Money and Spirituality_Part 1
Beliefs, Fallacies, Myths, Mindsets, Limitations and Breakthroughs
It is a common belief that money and spirituality do not go together. Many people believe that if you are in one of the helping professions, you should not be charging for your services because they are gifts from God and you cannot charge for whatever you have got as a God-given talent. Such beliefs and thinking continue to keep a lot of people consistently poor or at the limits of survival even when they are consistently utilizing their gifts and providing immense value to others.
The paradox is that when they are cultivating these gifts by learning, attending courses and seminars, and putting in massive amounts of time for practice and experience they invest heavily into the expansion of their skillset and into honing their craft!
Strangely enough, the idea does not apply to the journey of becoming a Wellness practitioner but it kicks in when a well-rounded practitioner starts utilizing their expertise.
Doctors of modern medicine who are also part of the helping professions, instead are allowed to charge exorbitant amounts for their work, especially as specialists. The taboo does not apply to them but to the practitioners of ‘traditional’ medicine or ‘healers’ who utilize traditional treatments, practices, herbal medicines, etc.
Whenever I learned something new, I used to do a lot of free sessions for individuals or classes in churches and community centers in order to gain practical experience and mastery. It was a win-win situation as I got to learn by teaching or got in good practice while the recipients of my services got free services and did benefit from them without having to invest in the services of a professional.
Later on, I became more experienced and rather good at what I did. Being used to giving out free sessions, there was always an inner dialogue about whether to charge money for my work or continue doing it for free. This is where I had to take a good hard look at my money beliefs.
My limitations and mindset regarding money began to surface and I had to ask myself how long was I going to continue ‘practicing as a hobby?’
Only then was I able to work on myself to eradicate deep-rooted beliefs. My inner dialogue went something along the lines of …
‘How can I charge money for helping people?’
‘How can I charge money for helping someone solve their issues?’
‘I am on a spiritual path, so how can I even ask for money? Won’t that be a contradiction?’
‘I haven’t charged so far; am I now truly good enough to go professional?’
Yet, I had invested enormous amounts of money, time, and energy into becoming the person who could help and guide others and I needed that money to live, pay the rent and utilities, buy food, travel, invest in further learning, and grow more.
I began to realize that I had to change my mindset and my own internal story. All this led to interesting discoveries of how our money beliefs operate in our lives and drive our choices!
What comes to mind when you think of money? Take a few moments and jot down your thoughts.
You must have surely heard some common sayings regarding wealth and money. Have you taken them at face value or have you ever stopped to wonder if these are actually true?
Now see the ones given below:
Money does not grow on trees? (As a child my answer to this was ‘It does, as it’s made of paper!’)
Money is dirty. (Really???)
People are filthy rich. (The idea of ‘filth’ attached to money!)
They have money because they don’t spend it! (The idea of being a hard-hearted miser attached to money!)
They exploit their workers, which is why they are so rich.
The rich are not kind-hearted and generous.
Rich people are not happy people. (This or that, a flawed concept of limitation)
The Lord loves the poor. (While those who say it loudest are often not poor from any point of view!)
Being poor is noble. (As above)
Money is the root of all evil. (They forgot to say it right…’ The love of money is the root… i.e. obsessive unhealthy attachment to money!)
Success will make you arrogant and then you will lose your friends. (Now, do you know any successful people who are NOT arrogant? I do!)
Once he/she/they became rich, they turned their back on others. (I know many people who generously contributed to great causes as soon as they had more to contribute)
There are a lot of similar commonly believed myths about money and wealth, even if untrue and downright absurd!
Money, like everything else, is an energy. It is a vibration, a frequency that we must match according to our goals and aspirations.
When we wish to become wealthier, we need to ensure that our own vibrations and frequency match those of wealth, of which money is one part.
Reverend Ike speaks about money as a beautiful woman who needs to be courted, respected, and maintained with reverence.
In India Goddess Laxmi is a personification of wealth. Like all other energies, wealth needs to flow, otherwise, it stagnates. Stagnation does not promote growth, and eventually, things begin to stink.
In order to attract and continue to have the presence of Goddess Laxmi in our lives, we must work on ourselves, our belief systems, and behavioural aspects related to wealth. It is easy to see this especially when people come into unexpected wealth and if they are not ready, they lose it fast. In fact, most lottery winners are bankrupt within two years because they did not upgrade themselves to somebody who knows how to manage wealth!
Also, Laxmi (wealth) will only come when we respect it, love it, and prepare ourselves to live with it. Not otherwise. If we internally hate money, if we think it is a crime to earn more money, if we have belief systems that are negative towards money and wealth then this energy evades us — and even if we get it, we won’t be able to retain it.
I learned to love money, respect it, and prepare myself to attract more of it without feeling that it was wrong. In the second part of this article, the link to which is given below, I share some concepts I learned:
https://medium.com/@tinasaxena/money-and-spirituality-part-2-cd41102c1c6f
