We live in a fast-paced world that is continuously bombarding us with messages of lack, imperfection, disease, suffering, and fear, while at the same time we are expected to accomplish everything quickly; in turn, we have come to expect to get immediate results and instant gratification. We want a quick fix for our problems, our financial situation, and even our spiritual evolution. But as one of my beloved teachers used to say, “the road to enlightenment is not a highway.” I think that this also holds true for anything valuable in life.
We are fed by the mass media with hopes and wishes about our lifestyle, our health, our relationships, and our safety, while our behavior and emotional states get manipulated through the fear mongering and superficiality of the news and entertainment industries. This strategy does more than make us want to behave a certain way or buy stuff: it keeps us trapped in a moral dilemma between desire and fulfillment; between a sense of lack and the ability to create abundance and joy; between fear and love.
When you add to that the sense that if we don’t succeed immediately in the attainment of our goals it means that we’ve failed, we remain trapped in a limited and limiting perception of ourselves, our self-worth, and the value of what we have to offer as individuals. Not to mention how demanding, hard, and judgmental we become toward ourselves and others.
We may be conditioned to look for the quick fix and the magic pill, but personal transformation and success are aspects of our soul integration process that require awareness, patience, and perseverance for us to learn what we’re here to learn. Our human process and our soul journey may not always be in sync, especially if we let the ego-mind take control, so we need to align them for life to move more smoothly and in accordance to what we really want.
Are You Hiding Behind Your Sense of Lack?
The mind will always find excuses to prevent you from moving forward and growing. So if you want to change something in your life, your career, or your business, more often than not your ego-mind will resist and come up with an obstacle to convince you that it’s not possible, that you can’t do it, or maybe that you don’t deserve it, especially if you try and don’t get the results you expect right away. Money is a common excuse to avoid taking full responsibility in creating the life we desire.
I don’t know how many times I have heard people say that they can’t accomplish their projects or dreams because they don’t have enough money. So they don’t even try. They are convinced that money is both the obstacle and the solution and they don’t realize that they’re giving all their power to the idea of money and viewing money as some kind of enemy. Talk about a self-defeating perception!
Many spiritual entrepreneurs say that they’re “not in it for the money,” as if money were some kind of evil energy that needs to be exorcised from our lives if we want to be “good” or “spiritual.” Of course they’re in it for the money, otherwise they wouldn’t be or want to be in business! They may not be in it just for the money, but the world is made of money and everyone has to make a living. Rejecting money based on the belief that it makes people greedy simply keeps those in power holding all the wealth.
You can’t make life about money, but pretending being poor makes you humble is an egoic illusion. True spiritual renunciation comes from detachment, and it includes detachment from the distorted ideas that make you unhappy. Those who hide behind their sense of lack often talk about wealthy people with resentment and envy disguised as disdain, so you have to wonder, is the fear of being harshly judged, like they judge others, preventing them from welcoming abundance and doing something positive with it?
Be At Peace With the Energy of Money
Having money doesn’t necessarily make you less spiritual or more greedy. That depends on your choices, regardless of whether you have money or not. Some wealthy people do great things for the world while others simply use it to empower their negative aspects. Money is not an enemy or evil energy; it’s just a means to an end, and both the problem (lacking money) and the solution (abundance) lie in your own perception.
It’s easier to hide behind an excuse than to take full responsibility in moving toward what you desire without apologies. Why? Because you have created a multi-layered self-image that is hard to break free from, even if it doesn’t really suit you anymore, or at least some of its layers don’t. If your perception of abundance is split between desire and aversion, it is hard to find a more balanced middle ground to heal the split. So, for example, having more money than the members of your family or your spouse may stir unconscious feelings of guilt about abundance and success.
This is a dysfunctional world where money has become the driving force behind absolutely everything, both positive and negative, and where money permeates all we can acquire and accomplish in the world. So much so that our attention is focused on money—either because we need it to survive, or because we want more of what we already have, or because we feel guilty about having more than others. If you don’t have enough money, you want more; and if you have enough money, you also want more to be able to spend it without running out.
As long as your attention is on the external, material aspects of life, those who run the show by manipulating you are happy. However, money is just one aspect of abundance. I am not saying that it’s not important. On the contrary, it is very important, and this is why it is key to be completely at peace with the idea of money and of having money to create abundance. You have to start believing that money is a resource you deserve, that having wealth does not take away from anyone else, and that it can be used, shared, and spread to uplift and empower others and transform the world.
Does thinking about money bring about fear, anger, resentment, anxiety, guilt, or shame? Does it also stir up your dreams, hopes, and desires? Do you feel that money robs you of the sense of control because it keeps you up at night, or feeds a sense of unfairness or failure because you cannot have what you desire? Do you despise and criticize wealthy people? Do you tend to hide the money you make or need to justify how you spend it? Do you feel that you’re a “good person” if you give and self-sacrifice, and “selfish” if you invest in yourself—in what makes you happy and promotes your self-growth?
Shift Your Perception to Increase Your Cash Flow
It is crucial to remove all the distorted beliefs about money to manifest abundance, not only because they’re not true, but also because they go against your true nature. We are not the physical body and senses, we are extensions of Divine Consciousness, which is abundant and ever-expanding. The more we grow, bringing in more life, more love, more truth, and more awareness for all, the further the Universe expands. It’s all a process of learning who we are through experience and moving forward on our journey of spiritual evolution.
The Universe is abundant. It doesn’t end with a few planets; it goes on and on, creating new galaxies, new solar systems, new life forms. Likewise, on this plane it manifests millions of flowers and colors and trees and species and physical and non-physical possibilities. Why is it that the Universe—which is essentially of the same nature as we are—is never-ending and expanding, and we humans continue to be trapped in the ideas of lack and poverty and suffering?
If you want to change your financial situation, you have to shift your awareness, bring light onto how you relate to abundance, and appreciate everything you are and everything you have.
- Catch and release your judgments about wealth and wealthy people.
- Give yourself what you want the Universe to give you more of.
- Trust that you will get what you need when you need it.
- Expect money and new opportunities for abundance.
- Know your stopping points and blind spots about money and abundance.
- Live more in gratitude and less focused on lack and fear.
- Be generous with what you have to offer.
- Let go of all preconceived ideas and open up to new possibilities!
We all have internal mechanisms to keep us within the boundaries of our conditioning and dysfunctional upbringing. These mechanisms prevent us from growing emotionally and from utilizing our full potential, because they are based on belief systems that create a false sense of self and maintain self-images that reinforce those mechanisms. It all works together very efficiently as the ego-mind. Every time we do something that goes against it, that is, that would set us free from our limiting beliefs and emotional habits, these internal mechanisms kick in and try to stop us.
Align With Your True Nature to Create an Abundant Life
A good analogy for one of these internal mechanisms is the cruise control that automatically controls the speed of a car. If you want to maintain a certain speed on the highway without pushing the gas pedal, you bring your speed up to a specific number and press the cruise control button to set it. Once you take your foot off the pedal, it makes your car move at that speed, no matter what. If you go uphill, the engine will push harder to prevent the car from slowing down, and if you’re going downhill, it will do the opposite to maintain the speed you set up.
You have a similar emotional cruise control that gets triggered when you want to change direction in life, or break free from the beliefs acquired during childhood—about money, abundance, love, relationships, success, joy, and most importantly, about yourself. What was the self-image (or identity) that made you feel closer to mom or dad, or part of the family? Or maybe you created and continue to cultivate a self-image that would maintain the illusion that those you love would love and accept you only if you behave a certain way? I’ve been there, and I know how hard it is to see those blind spots that act like a veil in our perception and prevent us from expanding and stretching beyond the same-old-same patterns.
Abundance does not come from people, but through people. It is the Feminine aspect of Divine Consciousness within. Consciousness manifests its infinite abundance through you and others, and it does not give exclusive rights to anyone in particular, because it is within the nature of all. Yet you can allow it into or reject it from your experience according to your beliefs and self-images—your mental and emotional habits and patterns. It manifests only according to what you are able to perceive and receive.
If you want more, it’s not enough to desire more; you also have to open up to more, become more, live up to more, and expect more. You have to up level your perception and resonate with abundance to create abundance. Remember, the Universe can only give you more of what you already give yourself because that’s what you are able to receive. Isn’t it time to stop giving yourself a sense of lack and anxiety about money and kindle the passion to go for what you truly desire?
If you are ready to break free from your limiting beliefs and discover the blind spots that prevent you from creating abundance doing what you love, as well as to transform the unconscious cruise control system that keeps bringing you back to the same place of lack (of money, love, support, relationships, success, and so on), contact me now to get started on a new journey toward a more conscious, creative, and abundant life!
If you are a conscious, creative and/or spiritual entrepreneur, visit my Conscious Business Coaching page to learn how I can help you overcome your stopping points and integrate all of who you are to create a unique and empowering business, from within.
© 2013 Yol Swan. All rights reserved.