4.
In a mystical experience I had several years ago, I saw the flow of money from a bird’s eye view. I had long struggled in relation to earning money and building wealth the way I desired, and wanted to understand how this could continue to happen even though I was putting all my effort into earning money and building success.
Whether you believe in mystical experiences or not, I invite you to read the following description and observe your reaction to it.
My perspective zoomed out to a bird’s eye viewof the world and I started to see the flow of money and wealth in the world.
Money was flowing as wages from employers to employees, money was flowing as payment between customers and businesses, moneywas flowing as loans and repayments, income, gifts, windfalls, royalties, dividends….
Nothing was standing still; all money was in motion, moving from one person or entity to the next.
Wealth and prosperity revealed themselves in so many different forms; there was gold, silver and precious metals, there were jewels, investments and of course an abundance of love, health, connection and spirituality.
Then I started to see where the flow of wealth was blocked. In some cases it was literally re-routed around people or entities, even returned to the sender. Clearly there were people, businesses and institutions that were energetically rejecting the flow of abundance that was coming their way, either consciously or unconsciously.
Butthose who had cleared all the blocks and made very specific requests received what they had asked for and even more.
After this experience, which was combined with a load of other processes and clearing, I noticed a shift in perception.
I started to see whether people wanted to have money and wealth in their lives, or whether they simply said they wanted it but were unconsciously blocking it. After this experience, a lot of my negative judgments around having or receiving money vanished.
Here is a short story of how your perception of the world around you influences how you experience abundance, or a lack thereof.
There was a wealthy man who wanted to educate his son on money and help him appreciate how wealthy they were in comparison to other people. So he took his son to stay with a poor, rural family.
When they were on the way back to their home in the city, he asked his son. “Son, what have you learnt from this week?”
The son was quiet for a moment and said.
“We have a dog at our house, they have four dogs.
We have a pool that reaches half way through our garden, they have a creek that has no end.
We have a big backyard, they have a whole forest.
We have lanterns in our garden, they have a sky full of stars that shine for them every night.
We buy our food in the supermarket, they grow all their food from the soil they live on.
We have walls to protect ourselves, they have friends to protect them.
We have servants to serve us, they serve others.
Thank you Dad, for showing me how poor we are.”
When I first heard this story, it really touched my heart because I could see how my perception of what I saw to be wealth, and how I wanted wealth to come into my life, was not aligned to my spiritual values. Something was in conflict and this story really brought it home to me.
Personal Story: Nothing to Wear!
A few years ago, during a time where I was becoming more aware of how my perception and my beliefs towards money were influencing my experience, I was preparing to go to a networking event to promote the online marketing business I was running at the time.
A few days earlier I had taught a course on spirituality and wealth but I still felt that the wealth, and especially money, in my life was evading me. My perception of life was still one of lack, of “not enough” and I was desperately trying to manifest bouts of abundance to get me out of the perceived lack of prosperity.
So, I was getting ready for this event. Most women, and some men, know what it feels like to look into your closet and feel as if you have nothing to wear. Things look old, are not appropriate to the event, you think the pieces don’t fit together or you simply don’t like what is there. That is how I mostly felt when I was looking into my closet trying to put an outfit together.
Well, on this particular day, the opposite happened! All of a sudden I wanted to wear every piece of clothing in my closet. Each item looked so beautiful that I couldn’t wait to wear it. I was in pure wonder and amazement of all these beautiful things that I had the honour to wear. Just a day earlier I had looked at the very same closet and the very same clothes with disappointment and frustration telling myself I had nothing to wear.
That’s a difference a simple shift in consciousness can make, and it affects so much more than just the money in your life!
In my journey of trying to find this alignment and bring my life into balance, I have come to use the four spheres of life as a reference point. I especially like this model because it reminds me that all spheres are equally important and should be paid attention to.
The Physical/Material Sphere includes our body and health, material possessions and money.
The Mental Sphere includes our thoughts and beliefs, our programs and conditioning that drive us through life.
The Emotional Sphere includes the emotions that we experience on a daily basis, often based on relationships and our social network, or triggered through beliefs or programs of our mental sphere.
The Spiritual Sphere is based on our vision for our life, our soul’s Higher Purpose and our connection to our Higher Self.
When we want to make a change in life, we usually need to draw on all four spheres for permanent change to occur.
It usually doesn’t work for a smoker to say “I’m going to quit smoking tomorrow.” We need mental strength,emotional and spiritual support to achieve this physical goal.
In this example, this might be how someone could align all four spheres to achieve their goal of not smoking:
Physical/Material Sphere: Creating a daily routine that supports your vision, finding physical distractions when you are tempted to smoke (for example going for a run, calling a friend, physically going to an environment where you can’t smoke).
Mental Sphere: Focus, discipline, visualisations, changing hindering beliefs or programs through NLP, hypnosis or other techniques
Emotional Sphere: Support from your partner, friends, family and peers.
Spiritual Sphere: Support from your vision for your life and your connection to your Higher Self.
This exercise helps you to become more familiar with the four spheres of life.
1. To become more familiar with the 4 spheres of life, write down 3 associations for each sphere
Physical / Material Sphere
(Example associations: exercise, nutrition, possessions, material desires, material wealth)
Mental Sphere
(Example associations: Beliefs about physical health, your body, wealth, money. Conditioning such as avoiding risks, not wanting to take responsibility, or taking your fate into your own hands.)
Emotional Sphere
(Example associations: What emotions do you experience often joy or happiness, or sadness and depression? What is your social support network through your relationships like?
Spiritual Sphere
(Example associations: Do you have a spiritual practice such as meditation, or a connection or belief in a Higher Purpose? Do you have a vision for your lfie? What is this vision fueled by?)
2. Write down one aspect of each of the 4 spheres of life that you feel you need to pay more attention to.
Physical / Material Sphere
Mental Sphere
Emotional Sphere
Spiritual Sphere
Since starting my spiritual journey in 2008, I have experienced a constant push and pull between the spiritual and material worlds. There have been plenty of times where I went too far down one side, just for life to push me back towards the middle – and sometimes in a rude shock!
In 2008 I started working as a freelancer and in 2009 started my own business. Some months the business was going extremely well and I was earning more than $10,000 per month – this had been my ultimate goal and was way more than I could have ever imagined earning for myself. I was rewarding myself for all the hard work I had put in and I felt as if I had finally made it.
Yet, deep down inside I wasn’t feeling good. Something was off. And at the end of each month there wasn’t much money left. Where had it all gone? I had no idea! I was consciously AND unconsciously avoiding looking into the finances of my business, although I knew,that clearly something wasn’t right. After a few high rolling months, business went down dramatically.
What happened?
In hindsight,I can see that I was sabotaging myself. My beliefs weren’t aligned and I felt that I was constantly working against the tide. Like the Greek myth in which Sisyphus constantly rolls the rock up the hill, only to watch it roll down again and repeat the whole process. The energy required to keep the money flowing in was just too much. I felt burnt out and frustrated the whole time, even though I had achieved my goal.
These are some of the beliefs that severely affected me at the time:
I struggled with that business for about three years. Sometimes there were financial struggles, sometimes there were mental and emotional struggles. I finally had the courage to close it down, knowing that it was not aligned with what I wanted to do with my life.
Although it was difficult to let go of everything that I had worked so hard for, I learned some big lessons. I learned what I loved doing and what I didn’t love. I learned when to say YES to my dreams, and NO to others’. I learned to prioritise and most of all, I was confronted with all of my money and financial blocks.
In my opinion, it is absolutely important to balance the material and spiritual worlds we live in. They are two halves of the whole and they belong together.
Those focusing mainly on the material world often face a burnout syndrome. Whether they achieve material or financial success or not, many people who only focus on the financial and material worlds suffer from depression, a lack of purpose or an empty feeling inside, once they have reached their goal.
On the other hand, if you focus exclusively on your spirituality, it is likely you will become frustrated with the lack of security and certainty in the material world and your finances. Many people who focus too much on this half of the whole, experience so much resentment for material possessions and wealth. Not only would this resentment end up in financial and material uncertainty, but it would likely also cause a block in your spiritual growth at some stage.
So, it is important for us to remember that the material and spiritual worlds go hand in hand. Fulfilling our dreams and desires, combined with a vision for our life, will be richly rewarding and fulfilling.
To have more wealth in our lives, we must increase our wealth consciousness. This happens in two stages.
Firstly we need to clear all the blockages that keep wealth and abundance from flowing to us. This could be negative beliefs, programs, hurts in our relationships or even Karma from past lives. Relating this clearing to the 4 spheres of life, you can see that this clearing happens mainly on the mental and emotional levels.
Once we have emptied out all the blockages, we need to fill up our wealth consciousness. This happens on the spiritual level, through our vision for our life and our connection to our Higher Self.
We all know people who are trying so hard, who have all the knowledge and even all the skills. Yet they are still frustrated and disappointed and cannot reach the goals they have set themselves.
I was one of them for a long time, until I started walking my own path, doing what seemed right and natural to me. I also started inquiring into my thoughts and underwent many processes to change hindering beliefs and programming that were blocking my experience of wealth and abundance.
The combination of these two things has changed my life. It is not like everything is easy now, but I know that I can face whatever happens. I have a vision to fulfill and I look forward to each step that gets me closer to fulfilling that vision.
Of course that doesn’t mean that I am now successful at everything that I do, or that I reach every goal that I set. Not at all. But it does mean that I see my life and creating wealth and abundance as a journey, as an opportunity for growth, learning and experience.
Please be aware that I am recounting financial blocks on the mental, emotional and spiritual levels here. It is also possible that there is simply a lack of knowledge or a lack of financial literacy (this would be a block on the physical/material level if you are relating it to the four spheres model we used above). I will address financial knowledge and literacy and share some great resources in the second part of this book.
There are many negative beliefs and personal charges we carry around money and wealth.
As I continue to grow spiritually, professionally and financially, I continue to discover new and different blocks and challenges. At the moment I am going through a phase of professional reorientation and I am sure this reorientation will bring a lot of opportunities to clear blocks and take the belief in myself, my passion, my contribution and my finances to a new level.
Here is an example of a common belief that could be blocking your financial success: fear of failure
This is very common with people who don’t ever starta newproject, or don’t bring it to conclusion. In contrast, other people are afraid of their project being a success. Some extraordinarily messed up people (like me!) have a fear of failure AND a fear of success. Whoah! There is a lot of clearing for you right there!
The first step is to become aware of the belief that is blocking you. Fear of failure or success can be absolutely terrifying and stun you to the extent that you cannot move or continue on a project. So how do you get around it?
To resolve this block, you would need to reframe your definitions of success or failure. One of my blocks in finishing a book was a fear that I could not finish it. Another block was that it would be a success. Either way, I was screwed! With the help of a friend who is a great coach, we reframed my motivation for writing.
My new stance: “Every page I write is a success!”
My motivation: I write as a form of therapy to process my experiences, and to solidify the knowledge that I have already learned.
Since then, writing has become a lot easier (and you are reading the proof right here on your screen). Of course I still have writer’s block sometimes, but with awareness and being gentle with myself I can move through the beliefs to continue working.
The beliefs we hold around money, wealth and success control our lives –either constructively or destructively. In order to attract wealth in your life (or love, joy, health, whatever else you want), you need to have the right belief system that supports your vision.
Here are some common negative beliefs around money:
If any of the above beliefs are deep rooted in you, it will be difficult for money to come to you in abundance.
In contrast, here are some positive beliefs around money:
Now, beliefs are an interesting thing. As long as negative beliefs are deeply rooted inside of us, it will be difficult for money to come to you in abundance, even if you try to think positively, do incantations, visualisations, and every other “Law of Attraction” tip out there.
Beliefs are in our mental sphere. However, it is not as easy as just changing your thinking. The roots of a belief are so deep, that they go beyond your conscious thinking and beyond the words you use. Often our beliefs are from our childhood and upbringing and so they have had years to influence us and grow their roots.
How do you change them? The first step is always awareness. Becoming aware of your beliefs and how they influence you. The second step could be working with a coach or undergoing another process where you can access the unconscious and change your beliefs.
1. These exercises help you to become aware of your beliefs around money and wealth.
2. Without thinking or preparation, write down the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about money and wealth.
3. Write down at least one positive belief you have about money and finances.
4. Write down at least one negative belief you have about money.
5. Watch your words: what statements and words do you use when talking about money and wealth?
A program is like a belief and its consequences on repeat. For example, you might have a belief that money does not stay with you.The resulting program is that as soon as you earn money, it disappears again. You might spend it, it might be taken from somebody else, you might lose money or you might give it away. But in whatever form, the money does not stay with you.
The belief happens on the mental sphere. The program is the consequence of the belief in the physical/material sphere. In this instance the belief: “Money does not stay with me” results in the money not staying with you (Duh!).
A program is not always and obviously connected to a belief. It could also be connected to past experiences in your life. In some countries, like India, they believe programs can also result from past life charges, curses or connections to your ancestors.
Whatever the root is, if you observe a pattern repeating in your life, it is likely to be a program.
Similar to changing a negative belief, the first step in changing a negative program is awareness. Sometimes simple awareness is enough and once you are aware of the program it might lose its power. If not,you could undergo processes or coaching to clear the program so you can experience life freely.
Real Life Story
A friend had been in several relationships where her partner ended up taking her money. She is a genuinely generous person and when someone asked her for help she could not say no.
If someone asked her for money and if she had money available to help them, she would always give it. But in her case, all the relationships ended without her getting any of her money back. After several of these situations, including a divorce where she left all the assets to her former husband, she became very aware and wary of this program that kept repeating itself.
She has undergone several processes to help her change this program. Whether the program is now gone remains to be seen!
1. Write down any experiences with money or wealth that have repeated themselves in the same or similar way.
2. Are there any experiences that repeat in your family?
Energetic blocks are an interesting topic and much discussed by people who want to find scientific proof for everything. I don’t know whether energetic blocks can be proven, let alone whether it can be proven that they affect your finances.
However, based on my own experience, when my relationships improve and I feel (energetically) aligned with my vision and what I do in life, my financial situation improves.
Let’s see it like this. If any of your relationships are not set right, you will likely feel it in the rest of your life. Holding a grudge, blaming, being angry with someone, feeling guilty, all of these emotions take up enormous energy. You will notice that when you feel so-called negative emotions, you will often feel tired, depressed, disconnected. That takes up even more energy! (And it also affects your body!).
When a relationship is deeply affected by hurt on either side, it can be like a piece of fruit that has become moldy – soon the pieces next to it become moldy as well. That is why you want to start to set right your relationships as soon as possible – it will make you feel more aligned, happier with yourself, more at peace, more present in the moment. And it will help the energy of abundance and money to flow your way!
The two most important relationships to set right are the relationships with your parents and the relationship with your spouse or partner.
Relationships with your Parents
The relationship with your parents (or the people who raised you) is your primary relationship. A lot of beliefs and programs come from the interaction with your parents and most of your later relationships are in some way, consciously or unconsciously, modeled them on the relationships with your parents.
Folklore in India even has it that if your relationship with your father is not set right, you will experience financial problems. If the relationship with your mother is not set right, you will experience unnecessary obstacles.
Relationship with your Spouse
The relationship with your spouse or partner is the relationship you spend most of your time in, if you are an adult. On top of that, our intimate relationships have the tendency to bring out our most vulnerable aspects. In many spiritual traditions, we speak of our spouse or partner as our mirror – it can be either our mirror from heaven or our mirror from hell!
When there is unhappiness or hurt, whether consciously or unconsciously, it creates a lot of negative energy and emotion in your relationship. As you spend most of your time in this relationship, it is likely that you will experience this negative energy and emotion every day. This could relate to specific money-related issues in your relationship, or any other general unhappiness or hurt that you may experience.
Being in such negativity can create obstacles to success, wealth and abundance in your life.
Once again, the first step to clearing these energetic blocks is to become aware of them. It is especially helpful to become aware of the state of your relationships. When I first did this exercise and thought about the relationship to my husband, I became painfully aware that I was resentful towards his financial goals and his work and that I was unconsciously sabotaging him.
There are many forms of coaching, workshops and other processes you can undergo to set right the relationships in your life. Even though it may be painful, I can highly recommend it from personal experience and the experience of many workshop attendees and clients.
1. How is your financial situation? Is it going up, down, or sideways?
2. How is your relationship with your parents?
3. How is your relationship with your spouse?
4. Is there anyone in your life who is not supportive of your financial and material goals (including maybe a part of yourself)?