What does money mean for you?
I tell you what it means for me in the essay UNDERSTANDING MONEY - STORY OF A VILLAGE., It is a good place to start the conversation.
In my personal view, there is a call to responsibility about what money signifies globally. A call towards a much needed permission to non-adapting to the conventional norms.
The invitation of having a sincere relationship with money means, however, whatever it means for you, not for me. And I would love to hear what you have to say.
I would say, what about all this shame and guilt about money that we cover up with justifying stories? For example, the so-called law of reciprocity that we are supposed to enforce. 'If I give a good or service you're supposed to pay me back its fair price, there is a "universal law" that says that'. That way, perhaps I can charge you money and avoid feeling guilt or shame. (Like Elsy Abundance in the post The Marriage of Abundance and Sufficiency). But maybe those emotions, or others, are just hidden under the carpet. They are not really managed properly.
What about voicing our lack of confort that we may or may not feel when we see that in order to make money we have to extract it from others, and ultimately extract it from the very gift of life?
Thus, a sincere relation with money demands truly feeling everything one feels about it.
And then, there is nothing to worry about. In oneness, there is no right and wrong separation.
Aren't you tired of having in your life the necessity to worry about money first? For example, if you have a dream, before doing anything about it, you have to, supposedly, check if you can afford it and/or figure out the way to fund it.
Aren't you tired of doing that everyday? When you choose where to eat, in every decision!
What if a mentality of scarcity, of "how much I'm left with" (that is, if I have x and spend y I'm left with x-y), reproduces scarcity?
What if we develop a well designed plan to make money abundantly, precisely because we have that mentality of scarcity? What will really be the results: abundance or scarcity?
And recall, reality is not to be defined by what is convenient to my agenda. "The universe is too promiscuous to abide faithful to any one conception of it" (Bayo Akomolafe). So actually Elsy Abundance does make a lot of money by adjusting well to [a profoundly sick] society. But at what cost? Is that truly abundance?
Would you share your thoughts or feelings about money in this category?
This is good stuff! I see a huge correlation between this "scarcity" mentality and the relative low percentage of people that choose a heart-centered path in life. When we see life as basically reduced to finding a way to pay the bills until we die, we then feel financial and spiritual scarcity. But when we are open to following our hearts first, trusting that abundance will accompany it, then our relationship with money begins to change. I do however feel that there is a collective awakening of the conscience that is beginning to emerge on our planet. More and more people are beginning to let go of this old story of societally-imposed limitations. That's why your work is very important. People are in desperate need of mentors and guides who are able to lift some of the clouds that surround their own ability to see just how interconnected their own life choices are with the macro picture.
😜