It's no mystery that the road to wealth can come with some emotional turmoil. Anyone who tells you that you should leave your emotions out of the picture entirely when it comes to money is misguided. Money is a deeply emotional issue. It's a stand-in for what we value. Our values are inherently personal and emotional. What we think is important has a lot to do with how we feel. Therefore, how we feel plays a big part in our financial picture.

Our emotions can have a significant impact on our behavior when it comes to money. And since our behavior creates our results, it's a good idea to clean up the emotional detritus surrounding our money so we get better results. One of the most common emotions associated with money is shame. We compare ourselves to someone else and feel ashamed when we fall short. We recall the past financial decisions we made and cringe at how off track we got. We think about our current financial pickle that we're trying so hard to sweep under the rug and we squirm, hoping no one will find out about it before we're able to clean it up.

But when it comes to our money, shame doesn't help us make more, invest well, increase our savings, or become more generous. In fact, it just keeps us stuck. So how do we heal our money shame so we can enjoy a healthy financial life?