to have a little spending splurge, but another altogether to give in to a compulsive never-ending race of consumption, one that can lead to the opposite of feeling adequate, safe or equal, and instead give rise to serious financial struggles.

Together, fear and stress can create a double-barrelled attack on our senses and make it difficult to take a rational approach to anything. One strategy to get out of financial FOMO is to take a social media break to clear your mind, body and soul.

“Worry pretends to be necessary, but serves no useful purpose.” That quote is from Eckhart Tolle, the German-born, Vancouver-based writer known for his book “The Power of Now.” Tolle knows all about the suffering caused by worry. He went from being homeless and suicidal on a bench in Germany in his late 20s to an awakening that led him to be one of the most popular spiritual teachers alive. He has a series of teachings that pivot around the idea that “the primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.”

Clinical studies have documented both physical and mental-health benefits of mindfulness. Research has consistently shown a positive relationship between mindfulness and psychological health. Meditation and mindfulness are all about escaping mental suffering. To that end, practising money mindfulness is as simple as taking a pause and doing some deep breathing for one minute each time you encounter a watershed financial moment or face a major purchase decision. Always remember, the proper way to deal with financial stress is to resolve it through education, sound money management and using the free financial tools that are readily available.

Taking place in communities across the country from Nov. 13-16, Credit Education Week will focus on the theme of #MoneyMindfulness and aims to generate awareness around the many effective ways to manage one’s finances. Free money mindfulness events are happening across the country for all Canadians.

Laurie Campbell is the CEO of Credit Canada, Canada’s first and longest-standing credit counselling agency. Credit Education Week Canada (CEWC) is now in its 12th year and is part of a national effort to raise financial literacy awareness specifically on the importance of proper credit education.