Working with Money Stress: 5 Skills to Rewire Your Brain for Abundance
Does Worry About Money Keep You Up at Night?
If so, you aren’t alone. Mindfulness practice invites us to notice our relationship with money and worthiness, and to work skillfully with the worry thoughts and patterns that arise.
Whether you have plenty or very little, money often carries stress. Our orientation toward it shapes how we experience and even attract it. Beneath financial anxiety and scarcity mindsets often lives a deeper wound to our sense of worthiness, safety, and belonging.
When money worries surface, the impulse is often to spiral into problem-solving or self-criticism. Instead, see if you can pause, return to the body, and create space for new possibilities. These five mindful practices support the shift from worry into agency.
Skill 1: Pause and Shift Attention to the Body
When stress about money surfaces, stop for just a moment. Notice what is happening inside you right now.
Is your jaw tight? Are your shoulders hunched? Do you feel clenching in your chest, belly, or throat? Simply observe with curiosity and kindness.
Then breathe with what you find:
Inhale into areas of tension.
Exhale to soften and release what no longer serves.
This brief intervention—sometimes just a few breaths—can stabilize attention, bring your prefrontal cortex back online, and interrupt the self-critical story that often accompanies financial stress.
The STOP practice (Stop, Take a breath, Observe, Proceed) is a simple anchor you can use anytime.
Skill 2: Bring Awareness to Where Abundance is Already Present
Worry thrives on the thought “not enough.” One way to rewire that habit is to intentionally notice what is already here.
When scarcity thoughts arise, pause, breathe, and redirect your attention to what you do have: fresh air, nourishing food, meaningful work, family, friends, the beauty of nature.
Each time you interrupt a cycle of scarcity thinking, you grow new neural pathways. Over time, your brain learns to orient toward gratitude, resourcefulness, and abundance rather than fear.
I invite you to keep a gratitude journal daily for a week and notice how your mindset shifts.
Skill 3: Embody Abundance and Speak it into Truth
Energy follows attention. When we marinate in worry, we attract more worry. When we embody dignity, worthiness, and openness, we create space for possibility.
Try reframing lack as an invitation. Money can motivate us to step into agency when we remember we are worthy of receiving. Simple linguistic shifts, such as changing “if” to “when” and reframing negative self talk can go along way.
You might experiment with spoken mantras such as:
I am available to receive.
My work has value. I have value.
I am worthy of abundance.
Beyond words, practice embodying abundance. Take time daily to sit in meditation in a dignified and self supporting posture. Whether this is five minutes or more, taking the time to notice what it feels like to embody abundance and to marinate in it helps grow new neural pathways and disrupt old patterns of slouching, retreating, slumping, etc.
As you go about your day, check in with your body and your posture regularly. How would you walk, breathe, or carry yourself if you were deeply certain of your worthiness and already had everything you needed?
Skill 4: Take Agency Over One Thing
Overwhelm often comes from trying to solve everything at once. Instead, focus on one small, doable action today.
Ask yourself: What is one thing I could do right now to reduce expenses or increase income?
It might be as simple as canceling a subscription you no longer use, sending one networking email, or setting aside ten dollars in savings. Baby steps matter. Single-tasking builds momentum and helps restore a sense of agency, one action at a time.
Skill 5: Cultivate Space for Movement, Creativity, and Play
Worry contracts the body and narrows perspective. Movement, creativity, and play expand both. Whether it’s a walk outside, dancing in your kitchen, doodling, gardening, or playing with your children—these simple acts create room for breath and flow.
Playfulness reawakens the nervous system’s capacity for joy. It reminds you that life is bigger than your current stress, and that abundance shows up in more ways than just money.
Closing Reflection
By pausing, redirecting attention, cultivating play, and taking small steps forward, you begin to heal the deeper wound money worry touches—your worthiness. These practices are not quick fixes. They are daily invitations to reclaim presence, rewire old patterns, and move through life from a place of enoughness.
Check out our upcoming online and in-person workshops and join us as we cultivate creativity, heart-centered leadership, and collective healing together.
