It can be easy to run headlong into burnout when you live in a hustle culture where you’re told the answer to all of your financial problems is simply to work harder. The problem is that how hard you work may actually be part of what’s stifling your bank account.

In business, there will always be times when you’re working harder than others. All-nighters happen, and there are indeed times to hustle. But there needs to be a balance in order for you to maintain your health, to continue growing, and to enjoy your life.

For business owners and entrepreneurs around the world, mindset has been a great area of focus, and it’s been powerful to watch the industry step up to the plate to clear sabotaging beliefs that are holding people back. But what if there’s something else—something deeper—that needs to be addressed in order for you to be fully unleashed in your earning potential?

That’s where unresolved trauma work comes into play. Here are the four ways unresolved trauma can be sabotaging your bank account right now.

1. Trauma is often misunderstood

First, you must understand what trauma is and how it affects your mind, body, and energy. Trauma is any event that leaves a negative imprint that you weren’t able to fully process at the time, and as a result, has left the unprocessed emotions, thoughts, and belief systems in your mind or body that may be causing you to second guess yourself and the world around you.

It can be mental, emotional, or physical. Trauma can happen in many ways, anything from a statement made to you, a betrayal of your trust, a physical altercation, a sudden accident, or even a stressful moment. One of the biggest misconceptions around trauma is that it must be considered a big event.

Trauma doesn’t have to come from a chaotic, life-upending event. It can be much more simple than that, happening in a moment that’s easy to miss altogether, which is what can make it so insidious. Now that you know what trauma is, you can understand deeper what it does to your mind, body, and energy. 

When trauma is introduced to your system, it causes a fracture in your energy, shocks your nervous system, and can mark a moment in your mind where you weren’t safe. In order to course-correct the sabotage that can result from the initial trauma and subsequent fallout, you have to approach the trauma holistically. If you leave out any of these pieces (mind, body, energy), then it’s only a matter of time before you repeat the sabotage pattern and push money away from you.

2. Unresolved trauma compromises your self-worth

Money is connected to our relationship with who we are and our self-worth. Because trauma can compromise aspects of your confidence and can make you question your worth, it creates a barrier against money. Questioning your worth may not always look or sound like “I don’t feel worthy”. Sometimes it looks or sounds like: 

• “That’s not for people like me.”
• “Things don’t work out for me.”
• “Of course that happened to me!”
• “I haven’t earned that yet/I have to work hard to have this.”
• “I don’t deserve that.”
• “People like me don’t get that.”

Whenever there is a feeling of not being enough in any way, it can compromise the flow of money you receive.

“Trauma is a fact of life. It does not, however, have to be a life sentence.” – Peter A. Levine

3. Unresolved trauma creates unconscious blinders

Unresolved trauma results in unconscious blocks and patterns that keep you from what you want by creating blind spots in your mental, emotional, and creative vision. When unresolved trauma exists within the subconscious, it creates a consistent chain of events that keep you triggered just below your conscious awareness. 

Your subconscious mind remembers everything, so any part of life becomes the playground for triggers. Anything that resembles the thoughts, images, body sensations, and emotions you had during the traumatic experience, from walking down the street and going to the grocery store to working on your goals and having a conversation, can create a subconscious trigger. So throughout the day, without knowing it, you’re making micro-moves that keep you safe and also keep you from reaching the financial success that you’re after. 

By allowing unresolved trauma to fester, your decisions come from the past (the trauma or fear) instead of a place of choice and opportunity. Healing this, helps you to see more clearly. This happened with one business owner who was struggling to break her income ceiling beyond six-figures in revenue. When diving into her childhood, she discovered there was an unhealed trauma when she was yelled at because she asked for more. 

She developed a belief system around the idea that asking for more was selfish which carried over into her business. She was trying to uplevel her income, but nothing worked because her foundational belief system from the unresolved trauma was that “making more and asking for more was selfish”. Once she resolved the trauma and the belief system that went along with it, her glass ceiling toppled.

4. Unresolved trauma causes feelings of being unsafe

Unresolved trauma disrupts your body’s “root chakra” which is your identification of safety and belonging in this world. This energy center is directly connected to money. This often happens when you have unhealed trauma from your childhood that rocks the foundation of your safety both physically and emotionally. 

When this happens, it can prevent you from feeling secure in your life and causes you to have challenges with receiving money. When you’re used to feeling unsafe, there’s a comfort in that feeling and your subconscious will fight to keep things status quo. That’s why you’ll resist making more money.

The second way that this particular red flag shows up is when you receive money and quickly spend it or it goes out the door soon after you get it. There’s an underlying issue of feeling undeserving when this scenario happens.

There are all kinds of ways trauma can create tough money situations for you, but now you know the red flags to look for so that you can address the underlying trauma. The after-effects of trauma aren’t things you have to suffer through or live with for the rest of your life. That’s not how things have to be. If you can identify where trauma is creating an issue, you can get the support you need in healing. Heal the trauma, and you can heal the cycles the trauma created.