Discover Your Hidden Money Nerve
May 10, 2023
In this how-to blog post, Bob Wheeler, a financial expert and author, will teach you how to identify and change your unconscious money story to gain control over your emotional spending habits. With these techniques, you'll be able to make more thoughtful decisions when it comes to money and avoid those emotionally-charged impulse purchases. As someone who has struggled with his own money story, Bob understands the ingrained beliefs and emotions that can dictate our spending choices. Stick around as I outline how Bob skillfully navigated his own financial journey and uncovered the unconscious narratives that kept him stuck in a cycle of emotional spending.
My special guest is Bob Wheeler
Introducing Bob Wheeler, a financial expert with a unique approach to helping you master your emotions and change your money story. By blending his psychology background with his experience as a CPA, Bob offers invaluable insights into the world of personal finance. He's all about cultivating healthy money habits through open conversations, self-awareness, and practicing gratitude. If you've ever found yourself struggling with emotional spending or feeling weighed down by your financial situation, Bob's wisdom and guidance will help you transform your relationship with money and create a more abundant life.
If you've ever struggled with emotional spending, it's essential to understand that your unconscious money story may be the driving force behind your habits. Our thoughts and feelings around money, set from an early age, often have significant implications on our financial decisions and can hinder us from achieving financial stability. In this blog post, we delve deep into how you can identify and transform these buried beliefs, paving the way for a new, empowering financial narrative. Not only will these steps enable you to gain control over your spending tendencies, but they'll also build a strong foundation for success in your personal and professional life.
Here are the steps to control emotional spending habits with self-discovery:
1. Recognize your unconscious money beliefs
2. Examine your childhood financial influences
3. Journal your emotions surrounding money
1. Recognize your unconscious money beliefs
Having a healthy and empowering relationship with money requires understanding and adjusting your unconscious money story. An unconscious money story is a set of beliefs and rules around money that we begin to form during childhood. This story is shaped by our parents, religious beliefs, culture, and society, and ultimately informs our financial decisions and perspectives as we go through life. Recognizing and changing your unconscious money story is crucial to controlling emotional spending habits and creating a fulfilling and financially stable life.
In the Hustle Less Profit More podcast, Bob emphasizes the importance of self-discovery in making meaningful shifts in one's financial mindset. As he shares his own experiences with navigating the emotions of money, Wheeler suggests that the first step in changing your money story is to excavate and examine the unconscious beliefs that you are operating on. This may entail uncomfortable and emotional explorations, but he urges listeners to persevere, embracing all emotions while being gentle with themselves.
Some practical tools that he recommends are:
- journaling
- talking out loud, or
- participating in any comfortable writing exercise to bring your hidden money beliefs to the surface.
Recognizing your unconscious money beliefs is essential for understanding how they impact your emotional response to financial decisions. According to Wheeler, our relationship with money is often fraught with emotions, much like our connections with loved ones. Understanding and dissecting these beliefs will allow you to be in control of your financial destiny, rather than feeling like a victim of it.
As you embrace self-discovery and change your money story, you are poised to create a positive and empowering financial mindset, fostering a life of financial stability and emotional well-being. Ultimately, this journey of self-discovery and recognition of your unconscious money story will help to free you from the cycle of emotional spending, allowing you to take control of your money matters and live a more fulfilling life.
2. Examine your childhood financial influences
Many of us struggle with emotional spending and might not even be aware that our unconscious money story is the underlying factor behind our financial decisions. The childhood financial influences we experienced play a significant role in shaping our personal money stories. These influences include beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours toward money that we observed from our parents, caretakers, or even the media. As these influences often stay with us into adulthood, understanding and examining them is a crucial step in taking control of our financial lives. Bob emphasized the importance of self-discovery and understanding our financial story, including our fears and emotions, in order to make meaningful shifts in our financial mindset.
Wheeler discussed his book, The Money Nerve, which takes readers through a journey of self-discovery and encourages them to be intentional with their money. The journey involves excavating one's unconscious money beliefs and reflecting upon the experiences and people that shaped them. By identifying and acknowledging these influences, individuals can start to replace negative beliefs and habits with healthier, more empowering practices. This introspective journey towards understanding our childhood financial influences is important not just for overall personal growth, but also for our financial well-being. Recognizing these influences can help us gain control over emotional spending habits, make better financial choices, and stave off the negative impact of financial decisions on personal relationships.
By examining one's childhood financial influences, individuals can embark on a new path that cultivates a healthier and more abundant relationship with money. This ultimately leads to greater financial empowerment, emotional well-being, and the ability to create a more fulfilling life.
3. Journal your emotions surrounding money
One critical step to take when trying to identify and change your unconscious money story is journaling your emotions surrounding money. Many times, our relationship with money is deeply rooted in emotional experiences and beliefs that we have unconsciously internalized. Emotional spending habits often stem from these unexplored feelings, whether it’s a desire for comfort, a need for security, or feelings of inadequacy. By actively journaling our emotions about money, we can gain a better understanding of the underlying factors that drive our financial decisions and begin to recognize patterns that may be preventing us from reaching financial stability and abundance.
Wheeler emphasizes the importance of engaging in emotional self-discovery to gain control over one's finances. Wheeler talked about the need to disconnect from the emotion surrounding money and become comfortable with maintaining a higher bank balance. He shared his experience of using tools like journaling to help cultivate a shift in mindset about money. By journaling their reactions to various financial situations, individuals can learn to identify and understand the emotions affecting their spending behaviour, eventually enabling them to make more informed and intentional decisions with their money. Understanding and addressing your emotions surrounding money is essential because it can significantly impact your overall financial health and well-being.
Emotional spending habits can lead to accumulating unnecessary debt, perpetuating a cycle of financial stress and further emotional turmoil. By taking the time to journal and explore the emotions underlying your money story, you can take the necessary steps to replace these potentially harmful habits with healthier, more sustainable financial practices. In turn, this can improve your relationship with money and ultimately lead to creating a more secure and abundant financial future for yourself and your loved ones. Journaling is not only helpful for self-discovery; it can also serve as a valuable tool for personal growth and financial empowerment.
Financial freedom is within reach, and it all starts with understanding and transforming your unconscious money story. As Mickey and Bob have expertly detailed in this post, taking a deep dive into your emotions and beliefs, reflecting on childhood experiences, and reimagining your money narrative are essential steps to overcoming emotional spending. By committing to the process, seeking support, and celebrating even the smallest of victories, your financial future will undoubtedly shine brighter. Remember, the power to create meaningful change is in your hands – start today and watch your life flourish!
Want expert help to implement these steps? Grab a copy of The Money Nerve and learn Bob's step-step process! https://themoneynerve.com/the-money-nerve-book/
