Prosperity and the Human Need for Connection
A long time ago, I realized that one of the main emotions that people act out through their money is the feeling of aloneness, which I described in Build Your Money Muscles and the Letting Go of Your Aloneness CD.
The reason lies in the fact that money is a symbol of relationships. How much money you draw in is related to how connected you feel to others. When you think you need more money, you actually need more people because money is always attached people.
The feeling that you get when you crave more money is really the feeling of aloneness or loneliness. What you’re craving is connection. Continue reading
Rethinking Affirmations and Treasure Maps
Do you do affirmations in order to manifest love, money, or something you want? Have you done a treasure map with pictures of what you’re hoping to achieve?
Lots of people have done both of these activities, only to be disappointed in the results. This can lead to feelings of failure, inadequacy, or not being loved. Perhaps it’s time to rethink the message that affirmations and treasure maps are a path to material satisfaction.
Over the past few months, I have been examining a lot of the messages that those of us on the personal growth and development path have been hearing — or teaching. It seems to me that a lot of what has been taught can be classified as fantasy. A big aha moment for me came when I heard that John Assaraf, one of the stars in the movie The Secret, who touted the positive value of treasure maps, was going bankrupt.
Here are some of the thoughts I’d like to share with you: Continue reading
Practical Action Versus Fantasy Thinking
Feelings of powerlessness and fear about the future often cause people to retreat into inaction. At the same time, denial about the reality of current world economic conditions can cause both job seekers and business owners to hold onto the dream that the world of commerce is going to return to what it was before the recession.
Holding onto this dream often prevents people from finding innovative financial solutions. Economic recovery is going to be a slow and lengthy process, but that doesn’t mean that you have to suffer.
There are proactive steps you can take to protect yourself and develop comfortable streams of income. Here are some ideas: How to succeed, make more money, website basics
1. Rethink your career or business.
If your job hunting has yielded few results, you may need to seek employment in a new field, which may require retraining. While you’re waiting for employment, you might also consider starting a modest business for yourself. In both cases, you will have to spend either time or money learning new skills. Here’s where you get to choose between practical action and fantasy thinking.
If you have a business now and your income has decreased, as it has for many, than it’s imperative that you cut costs and rethink your product and services mix as well as your pricing. People who succeed in this economy are those who are flexible and creative about what they have to offer and the marketing methods they are using. Continue reading
The Value of Detachment
Detachment is sometimes thought of as a negative emotional state, and in some cases it is, especially when a person is unable to connect to or empathize with others. Yet detachment can also be part of a positive state of being when it allows you to be totally present with others without “taking on” their emotions. In this case, you can be both detached and empathetic.
Detachment from desire is a principal idealize in a number of religions including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Taoism, the Baha’i faith, and others. Each religion provides its own twist on the value of detachment, but all teach that detachment leads to freedom.
For surviving current world conditions in a healthy and productive way, detachment can prove to be a valuable skill. Detachment allows you to observe and evaluate current conditions then make conscious decisions as to what action you wish to take. Those decisions, will determine how well you thrive. Continue reading
Using Financial Fear As a Positive Force
Last week, I was at a networking meeting attended by a number of consultants who work with high-level managers. One of the consultants, whose clients are mostly successful entrepreneurs, mentioned that fear was prevalent among his clients because of the current economic uncertainty. I was surprised to hear that this group shared the same kind of financial fear experienced by so many workers around the world.
A number of my high net worth friends have also shared with me that they have fears about their financial future. Wealth, it appears, is no barrier to emotional discomfort.
Is fear creeping into your thoughts about your financial position? Or perhaps it has become one of your main emotions.
Fear run amok is likely to lead you to make unsound decisions about your finances and other aspects of your life, such as taking on too much debt or arranging a high-risk mortgage.. It also has a detrimental effect on your health because of the ongoing adrenal responses stimulated by fear. Continue reading
Thriving in The New Economy
I hear a lot of people saying that they are having a hard time financially because the economy is so “bad.” The question is, is the economy bad or is it just different? I think it’s different, and waiting for it to return to what was before the recession is an exercise in futility.
Yes, it’s frustrating that, statistically, income levels for all but the highest earners are stagnating or dropping. But that doesn’t mean you can’t thrive financially in this economy, which is likely to remain stagnant for a long time.
To succeed, there are steps you can take to proactively shift how you generate income and how you manage what you generate. Here are some suggestions: Continue reading
Prosperity Tip: What Are You Feeling?
Anyone who follows the news these days can get the feeling that the whole world is falling apart. And maybe it is!
With protests, corruption, drug-gang violence, severe state and national budget cuts, rising gas and food prices, an unstable job market, so-called leaders acting like children, and seemingly endless extreme weather events forefront in the news, it’s no wonder that people are feeling anxious, overwhelmed, depressed, powerless, and concerned about the future.
Many people are either out of work or only a paycheck away from financial disaster. Even those with what used to feel financially secure are beginning to worry about the future of their investments.
Here’s what’s happening:
It’s not the whole world that is falling apart, but rather systems that have outlived their usefulness. As the old systems decay and new begin to form, the foundations of society are in turmoil We are in that place between the old and new that doesn’t have clear form or definition.
The Egyptian Crisis and Your Finances
There is no doubt that many factors such as income inequity between rich and poor, high unemployment, rising food prices, and suppression by autocratic governments are contributing to the growing unrest in the Middle East that is likely to spread from country to country.
Because the unrest may be far away from where you live, you may not think that it’s going to affect you, but it will. All countries are now connected, especially economically, and what happens in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, and other countries will eventually affect the economies of seemingly stable countries.
I watched a program about the Middle East crisis on CNBC Sunday night and they talked a lot about the effect of the crisis on various currencies. What was really interesting, was the fact that at the time of the 2007 revolt in Myanmar, the value of their currency tanked and savvy investors put money into the country. With the return of some stability, these investors have now realized profits of about 400%. In other words revolutions are profitable.
How Hidden Anger Hurts You Financially
Linda R. is on a conscious spiritual path and views anger as a “negative” emotion. When anger does bubble up, she’ll meditate until it passes or she uses one of the energy psychology techniques, such as Be Set Free Fast to alter her emotional state.
Most people who know her think Linda is nice and would never guess that she’s holding on to a lot of anger. Even Linda doesn’t recognize this habitual feeling.
However, by examining her finances, it’s clear that Linda is expressing her anger through self-directed passive aggressive behavior. Here’s why:
Every few months, Linda finds herself in a difficult financial position, so she does a lot of affirmations while praying that she’ll have enough money to pay her rent. She shares a story of her troubles with her landlord, hoping for his understanding and willingness to wait for the rent.
Eventually, she earns just enough through her coaching practice or borrows money from her parents, and pays the rent. This pattern has been going on for years.
Linda’s tardy rent paying is a subtle way of controlling both her landlord’s and parent’s emotions, a classic sign of passive aggressive behavior. In the end, her pattern frustrates her landlord and parents while causing her to feel guilt and shame.
Because she suffers as a result of her passive aggressive behavior, it can be classified as self-directed.
The Anger-Money Connection
Because our life stories are fueled by our emotions , the path to prosperity requires recognizing the emotions that may be interfering with our progress, expressing them, and replacing them with new emotional habits.
In the past, I’ve examined at depth shame and aloneness, and for the last year, I’ve really been looking at anger and its effect on finances. Now, I’m ready to share what I’ve learned.
Anger is a complex emotion that finds many different avenues of expression. The obvious expression of anger is what we usually think of as rage. But the form of anger that is most often expressed through finances is passive aggressive behavior, which is often difficult to recognize and release.
However, I can assure you that underearning, debting, compulsive shopping, late bill paying, financial vagueness, and other behaviors frequently have anger as a motivating force. Continue reading
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