As the festive season approaches, many of us choose fasting as a token of our devotion to God. Though fasting is often tagged with religion but it has deep-rooted scientific logic and benefits. Fasting is known to help us connect with God spiritually and have health benefits. This festive season let’s look at some learning from fasting that we can implement in our lives for our financial wellness –
Table of Content
Discipline and Fasting
If there is anything that fasting teaches us, it is the power of “discipline”. We teach our body to control its urges and follow defined rules. If we apply the same discipline and restraint our urges for beyond budget and spends on wants rather than needs, we will see much better results. Following a disciplined approach to savings & investing will help us stay on the path of financial wellness.
Don’t Let A Few Setbacks Hold You Back
Many times we falter and eat something or do something which breaks our fast. However, we do not stop our fasting there, for tomorrow is a new day. We begin afresh the next day with much more determination. The same should be implemented in our financial journey as well. We are bound to face a few setbacks in our financial journey, no matter what. It may be an expensive purchase or a missed investment opportunity or for that matter short-term volatility in markets. There are bound to be setbacks. However, what matters is if we are willing to recover from it and start again.
Staying Away From Temptations While Fasting
There are temptations all around, but to the one who is fasting, they mean nothing. We learn how to avoid these temptations during our fast and focus solely on the fast. Only when we can avoid such temptations will we be able to fast successfully. Similarly, there are numerous factors that might sway us from saving and investing. Sometimes it’s the very attractive and high decibel sales where we succumb and end up buying stuff at a discount which we may not actually need. There are also instances where we get lured by too good to be true quick get rich investments schemes and plans that often lead us to a black hole. We need to look at our long-term priorities and ignore all temptations on that path.
Own Only What You Need
Fasting teaches us that we can live with a lot less than what we have. We turn to a simpler way of life during this period and find that we do not need a lot of things that we thought were very important to us. If we look at this from a broader perspective, we find that we can do away with a lot of unnecessary things that we spend our money on. From a financial wellness perspective, we will find this approach very helpful in prioritizing the most important financial goals in life and not get caught with wants that lure us every now and then. Once we start approaching life in a simpler way, we will see a lot of money being freed up to be saved and redeployed towards agendas most important to us
Fulfillment and Fasting
For a lot of us, fasting brings a feeling of fulfillment that we get from connecting to a higher being by simpler living. A little bit of hard work and dedication helps us achieve this feeling. In the same way, when we put in a little bit of hard work and dedication in our financial journey we feel contented and at peace with the results. Nothing gets us more anxious and stressed than financial worries and nothing feels better than having all our financial hurdles sorted.
Self-Reflection During Fasting
Fasting gives us time for self-reflection. To become a better version of ourselves, we look back and think of things we could have done better and make renewed plans for the path ahead. The same principle when applied to financial journeys can help us in keeping our financial plans fresh by reviewing and revisiting them often. Sometimes we will find that priorities change and this reflection helps us re-align these priorities. This practice is also helpful in reviewing which savings and investments avenues have worked and which need to be re-looked at.
Gift of Giving
Charity lies in the core principles of almost all religions. We are taught to give selflessly, and it is more prominent in the fasting time as we get the opportunity to look above our needs and wants. Buying an insurance, as a form of protection, is an ideal way of implementing the gift of giving financial protection to your loved ones. If we do not already have one, do get one to leave behind a strong financial legacy for our loved ones.
With the festive season here, spirits are at their peak and that is why we should take this opportunity to better ourselves and celebrate our financial wellness in the spirit of festivals. We wish our readers a very happy and joyous festive season!
