Whether we make our own money or rely on someone else, many of us would rather pretend our financial matters don’t exist. Or we hope they’ll just take care of themselves somehow. My ex-husband was like that. He always said, “I bank by prayer. I go to the ATM and pray that money will come out.”

Why do we put on blinders? Well, many of us feel like we’d actually be blinded if we looked directly at our financial problems. Just the thought sends us screaming to the bed, arms full of popcorn and chocolate, ready to binge-watch our favorite trashy TV show. Trust me—I get it. I’ve been there. (An episode or two of Nashville, anyone?)

So to avoid being blinded, we put on metaphorical blinders. We continue to live our lives on automatic, perpetuating the same patterns day in and day out. After all, confronting our money issues would force us to confront our feelings of self-worth…or lack thereof.

Uncovering those feelings can feel a little like an archaeological dig. It’s dusty and painful down there, where our unconscious beliefs have been hiding all this time. So we stay in the same old situations because we’re comforted by the familiar—even if the familiar is terrible. “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t,” and all that. In order to avoid looking at our deepest wounds, we unconsciously create situations in which money is a problem for us.

The good news – it doesn’t have to be like that! Your relationship with money CAN be changed, and the first step is to take off the financial blinders so you can move toward what you truly desire.

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