Money is not a word that conjures images of mindfulness and meditation.

Instead, money often provokes our reactionary state. We respond to the topic with a jerk of the knee. Auto pilot slithers in and before we know it we are clicking and buying without thinking, without checking and assessing whether we need (or even want) the item, have the money to cover it, or what it costs us in terms of actual hours of our lives. Or the cost to planet.

Or. We avoid our finances because it is too painful to look at our checking accounts, too uncomfortable to analyze our credit card bills in order to verify our purchases and balances and the breathtaking interest we are paying each month. We quickly avert our gaze from our retirement savings because the truth that the balance won’t make a dent is too awful to bear.

Many of us have spent years sleepwalking our way through finances but haunted by a nagging sense of dread and stress and despair humming in the background.

The pandemic shook us out of the fog. COVID has made us acutely aware of our financial situation. What we have, what we don’t have. The virus has made us bean counters. We are thinking before we buy. Do I need it? Do I really want it? Where is the money going to come from to pay for it? Is this purchase in line with my personal values and the things I want to support in the world? The virus has forced us to be more mindful about our money.

Don’t Go Back To Sleep

Can we hold on to this mindfulness? Can can we expand it further? The above examples may not apply to you exactly, but are there areas that could use a little more thought?

We trade our lives for money. We trade our lives for money. We trade our lives for money. Shouldn’t we approach it deliberately, thoughtfully? Aware and with great care? Whether COVID stays or goes, let us use and not lose the lessons.

Three Recommendations

~Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau