Exercise Your Life #3: Lick Your Greenbacks Into Shape
budget the money it takes for your health to flourish
You can’t separate your finances from your physical well-being. You need money to pay for your health. You need money to buy top of the line fish oil and high quality multi-vitamins. You need money to buy organic grass-fed beef from a local farmer. You need money to eat archerfriendly. And if your insurance doesn’t cover naturopaths? You might need a couple hundred for that, too.
After all the basics are covered, it still costs money to pursue whole health. There are frugal ways about it, yes, but it still costs more. I wish organic food was cheaper and that the toxic options were not always the cheapest options. But it’s not like this. We have to agree that making our bodies better places to live is going to cost us something… more than just paying our health insurance premiums.
You Are Worth It
This is where we need to be careful. All this extra money, blown on supplements and special food, can ricochet back on us in the form of financial stress. What was done in the hopes of health can hinder health if you give those natural dollars out of fear. That’s not health. Nope, health is freedom, the exact opposite of a burden. Forking over the extra cash, beyond that of your health insurance, should be something you do with joy, because you love yourself, and you want to invest in your life. I wonder how much more health this could bring you, if you took pleasure in your heart, every time you spent another dollar on your health. Could you even say, “I’m worth it?”
Build a Budget & Build Your Health
Even though you are worth the price of what it costs for you to thrive, you still need to be smart with your dollars. It may not be the wisest thing to take a month long vacation in the vineyards of France when you can barely afford organic apples in your kitchen. Prudence with your money empowers you to really say it like you mean it, “I’m worth it.” One way to be prudent, to give you that extra umph you need to love on yourself in the name of health, is to make a budget.
No one really enjoys budgeting. It takes time. It can bring an uncomfortable self-awareness of what matters most to you. But knowing where every dollar is going is the only way to alleviate stress stemming from financial fear. Financial fear is gnarly and likes to whisper in your ear that you’re not worth it. That your health isn’t worth it. Fight back with love for yourself, for your health, for you. Fight back with a budget. When it’s written out on paper, you have tangible evidence to mush into Mr. Gnarly Financial Fear’s face. If you need help with budgeting, check out Dave Ramsey’s thoughts.
Mr. Gnarly Financial Fear still bugs me from time to time and I have to continue to remind myself that I’m worth it. Keeping a monthly budget that includes a health allowance has brought me unexpected freedom to love myself in this way.
How are you exercising your financial muscles for better health?
Enjoy More Archerfriendliness
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Helen
March 24th, 2012 at 1:53 am
Weird how those foreign banknotes look familiar… Love ya!
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Diane Squyres
March 29th, 2012 at 2:05 pm
Very very good post! It takes a lot of discipline to budget. Sometimes I find it easier to budget other peoples money than my own!! Love the foreign money!
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