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I used to tell myself I couldn’t sleep because I had too much on my plate. Too many emails left hanging. Staff depending on me. A business to keep afloat in an economy that seemed to shift every time I caught my breath. And all of that was true. But it wasn’t the whole truth.
Because even during the quieter stretches (when things were going okay on paper), I’d still find myself lying awake at night. Not panicked exactly, but alert. Tight.
It took me a while to name what was really going on. It wasn’t just being busy. Or the headlines. Or even the weight of being responsible for so many moving parts. It was the money required to support it all. Or more honestly, the story I had built around it. What it meant. What it said about me. What I thought I had to prove.
We don’t often say it out loud, but money has a way of infiltrating the quiet moments. You’re horizontal, the lights are off, and the day is done, yet your mind is calculating, forecasting, worrying. It’s not greed or ambition, it’s about safety. About self-worth. About the subtle but persistent story that until things are “stable,” rest is something you haven’t quite earned.
I’ve been an entrepreneur for most of my career. That means I’ve lived through lean months and windfalls, big risks and small miracles. I’ve had seasons where I slept soundly and seasons where I lay awake, building spreadsheets in my head at 3:00 a.m., trying to figure out how to pay people I care about and how to pay myself.
Financial stress doesn’t announce itself like a broken bone. It seeps in. It turns rest into a negotiation. It makes even beautiful moments—holidays, sabbaticals, quiet Sundays—feel conditional. As if permission to breathe is tied to the numbers.
And here’s the part we don’t often admit. You don’t need to be broke to feel financially unwell. You can have enough on paper and still feel the ground beneath you shaking. Because financial stress is as much about your nervous system as your net worth.
You don’t need to be broke to feel financially unwell.
That’s why at InHabit Magazine, we’re launching a regular column on money. Not to offer tips and tricks, but to hold space for the real stories. Because if we want to help people find true rest; not just long weekends or digital detoxes, but real peace—we have to talk about the things that quietly keep them awake.
The hidden costs of financial stress
We often think of money in terms of transactions. What we spend. What we save. What we earn. But in truth, the deeper costs are more invisible and they’re not tied to our bank statements, but our well-being.
Hypervigilance becomes a way of life
Even when you’re technically “off the clock,” your body doesn’t believe it. You scan for problems. You forecast worst-case scenarios. Your mind is busy balancing emotional budgets no one else can see.
Guilt turns rest into a transaction
We’re taught that rest must be earned. That it comes after the work is done. Add in money stress, and that belief hardens into something harsher: the idea that we don’t deserve rest until we’ve proven our value.
Inherited money scripts go unexamined
Most of us carry financial narratives shaped long before we earned our first dollar. Stories like “money is power,” or “money is dangerous,” or “talking about money is rude.” These scripts operate in the background, influencing decisions and stealing sleep.
Most of us carry financial narratives shaped long before we earned our first dollar.
Scarcity doesn’t stay in your wallet
It spreads. When money feels tight, time feels tight. So does energy. So does compassion. We start protecting everything. And we stop imagining what's possible.
The future steals the present
When you’re always trying to “get ahead,” you rarely get to be here in the present. Rest becomes something you postpone. Something you’ll do once the balance improves or the debt is paid or the business sells. But that day keeps moving.
A new starting point
We’re told the solution is budgeting software. Expense tracking. Financial literacy. All of that helps. But it doesn’t change the story. And the story is where the shift begins. Rest, after all, isn’t just a wellness practice. It’s a mindset. And when money tells us that rest is indulgent, risky, or irresponsible, we obey. Not because we want to. But because the story is so deeply embedded. So maybe the first step isn’t a spreadsheet. Maybe it’s a question.
What’s the story you’re carrying about money? And is it still serving you?
What’s the story you’re carrying about money? And is it still serving you?
Five questions that matter more than your credit score
If you’re ready to look at your money relationship differently, start here:
- What messages about money, rest, and worth did you absorb growing up?
- What happens in your body when money feels uncertain? Tight chest? Racing mind? Numbness?
- How do you respond—logically and emotionally—when money gets tight?
- What would change if you treated money less like a scoreboard and more like a relationship?
- Can you imagine a life where rest is a rhythm, not a reward?
Recommended reading for your money mindset
Books we love for exploring money with a little more soul:
- The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
- Money: A Love Story by Kate Northrup
- The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist
- Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez
- Get Good With Money by Tiffany Aliche
This isn’t meant to be a solo journey
At InHabit, we believe that the stories we carry about money are rarely written in isolation. So they shouldn’t be rewritten that way either. That’s why we created Money Circles—small group coaching spaces where people gather not to fix each other, but to tell the truth.
In a Circle, you unpack what’s been running the show. You swap guilt for curiosity.
You realign with your values.And you start to practice rest—not someday, but now.We don’t promise ease. But we do promise this:You are not alone. And you are not broken.
Join a Money Circle
Let this be the start of a new story.
