Ughhh…
That’s the sound that would come out of my mouth at the end of every month.
Student loans. Ughhh…
Utility bills. Ughhh…
Credit card. Ughhh…
The more ughhh I would grunt, the more money left my bank account. It s-ughhh-cked.
But as I’m going through Ken Honda’s Money EQ program on Mindvalley, I’m realizing more and more that this is all in my head. Turns out, the antidote to my financial ughhh’s is something called arigato money.
By the way, this is Part 4 of my ongoing journey through Money EQ. If you’re wondering how it all began, you can find the start of this little money saga in Part 1.
Tell me, Ken, what is arigato money?
“Arigato money” is Ken Honda’s way of saying thank you to your cash. Literally. I mean, “arigato” is “thank you” in Japanese, so it’s in the name.
This is a practice he learned from his mentor, Wahei Takeda. Arigato money when it comes in, and bless it when it goes out.
“It’s still the most important thing,” Wahei told Ken. “When something comes in, can you appreciate it? Or do you want to complain about it?”
It’s the attitude of gratitude, really. And it turns out saying “thank you” to money has been shown to lower money‐stress (though it doesn’t make anyone automatically better at budgeting or saving).
Truth be told, arigato-ing is not that far from concepts I grew up hearing in Islam:
- Shukr (gratitude). It’s the practice of showing gratitude to Allah for every blessing, even wealth. There’s a line in the Quran, Surah Ibrahim 14:7, that goes, “If you are grateful, I will surely increase you [in favor].” And that mirrors arigato in where you acknowledge that whatever comes to you is rizq (sustenance) and thank God for it.
- Sadaqah (charity) and zakat (almsgiving). Money going out in these manners is considered a blessing, not a loss. And the idea that releasing money with gratitude invites more flow, more financial abundance, both spiritually and materially. After all, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, “Charity does not decrease wealth.” (Sahih Muslim 2588)
- Tawakkul (trust and reliance on Allah). It means trusting that sustenance comes from God and that giving or spending will not impoverish you. And it reflects the same inner shift Ken teaches, where fear gives way to trust and gratitude.
Granted, it’s easier being all arigato when money comes in. But, according to Ken, the real shift is with the arigato out.
Wait, have I done this before?
Okay, confession time. My husband and I started this program about three years ago, hoping to pinpoint our money wounds and figure out this whole financial freedom thing.
We didn’t actually finish it because, well…you know, life. But we did manage to get to the arigato money part.
Now, before I start meandering off about how I arigato my way to 2025, let me give you a little bit of a backstory. A glimpse into the history of Tatiana’s dive into gratitude, if you will.
The year was 2007, and I was in a huge funk. It was work, eat, sleep, repeat… but inside, hollow. It was then a high school friend suggested practicing gratitude. Three things a day I was appreciative of, with no repeating what I had listed the day before.
At first, it was easy. I was grateful for my family, my friends, food to eat, a bed to sleep in, a roof over my head… But as the practice progressed, it was getting harder and harder. I had to really scavenger hunt for it.
In doing so, unbeknownst to me at the time, I was shifting my mindset. And being able to see the goodness helped to…
- face hard times and still smile;
- have deep bonds with my inner circle; and
- handle stress even when shit hits the fan.
So, as I’m doing the Money EQ program, it didn’t occur to me to apply the same practice to my finances. Could it be that simple? The solution to money stress is simply to be grateful?
That is Ken’s point.
Arigato in, arigato out
Wahei told Ken that the human mind can only focus on one thing at a time. If you’re focused on appreciation, you can’t also be focused on complaining.
Ken also shared that some of his students told him after a few weeks of arigato money, they’d forgotten how to worry about it… or even about life. That’s the kind of mental reset arigato in, arigato out can spark.
“By doing this, you start the cycle of appreciation, and then you feel good about it,” said Ken. “So by starting this cycle of appreciation, your life will shift.”
But, like I said before, being grateful for money coming in is easy. The relief I feel when my salary hits the account, when someone picks up the check, or when a random refund appears out of nowhere. Effortless arigato.
The difficult part is the ughhh part, like bills and loans and expenses… It surely never made me feel rich.
The thing I keep forgetting is, as Ken pointed out, “money is energy.” What I appreciate appreciates me back.
Sure, paying bills feels like ughhh, but it means I’m able to have electricity, water, internet, and all these modern luxuries. Student loans mean I was able to have an education. Credit card payments mean I got to experience things I wanted (even if it made future-me cringe a little).
Even more recently, a family member made a financial move that endangered all of us. I had to step in and take on debt I never asked for, just so we could be safe. And as Ken talked about arigato money, my thoughts were, “What’s so arigato about this?”
I have no answer right now. But I guess that’s part of the practice—saying “thank you” even when it doesn’t make sense why yet. (Stay tuned to see if it does later on, though!)
And you?
When was the last time you paused before paying a bill and really noticed what that moment felt like? The quiet transaction, the tiny exchange of trust. What if that was the start of your own conversation with money?
If you’ve tried paying attention to the emotions behind your spending, I’d love to hear what came up for you. Send me a message. xo