Money Matters for Mind, Body and Spirit

Our financial lives often reflect our inner lives, when we struggle with overspending, debt and bury ourselves in the stress and guilt of money matters, our lives become burdened and it effects every aspect of who we are. When you take a look at what your cycle and relationship to money is, it opens a door for personal growth and empowerment.

When you decide to claim your power in this lifetime it can often seem a daunting task. Many of us are raised to be afraid of speaking up or standing out and learn quickly to become invisible. Especially so, if we come from abusive backgrounds. To many of us, when we talk about power we often do not know what that is. It is difficult or even impossible to grasp the meaning of what power is.

Personal power is often mistaken as the ability to become successful in today’s world, usually that means with our careers and our finances. So we strive harder everyday to move ahead with promotions, or work as much overtime as we can manage, as we juggle raising and supporting a family., or at the very least making ends meet as we support ourselves. This leaves very little time, if any, for ourselves, our dreams, our pleasures in life.

The downtime we do take is often filled with a deep guilt that the time we are enjoying could be making us more money or we find ourselves spending money on our down time that we feel should be going towards other things. There is not much value placed on the being-ness of life. We are filled with an anxiety to go out in the world and be do-ers all the time. The lack of balance between the two manifests in many different ways, disease and debt being two of them. We tend to give our power away to money and let it dictate our lives.

We are obsessed with making more of it, knowing that more will never be enough. In the spiritual communities we find an even greater confusion to how money is supposed to fit into the greater scheme of things. Living humbly and without is a dogma found in many different religions. The basis for this is to learn the lessons of not having the distraction or ego attached to what money does to the human soul. What does money do to the human soul? Could it be that living a life filled with abundance and a combination of doing and being, of working hard and being responsible with what we have and spending downtime is a wise investment? In my work, I often see an abuse of money and sabotage in people’s financial lives.

Hidden deep within is often a feeling of unworthiness that seeps into our lives as a whole and affects every aspect, especially when it comes to our financial lives. We dream of success, of fulfilling our dreams, of traveling to faraway places. We secretly wish for these things, or perhaps we have less dramatic dreams for ourselves. So what is it that keeps this from happening? How often do you find yourself saying you cant take that self help workshop because you cant possibly spare the $50.00 it costs. So you don’t and you go back to your life. Money is really energy and energy follows thought and moves towards it.

You create your reality by what you think and how your emotion directs your thoughts. When we meditate we see how our thoughts try to distract us and pull us off our center. We know that if only we can quiet those thoughts long enough to move past them into the void that lies behind them, we may in fact reach enlightenment. But what about those pesky thoughts that keep pulling you off your center, distracting you with all the fears and doubts and voices of criticism that always remind you of what a waste of time it is to pursue all of this.

Those thoughts that we watch pass us by are like guardians of that void, and if we acknowledge them and detach from them, they move aside and let us in. So what happens when we are here? And what does this have to do with money and abundance and being able to follow our dreams? Everything. You see once we become more self aware of what makes us tick internally, our inner life begins to change and shift. As a result eventually our outer world, our reality, changes. You attract into your life reflections of the inner dialog.

If you are experiencing debt, over spending, sabotage in saving your money for investments, can’t get out of renting to become a homeowner, then begin by taking a look at your fears of being seen, taking your power in this lifetime, and becoming successful. It may at first seem irrelevant, but in the cosmic workings of the universe, everything is interconnected. Taking responsibility for what we do in life and acting on our deep knowing that change is needed, is often the biggest fear of all because it is like facing your own death. We experience little deaths all the time, in many ways.

In relationships, job changes, even finishing a school or work project,. Whenever we have closure on something we experience a small death, and often it is not seen as such. We avoid looking to closely at what is uncomfortable for us because we fear the release of emotions associated with letting go. So we hold on, and we hold tightly to what we know, to our routine and to what seems to be working. Even if it creates stress in our lives, our bodies, our minds and in our spirits. We tend to blame others for our situations, our spouses, children, or our parents.

The truth of the matter is that no matter what your situation or what you suffered from in the past, and no matter what others are doing in your life, ultimately you are responsible for your experiences. You have the power of choice and free will. You only have to act on it and move outward to create the kind of life you are truly worthy of. So how does this happen when you are buried in credit card debt, behind on your car or house payments, and can seem to find a way out of your situation as you live paycheck to paycheck? When there just doesn’t appear to be any extra money? Lets start with the basics. Sit down and write out a statement to yourself.

Commit to admitting yourself into financial rehab. Sign and date it and put it somewhere where you will see it everyday. Spending problems, addiction to debt, is like any other addiction. Commitment to yourself is the first step. Next, make a list of all your bills, know the current balances and especially what the interest rate is for every one of them. List the credit card debt in order of balances from the lowest balance to the highest balance. You will target the lowest payment first so you can feel a sense of accomplishment quicker. Keep a list of updated balances and update them at least twice a month.

Next, stop spending. Period. Put the credit cards away and if you’re too tempted to use them, cut them all up. If worse comes to worse, you can always reorder a new card. Next, take a look at your mortgage payment. Do you pay bi-monthly? You may want to consider taking the initiative to setting this up automatically with your mortgage lender. It will save you thousands of dollars in the end and bring you closer to owning your home free and clear. Cut back on any extras, take a look at your cable bill, your internet service, cell phone bill, and figure out what you can cut back on. You will be astounded at how much money you can find in doing this simple act.

Next take a good hard look at your daily routine. Write down every penny you spend throughout your day. Do you stop and get coffee and a bagel every morning before work? Do you do that 4-5 times a week? Lets say you spend $5.30 everyday before you go to work. That’s $26.50 a week, $106.00 dollars a month, $1272.00 dollars a year. Just by buying a large canister of coffee and brewing it at home along with making your own bagels, you have just found yourself an extra $1272.00 a year. The same goes for the take out food, buying a pack of cigarettes a day.

Find what your habit is and write it down. Figure out the math and see how much you can save yourself by changing a simple part of your everyday routine. Take small steps for really big results and start living your dreams. That coffee and bagel in the morning could be your ticket to a new life. Making a few small changes here and there and getting a grip on your spending habits, your credit card debt and setting up your finances so that its automatic will change the way you see life.

You see, abundance and the way money plays into our lives is a great opportunity to take our own power and take back your life and with that begin to feel worthy of becoming what we are destined to become in life. It starts by seeing that there is another way. By understanding your fears and having the courage to look within and face the fears and changes that you need to make in your life. We then begin to move out of our everyday existence and routine and we begin to move, and this movement creates a force by which enables us to act. It is then our choice to act and create our own lives and follow our innermost dreams. Money is nothing more then an outer expression of our inner life.

By Hillary Raimo