Financial Trauma

Financial Trauma

What Is It: It is estimated that at least 33% of Millennials suffer from Complex-PTSD symptoms due to Finances. This will often present as an individual who will go into states of Terror, Avoidance, Hyper-vigilance, or even suffer from Chronic Nightmares relative to anything Financial.

Humans aren't meant to deal with prolonged periods of stress. Unfortunately, difficulty and uncertainty around Finances can keep our physiology amped up 24/7 and in constant high-alert.

At the core of Financial Trauma is the inability to feel one is truly safe or they have enough. No matter how much money one makes, there is a constant looming threat that it will all go away or be taken from them without notice.

With more and more daily expenses piling up in our present reality, it is difficult for one to tend to the other aspects of themselves and their lives.

How Does It Happen: If an individual was ever in a position where they went through a three-month period where their income was not enough to cover basic material expenses it can create Chronic Hyper-Vigilence within one's Physiology.

Essentially, when we are unable to address our basic material and physical needs, all of our energy pours into constantly trying to address that to the extent we can no longer pour energy into our creative endeavors or forming healthy and fulfilling relationships.

Yet, we don't even need to have gone through a period of poverty in our lives to develop Financial Trauma. If our families only valued money or were constantly in competition with others relative to Financial-Status we begin to learn that none of our internal character matters outside of how much money we make. We can become hyper-fixated on finances to the extent we abandon all other aspects of who we are.

How Does It Happen (Part 2): When we are suffering from Financial Trauma, we are often suffering from what's termed 'Scarcity Consciousness'. This is a deep subconscious belief that there is 'never enough' or that we aren't 'good enough' to receive what we truly need. 

We often adopt our Caretaker's beliefs and views around Finances and Safety. If we come from an Immigrant Background or family members went through a history of Housing Displacement it can embed the Scarcity Belief deep within one's Subconscious-Self.

This Subconscious Distortion will likely be held in our Root Energy-Center (Located at the base of our Spine).

We can run around trying to accrue all the financial wealth in the world, but until we move through the underlying ancestral trauma of Terror and Fear tied to feeling 'Unsafe' we will never truly feel at Peace or Abundant.  

How It Impacts Us: If we went through severe Financial Trauma during childhood, it can create deep pervasive shame and unworthiness within us on top of the feelings of being chronically unsafe.

This is due to the fact that as children we can internalize our caretaker's inability to create safety and stability for us as something being 'wrong within us'. It can also lead us to developing Victim-Complexes into adulthood as we truly once were powerless to change our financial circumstances as children.

We can begin to adopt the belief that the world is working against us or that we do not deserve financial stability and security. This can show up as us refusing to take jobs that give us a pay equal to our worth/value or constantly self-sabotaging ourselves financially.

We can also become addicted to the stress response that financial instability creates.

How It Impacts Us (Part 2): This addiction to cortisol that we can develop as a result of 'Financial Trauma' means we will subconsciously always be trying to draw in situations of 'Chaos' and 'Instability'.

If our families were also in chronic-states of stress relative to Finances, it is very likely we never appropriately learned how to emotionally regulate ourselves or self-soothe.

This can create a deep-seated fear within oneself of actually attaining safety and security because of not knowing how to work through the unprocessed emotional experiences that chronic-stress was hiding us from.

Financial Trauma also hijacks our higher-mind complex, meaning it is much more difficult for us to make sound and rational decisions when it comes to managing our finances. We may find ourselves unable to budget or we find ourselves hoarding money needlessly and unable to invest in ourselves. 

Money & Happiness- Harvard Professor Michael Norton has shown through various studies that Money will in fact make you happier but only up to a certain point. Essentially, if one is truly at the Poverty-Level, each dollar made can bring a profound sense of happiness and safety to one's life.

Yet, each dollar earned beyond that brings less and less utility relative to one's overall wellbeing. Once an individual is earning $100k/year, any money earned after that point that does not tend to bring any further happiness or safety into one's life.

It has also been shown that money which is spent on experiences and time-off from working will bring a lot more fulfillment to one's wellbeing. Money which is spent on material items and goods that are not necessities does not tend to equate with greater happiness. If we are making over $100k/year and still operating in scarcity we must begin to look at our trauma.

Healing Financial Trauma- Somatic Experiencing and Theta-Healing will be our best tools when it comes to healing from our Financial Trauma.

Somatic Experiences will help us locate our triggers with Finances and begin to move out the underlying unprocssed emotions and feelings that are tied to them. Ultimately, it is imperative we work through and release the feelings of powerlessness and fear that financial instability once created within our system's.

This will help us work through and release limiting subconscious beliefs tied to our financial-worth. Afterwards, it is through using tools that help us to access a Theta-Brainwave state which allows us to install new belief systems more easily within our Subconscious.

Healing Financial Trauma can take years but it is through constantly taking corrective actions andtaking control of our Financial lives whichbegins to anchor in healthier belief systems.