Happy New Year 2023 with silhouette of woman practicing yoga at sunset

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The term mindfulness refers to the ability to be fully in the present moment. If you approach handling money in a mindful state, you’ll make better financial decisions because you’ll be more aware of your present financial situation, your goals and how you’re saving and spending. This can protect you from making the type of reactive or impulsive decisions that can wreak havoc on your personal finances. Here are a few ways you can incorporate common mindfulness strategies to help you level up in the New Year:

Explore your feelings about money

Our relationship and history with money have a huge impact on why we spend and how we spend. This can feel like a scary exercise, but exploring your relationship with money will help you recognize the ways in which you may or may not be holding yourself back from manifesting financial success. Take purposeful action:

1) Fill out a money personality quiz like this one to help identify your money beliefs.

2) Grab a journal and start exploring your historical relationship with money. This will help you identify the beliefs that are holding you back so that you can make a conscious decision to improve or change them.

Increase awareness around your spending

Put effort into being more conscious of your spending. Doing this will help you proactively make decisions about future spending so that they align with your goals. Take purposeful action:

1) Start with your goals and financial aspirations. I encourage you to write them down or create a vision board. Keep them in a place where you can see them every day.

2) List out your expenses. I suggest starting with a pen and paper, then migrating to a spreadsheet or app. Review and scrutinize them against how you wish to be spending and saving so they become aligned with your financial vision.

3) Bring this knowledge and awareness into your present money decisions.

Embrace the lessons of your past to improve your future

Thinking about our past mistakes can be deflating, but our past contains the very lessons we need to learn from to improve our lives. Instead of thinking of your past failures as confirmation about how much you stink at money, flip the switch. Failures are our greatest teachers. Greatness only comes from failing so embrace the lessons of your past failures to unlock an amazing financial future! Take purposeful action:

1) List out your biggest financial mistakes, and the money habits that make you cringe.

2) Explore why you made those mistakes or engaged in cringe-inducing behavior, otherwise known as your triggers.

3) Write down how you’re going to make a different decision when you get triggered in the future. Writing this down will help implant an interruption in your thinking so that next time you are triggered, you stay present and consciously make a better decision.

4) Whenever you feel overwhelmed by a setback or the busyness of life, stop and take just 5 minutes to sit in silence. Start with taking deep breaths, 4 seconds in and 4 seconds out or try meditating with apps like these. This will help you recover and tune back into the present moment so that you can keep moving forward.

Simply begin again

These are arguably the three most important words in mindfulness mediation. In this new year as life starts to get busy and you look to get a fresh start on your financial goals, don’t get discouraged about your past or obsess about the future. Instead, consider implementing these mindfulness strategies wherever you are in the process and begin again.

Cheers to a happy, prosperous, and mindful new year!