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The Powerful Connection Between Finances & Mental Health, Part 2: Internal Challenges Thumbnail

The Powerful Connection Between Finances & Mental Health, Part 2: Internal Challenges

Miscellaneous Personal Finance

As we have discussed, finances and mental health are deeply connected. They are so intertwined that when one area suffers, the other often follows.

Financial stress affects sleep, relationships, productivity, confidence, and even physical health. At the same time, anxiety, depression, impulsive tendencies, or unhealthy coping mechanisms can lead to overspending, avoidance, risky financial behavior, or mounting debt.

At Guide Financial Planning, we are financial professionals, not mental health professionals. As such, in this article we will focus primarily on how finances affect mental health and provide practical tools that can improve your financial life and relationship with money, and we hope will improve your emotional well-being as well.

Financial challenges that affect mental health are often both external and internal. In this article, we discussed the external challenges and today we will discuss the internal challenges. 


Internal Challenges

Sometimes everything looks fine on the outside, but internally you still feel anxious, stressed, or dissatisfied. That is because financial struggles are not always about income or numbers. Sometimes they are about beliefs, motivations, fears, and identity.


Money Scripts

Money scripts are beliefs and patterns about money that often develop during childhood. These beliefs can quietly shape our behavior for years without us realizing it. This article explains this in more depth. 


Natural Tendencies and Motivations

While money scripts can be wrong ways of thinking, there’s nothing wrong about how God made us. However, our natural tendencies and motivations can provide challenges along our stewardship journey. 

Problems usually arise when our natural tendencies become extreme or unbalanced. Some people are naturally spontaneous and generous. Others are highly structured and future-oriented. Some thrive on opportunity and risk. Others value security and stability. None of these are inherently right or wrong, but extremes can create challenges.

In marriage, these different tendencies can either create tension or balance. Ideally, healthy relationships pull both people toward the middle.


Scarcity Mindset

A scarcity mindset creates constant fear that there will never be enough. It can lead to anxiety, hoarding, difficulty being generous, constant comparison, and feeling threatened by other people’s success. Scarcity often steals joy. 


Lack of Fulfillment

Sometimes people look financially stable from the outside but still feel empty internally. Money alone cannot provide meaning, peace, or fulfillment. When spending and priorities are disconnected from values and purpose, dissatisfaction often follows.


Solutions to Internal Challenges

While God wants you to practice wise stewardship, he cares about your heart first and foremost. The challenges that we just discussed may be formidable, but our God is bigger and, with his help, you can overcome them. Here are some ways to approach them. 


Practice Self-Reflection

Self-reflection is often the antidote to unhealthy money scripts. Here are some questions to get you started:

  • What is your earliest memory of money?
  • How was money handled in your family growing up?
  • How do you think that has affected how you handle money now?

Awareness creates the opportunity for change. Once you recognize your money scripts you can begin adjusting them where necessary. This can be very helpful towards getting on the same page with your spouse regarding finances. 


Develop Self-Awareness and Guardrails

Self-awareness protects us from our extremes. If you know you are impulsive, create systems that slow down decision-making. If you know you tend toward fear or scarcity, build habits that encourage generosity and trust. Guardrails are not punishment. They are protection.


Develop an Abundance Mindset

An abundance mindset is not pretending life is easy. It is learning to trust God and believe his promises. Remember how he has cared for you in the past and meditate on these Scripture passages:

  • Matthew 6:26 (NIV): Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
  • Matthew 6:33 (NIV): But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
  • 2 Corinthians 9:8 (NIV): And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
  • Philippians 4:19 (NIV): And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.
  • Proverbs 3:9-10 (NIV): Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.
  • 2 Corinthians 9:10-11 (NIV): Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
  • Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV): Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.


Align Your Spending and Investing With Your Values

Aligning your finances with what matters most to you leads to greater fulfillment. Identify your core values. If you need help, there are many values exercises available online. Once you’ve identified your values, compare them to your current spending. Do they match? Are there any adjustments you would like to make?

At Guide Financial Planning, we have all of our ongoing clients complete a values exercise so that we know what matters most to them as we guide them on their stewardship journey. We recognize that biblical stewardship goes far beyond numbers, it includes the heart as well. To learn more about our financial planning services, schedule a free introductory phone call today. 


About Guide Financial Planning

Guide Financial Planning is led by founder Ben Wacek, who is a Christian fee-only Certified Financial Planner® and Certified Kingdom Advisor®. He has a passion for helping people of all income levels make wise financial decisions and steward their resources from an eternal perspective using Biblical principles. Based in Minneapolis, MN, he works with clients both locally and virtually throughout the country and abroad. You can follow the links to learn more about Guide Financial Planning and our team and the services we offer.