How to stop worrying about money: educate yourself, practise self-care, or take Ken Honda’s ‘happy money’ approach and spend it on those you love
- Financial stress affects our health. Relieve it by seeking advice, learning how to manage money, or stop worrying and focus on your health and wellness
- Alternatively, start feeling grateful for money, thank it as it enters and leaves your pocket, and spend it joyfully on a friend or loved one
Money: it makes the world go around, it doesn’t grow on trees, and, if the statistics are correct, it’s the root of all … anxiety. Or, at least, a lot of anxiety.
Research from the American Psychological Association’s Stress in America 2020 report shows that 64 per cent of US adults see money as a source of stress. A 2020 study designed by the Mental Health Association of Hong Kong found that 65.7 per cent of Hongkongers felt stressed about income or employment this year.
“Financial stress has a huge impact on our mental and physical health,” says Dr Sharmeen Shroff, director and clinical psychologist at Central Minds, Hong Kong.
So, can we ease this financial anxiety now that we’ve begun 2021? Yes, believes Japanese self-development author Ken Honda – by practising gratitude. His book Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace with Your Money explores the idea that cultivating a positive money mindset can relieve financial worries, and allow us to make and spend money more peacefully.
