The Ultimate Guide to Getting Healthier by Getting Rid of your Credit Cards
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008Your credit cards are making you sick. Literally. If you have credit cards then you almost certainly have credit card debt. That debt is eating away at your body and mind from the inside out. It’s giving you headaches. It’s causing anxiety. It is the reason that you have that constant ache in your muscles and the reason that you catch every cold that is going around. There’s a good chance that it’s the source of your depression. And there may be some even more serious health problems that are directly caused by the fact that you are trying to deal with your debt.
Money does matter in the world today; there’s no denying that fact. However, your health matters more. Money might be able to buy the material things that you think will improve your quality of life. But without a healthy body and mind, you’re not going to be able to enjoy that life anyway. What kind of quality is that? If you really want to wake up in the morning feeling good enough to be on the go, you need to improve your health. And the diets that are advertised to keep you energetic and healthy are not the way to do it. Getting control over your credit cards is.
How credit cards make you sick
Before you can understand that you need to get rid of your credit card debt in order to get healthy, you need to have a complete understanding of just how damaging this debt is to your body. Let’s take a closer look at how credit cards make you ill:
• Stress-related illnesses. Credit cards cause stress in a significant number of ways. There is the general stress of having debt hanging over your head. There is the monthly stress that comes when the late payment warnings arrive in the mail. There is the stress that is caused by the strain that arguing over credit cards causes in your relationship. There is the stress that you have from working extra hours in order to pay off the debt.
• Emotional health problems. Credit cards are responsible for a number of different emotional health problems. The debt itself can lead to depression and anxiety. You may feel shame associated with the debt. You may allow credit cards to exacerbate manic-depressive tendencies by engaging in a cycle of excessive spending and then trying to gain control of the spending.
• Dietary problems. If you have credit card debt then sooner or later you are going to have to live on a tight budget. One of the first things that people compromise when this happens is their diet. Instead of eating healthy organic foods (that cost too much) they start eating more processed foods and fast foods. And their diet quickly goes down the drain.
• Medical neglect issues. Similar to the dietary problems, people with credit card debt tend to put off going to the doctor until it’s absolutely necessary. They can’t pay for health insurance or co-pays or medicines. So they let health problems that come up get really out of control. Instead of nipping their medical issues in the bud, they let them get worse and worse until sometimes they end up being fatal.
• Unsafe housing conditions. In worst case scenarios, credit card debt drives the consumer to have to live in a lower-income housing area. These areas are often riddled with environmental conditions that are hazardous to your health.
The illnesses caused by your credit cards
Now that we’ve taken a look at the general ways in which credit cards are compromising your health, let’s look more specifically at some of the health problems that you might have as a direct result of your credit card debt. These health problems are caused by the stress, emotional strain and neglect that are the source of ill health.
• Anxiety.
• Back aches and other muscle pain.
• Cancer.
• Compromised immune system.
• Depression.
• Diabetes.
• Emotional highs and lows.
• Fatigue.
• Headaches.
• Heart problems and heart disease.
• High blood pressure.
• Poor nutrition.
How to get healthier by getting rid of your credit card problem
If credit cards are causing any sort of stress or financial crunch in your life, you need to get the problem under control.
Here are some tips for leading a healthier life by reducing the strain that credit cards put on your body and mind.
• Commit to getting rid of the credit card problem. Your life may depend on it.
• Determine exactly what your credit card problem is and consider how it is affecting your health. Perhaps you have debt which means that you are overworking and are stressed as a result. The goal would be to pay off the credit card debt (and cut up those cards!) Maybe it’s that credit cards are a way to binge-and-purge with spending to deal with emotional issues. The answer would be to get rid of the cards and start dealing with the underlying emotional issues.
• Print out your credit card statements for the last six months and look at where your money went. You need to know which expenses are smart and which ones aren’t. The money you’re spending at the organic grocery store may be good for your health. The $50 dinner you got at the local steakhouse probably is not. You also need to clearly see what you can start cutting out today in order to reduce your debt.
• Don’t just reduce your spending; spend wisely. Once you’ve seen those credit card statements, you can make some serious life changes in your spending. If you’re going to continue putting any money on credit cards (which you might during the time that you’re learning how to pay them down) make sure that anything you buy is going to be good for your health. At least then the debt will serve a healthy purpose instead of one that is completely destructive.
• Make an appointment with your doctor. One of the “smart spending” things that you should have is health insurance. If you don’t have it, figure out how you’re going to get it. Go get a full physical and see how much damage has really been done. Then explain to your doctor that you want to live a debt-free, medicine-free life. Get some recommendations on the daily exercise that you can do (without a gym membership!) to stay healthy.
• Meditate. That’s a general term for the basic idea that you need to relax and get control of your emotions in order to get control over the rest of your life. The debt is not going to go away in one fell swoop; you’re going to be dealing with it for some time to come. As a result, you really need to focus on ways that you can reduce the impact that this stress has on your life. Taking a half hour in the morning to meditate, a lunch break in the park to read a book or some other form of downtime each day can really improve the way that you feel on a daily basis.
• Figure out what really matters. It’s not easy to figure out what’s really important to us as individuals. It’s actually a lot easier to get trapped into consumerism, to use “things” to satisfy our immediate needs and then to struggle to pay off the debt that’s associated with that. By taking the time to really ask ourselves what matters in our lives, we can break the cycle and start getting healthier today. When you realize that what matters to you is time with your family or a commitment to doing creative work, you’ll free yourself to stop spending that money and start really living your life.
• Budget and pay down that debt. In the end, the only way that you’re going to get rid of the debt is to work hard to pay it off. You may have to live on a budget for awhile. (Remember to stop spending on nice clothes and fancy dinners and do your spending on organic foods and healthy choices.) But eventually you will be debt-free and healthier because of it.
Healthy spending means healthy living
It will probably take you some time to pay down the credit card debt. However you may start seeing the health benefits as soon as you’ve committed to the idea of living a healthier card-free life. By reducing the strain that these cards place on you, you’ll be freeing yourself to live a more complete well-rounded well-balanced life. Your body will thank you for it!
