symbol of appreciation
✓Flows to those who add value
✓You can raise your energy to attract more
When was the last time you thought about money?
Was it an hour ago? 20 minutes ago? 2 minutes ago?
If we are honest with ourselves, we will admit we spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about money: how much we have or don’t have, how to repay what we owe or invest what we’ve accumulated, or simply how to get some more!
In today’s society more than ever before, money touches every aspect of our lives.
Never before has money been so pervasive in our lives and so complicated. Today we have more options about how to spend, save and invest our money than ever before:
more options, more demands, more messages and more confusion.
As a result of the challenges money presents, one of the greatest financial aspirations of many has become simply “not to have to think about money.” You’ve probably said it yourself on occasion: “ I wish I didn’t have to think about money.” It’s a common fantasy.
Not thinking about money would suit us just fine. Yes... then we would be able to escape the many contradictions and paradoxes that money presents. But have you tried it lately? Have you really tried not thinking about money? How long did you last?
For most of us, it’s impossible to escape thinking about money for any extended period of time. So how about letting go of the notion that we shouldn’t think too much about money, that it’s not polite or politically correct. Instead, we suggest you acknowledge that money is an extremely powerful force in your life and trust that if it is so inherently powerful, it’s futile to wish you didn’t have to think about it. What if you replaced this escapism with awareness and began to deepen your understanding about what money is and what it can really do for you.
What comes to mind when you think about money?
The two most common ways we comprehend money are through numbers and feelings:
Through numbers, amounts:
•Account balances
•Mortgages
•Income
•Net worth
•Bills, prices
Through feelings:
•Inadequacy, fear, sorrow, anger, resentment, guilt, become overwhelm
•Excitement, gratitude, pride, accomplishment, generosity, joy, security
Thinking about money solely in terms of numbers keeps it separate from our self-worth, and keeps us from internalizing its essence. We know that money is about more than numbers.
Thinking about money mainly in terms of how we feel about it is also limiting. How we feel about money certainly has an impact on how we experience it in our lives. Exploring our feelings around money can be enlightening; it can help us make appropriate spending and investment decisions. However, our feelings sometimes get in the way of making sound financial decisions. If feelings are our primary way of relating to money, it can be difficult to deal with it intentionally and objectively.
Money is the fuel You are the vehicle Your goals are the road Your life is the terrain Your vision is the destination
We propose a third, much more powerful and effective way of understanding money:
Money = Energy
Money is a natural resource. This is a new idea that is also very old, probably one of the oldest ways of understanding money. Money is currency. The root word of currency is current, meaning movement or flow, as of a river or an electrical charge. This offers us a more dynamic understanding of money; it circulates, it can be converted from one form to another, as the current in a river can be converted to electrical current in a power-generating station. If money is the current, we are the conduit: it flows through us and we direct its use.
There is great power in understanding that money is currency. We can deal in dollars, pebbles or barter; all are ways of exchanging energy. To attract more, we can change the focus and intensity of what we do to earn this currency.
We can create more value to attract more money. Although we may know this intellectually, it seems that most people have not been able to master the money forces in their lives. The reason is the constellation of conflicting thoughts and emotions we carry around money. In order to broaden and deepen our relationship with money, each of us must investigate money and its meaning in our own lives. Because we are all individuals, your particular combination of money experiences, beliefs and values is unique to you.
Congealed Energy
We like to say money is congealed energy; it is one of the primary means of supplying the energy needed to transform and solidify ideas and intentions into reality. Money of course is not the only energy required for successful transformations of ideas and intentions. Others include: vitality (health), love (support and inspiration), determination and imagination (creativity).
Our Multi-dimensional Connection With Money
Finding truly effective solutions to the challenges of money in our lives requires that we become aware of our multi-dimensional connection with money. Each of our dimensions is affected by our choices. Coming to understand how to choose with money in ways that support your whole being is a breakthrough that will help you sustain wealth and improve well-being. Money is energy we use to express what we think, what we can shoulder, what we feel/love. It flows through us, through mind, body and spirit and its end use is shaped by our inner dynamics.
How often do we make choices about money that disregard our physical, mental and spiritual needs? How effective are our choices if a solution in one area creates a problem in another?
The Great Energy Swap
All of our financial transactions can be reduced to an exchange of energy. We freely exchange our money for the energy of others when we feel they have something of value to offer us. When we use someone else’s energy to get work done, we pay them money. Consider the simple example of getting the lawn mowed. We can reduce our own physical efforts by changing the way we do the work - say using a gas or electric lawnmower to lighten the workload of cutting the lawn. We can also exchange the workload for money with the kid down the street, who will be delighted to trade his physical energy (which he likely has plenty of ) for the potential energy of cash to spend (which he likely wants more of ). This results in a trade of energy: each person trades what they have (the kid has physical energy and time, the adult has money) for what they need (the kid needs money, the adult needs physical energy and time). This is a simple example. However, all money transactions follow the same logic: all are an exchange of one form of energy for another. Thus we believe the very best definition of money, the one with the most meaning
