When you delay self-empathy, you delay the wisdom. When you withhold self-empathy and
compassion from yourself, you withhold wisdom and learning from yourself and you withhold
that from others. We fear self-compassion and self-empathy because we think it will lead us to letting ourselves off the hook, or drive us to overindulgence, addiction, and binging, but the irony is that, it is the lack of self-empathy and self-compassion that led us there in the first place. We don’t use those methods to cope because we want to nourish ourselves. We chose those behaviors because we want to hurt ourselves. So, our “discipline” needs to become nurturing. Our “discipline” needs to become structuring a plan that works for us. Our “discipline” needs to become having a routine and a set of non-negotiables we do, daily, to maintain our wellness. Our “discipline” needs to become listening and honoring our bodies and emotions. So, when you don’t feel like going to the gym, that is when you actually go. But, when you feel like you are exhausted, sick, weak, then you stay home, take care of yourself, and gain the strength you need to nurture other areas of your life, like work and relationships, before you burn out and all of it falls apart because you felt that life is a bunch of daily checklists. That is why our goals need to include being kind and respectful towards our bodies and our emotions.
Now, what does this all have to do with money? Money is energy. When you look at money as energy, you realize that the same self-talk goes into the way you spend your money, as you do with the way you treat your body, mind, and spirit. If you have shame around the choices you make regarding your physical wellbeing, for example, saying you didn’t go to the gym today, or ate well, or had a treat, that the whole day is a write off, and then that is how you will spend money. This can sound like this, “well, I wasted this money on this, now I only have this much left, so I might as well spend it.” Again, by seeing money as energy, first have a reflection on how you circulated that money rather than spent it. Then, bring in compassion and empathy, and say, “ok, this expense was necessary, even if not in its entirety, I can make a plan to recover this money from other areas, or I will call in this energy from a different source by saying that I am available to extra income to replenish this energy again.” In a way, you are honoring and reflecting on where the energy was spent, you rest on it, so to speak, and then you reflect on
how to regain strength to replenish and feel safe again.