Hi there! Here’s the reality: Mental health affects your financial health - and vice versa! We chatted about this with Pratishta Trivedi, a Senior Clinical Psychologist at Amaha (an incredible Power card reward partner) to understand this in-depth.

Let’s start from the beginning.

🗣️The bottom line: money problems affect your mental health. Yes we’ve heard that all too often. Here’s how you can check if your financial situation is affecting your overall well-being! 💭

• Anxiety: Opening your bills or checking your bank balance can trigger feelings of anxiety and panic.

• Sleep: When you’re worried about money, sleep can evade you.

• Physical health: You might not be able to afford the things you need to stay healthy and feel good.

• Relationships: Money can affect your social life and relationships. A lack of money can make you feel isolated, and that you can’t afford to do the things you want.

We caught up with our expert and asked her all the questions we received from our amazing Basis users who are all but ready to tackle their issues with help from Amaha.

Here’s everything we discussed.

✍️ Often, younger women don’t know enough about finance. This could be because money is often controlled by their fathers, or they're not encouraged to participate in money talks. They might develop a sense of stress related to money management. How can one resolve this?

Money management is unfortunately not taught in school as early as it should be in our lives. What this means is that it’s a skill that’s developed with practice. The more you do it, the more comfortable you get! Early on, when you are on a lower skill level, you may not get it all, and that’s no reason to panic. It’s like flexing any other muscle. As you engage in chats and decisions about money, you feel a lot more confident. We are all conditioned the same way, irrespective of gender. Start small, make smaller decisions and recognise that you need to get a lot more comfortable. But remember, this will take time.

👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨 How can one step up if one’s opinions and suggestions are not considered in key decisions, especially in the case of romantic relationships?

Be assertive! Unfortunately, we often doubt the correctness of our opinions. If someone challenges the validity of it, we question ourselves too quickly. You have the right to be wrong. Recognising that not knowing something - in this context about money - is okay. In assertiveness, there is a strategy called ‘broken record’. Where you repeat yourself to the point that people around you get what you intend to say or ask. We have to dig our heels in the ground and make a point that we are going to stick around so that we get the desired outcome in conversations. We need to communicate that learning about money is a worthwhile thing for us, the person who has been making money decisions may not be comfortable with involving you in the decisions. But, you gotta do what you gotta do!

🛌 What are some ways to address and identify life’s stressors and work through them?

The first step is to become familiar with and cognisant of changes in your behaviour. Here are some signs:

• Your sleep or appetite changes

• You find yourself catching seasonal illnesses frequently

• You often feel tired

Understand what is getting compromised. First, attempt to reach out to friends and family and talk about how you feel. As women, we often don’t set boundaries and that can be the most critical thing for your mental health. Saying “no” is your right. You don’t have to be apologetic about saying that you won’t be able to do something. Drawing boundaries is a critical mental health strategy, especially for women.

The most important part of this chat was understanding as women, what is “enough”. This is a trap we often fall into. Whether financially, socially, or emotionally, figure out what is your ‘enough’. Once you define this, you can go about making better decisions for yourself!