why money & mental health?
When I started my mental health journey nearly 7 years ago I didn’t realize how interconnected my story was how I saw myself, money and the world. Facing financial insecurity throughout my childhood and most of my adulthood deeply impacted my relationship with money. Lies like, "You will never have enough,” You’re meant to live a life of struggle , and more held a lot of space in mind…..more than I’d like to admit. Then add in the stress of being a Christian, I felt all the more guilty for allowing “money” to consume me. It wasn’t until I started doing the deep internal work in therapy and in prayer that I began to see just how interconnected my mental health story is with my money story.
Here’s what I began to uncover:
Not having money doesn’t determine by worth or value.
Money is tool, a resource.
There’s actually a limitless opportunity for me to learn about money and have access to it.
That as a Christian it was okay for me to want to learn about money, be strategic with it, and how to live generously with it.
Not everyone financially struggling is due to poor spending habits, there’s also worker exploitation, the gender pay gap, and more.
And lastly, that my money story doesn’t define me….especially after losing it all in 2010.
As I’ve diligently worked on healing my money mindset, I’ve come to also learn how household income is the number one social determinant of health. So as a place that longs to cultivate safe spaces around the topic of money + mental well being in BIPOC communities economic justice has to be at the center of what Mentally Mutual does. Because health equity can not be experienced if we don’t address how financial insecurity deeply impacts us individually and collectively.
until next time,
