Have We Completely Misunderstood Money?

020 Havewecompletelymisunderstoodmoney 1052x591

I’m coming to the conclusion that our profound misunderstanding of what money really is underlies the vast majority of workplace stresses and struggles.

It’s common for people to do work they don’t like in order to make money, and as a consequence to damage their health, well-being and happiness, sometimes for decades.

It’s normal for small business owners to spend much of their energy chasing cash-flow, because without it their business will die.

It’s accepted that people who choose work they love and that has deep meaning for them find it extremely hard, even impossible, to ask for enough money to sustain or grow themselves and their business. As a result they too constantly struggle with cash-flow and lack of resources.

This is exhausting and demoralising.

When money appears to be scarce or limited, fear becomes prevalent and stress is the inevitable consequence. It shows up in many forms including anxiety, burnout, depression, relationship breakdown, insomnia, energy and mood swings, unhappiness, grumpiness, sickness, accidents, abuse of power, domineering behaviour, manipulation, bad decision-making, moral weakness, poor management…and the list goes on.

This affects everyone from the most powerful leaders to the most casual employees, and from the most highly paid to the most poorly paid people in any business where there’s a culture of grasping for money.

Nine years ago I had an extraordinary experience which started a huge shift in my relationship with money. When I was doing the exercises in a self-help book about money, after a particularly painful business failure, I was asked to write about “What money wants to say to me.”

As I started to write, my pen took over and I found myself writing automatically. The first words that came out were, “I would like to tell you to love me.” It went on to say things like, “I am an energy…I am not the devil and I never have been…I am the invisible thread in every exchange between human beings…I am unlimited…I will love you.” It also said, “You all have completely the wrong idea about me, even the wealthy amongst you.”

This was so fascinating and surprising to me that I “tapped in” every day for a few months and found myself writing more and more about what money really is and how it works. The messages turned out to be completely different from anything I had ever imagined or experienced before.

I didn’t know what to do with all this information to begin with. It’s pretty strange to say that money has been giving you messages and talking to you. And how could I know if it was true, and not just my imagination?

A couple of years later I was propelled into using the information I’d written. My husband and I moved to Australia where I didn’t know a single person. After 6 weeks of settling in I realised I had two weeks of cash left and to get a new business going to pay all our bills; we were about to run out completely.

I had no intention of getting a regular job, so it was time to test whether the information I’d received actually worked.

It wasn’t easy to get new clients in an area with little wealth and a massive over-supply of coaches, healers, and the like who were all competing in the personal development space. Several times I couldn’t see where the next rent payment would come from and had to follow the advice in money’s messages to me.  

The amazing thing is that following money’s advice worked every time. I solved so many financial challenges that it gradually became second nature for me to see money as a very supportive, loving, generous energy, rather than a hard, lifeless, empty form of value measured in coins, notes and numbers in accounts.

As I’ve grown my business over the last seven years I’ve had to learn a great deal about money, and I have much more to learn in the years ahead. But some observations are worth sharing now, as my relationship with money continues to transform. Each of these aligns with the messages I received from money itself.

  1. If you understand that money is connected with the energy of love, you can align your deep inner nature with your external material existence. This brings profound relief. You no longer need to feel afraid of money or guilty about wanting more of it.
  2. If you learn how to feel the supportive nature of the powerful energy of money, you can tap into it and ask it to help you solve financial challenges. It’s surprising how responsive it is.
  3. Your relationship with the energy of money is similar to any other relationship. If you approach it with love and appreciation, it tends to respond with love and appreciation too. This naturally reduces stress, antagonism, fear, and feelings of scarcity and lack.
  4. There is an art and a skill to connecting with the energy behind money, and it improves with practice. Exploring and deepening your ability over time is deeply rewarding.
  5. Shifting your relationship with money is key to transforming the way you operate in business so you can radically reduce struggle and stress. At a bigger scale, it’s also key to shifting the way we operate on this planet.
  6. If you’re willing, your relationship with money takes you deep. Over time, it lovingly helps you recognise more ways you’re ready to grow, heal, awaken and evolve.

Imagine what it would be like if business practices were based around core principles of love and respect for life. And if everyone in business understood that living by such principles invites  more money, as well as everything else, to become available.

In my own experience, as I’ve gone deeper into this new relationship with money and taught many people to do the same, the process has opened up my capacity to experience true joy and to feel fulfilled in what I do every day.

This shift doesn’t happen overnight, because it’s big, and it seems to be contradicted by our daily reality of inequality, scarcity, and the sense that money is limited. But when I see the creativity and freedom that open up for people as it dawns on them that what I wrote down all those years ago is true, I know this transformation is as powerful as any I’ve seen or experienced.

To go into the heart of the “root of all evil” and find love there…That’s life-changing.

 

Photo by David Lezcano on Unsplash

Share this Blog

Subscribe to Sarah's Blog

Share This

Select your desired option below to share a direct link to this page