A while ago, I met a new colleague who is a renowned energy healer and muscular therapist in my area. We chatted about everything under the sun and moon, and also explored the commonly-held view that "money is a distraction from our soul's work." This view -- that money and financial comfort and security take us away from a soul-filled life -- is held by millions of people today in the U.S. and beyond. I've thought hard about this concept, and completely and utterly disagree with it.
In our culture, people believe that if you're artist or do deeply creative work, or if you're soul-aligned in your professional endeavors, you will inevitably struggle financially, and that there is a "rightness" to that struggle. In other words, it is believed that if you're rolling in money, and money flows easily to you, then you're not spiritually evolved.
I don't share these beliefs. But so many people have bought into these misguided views for so long that we have collectively created an outer reality that supports them. Just because we see scarcity and lack among many who are engaged in spiritual or creative work doesn't make these concepts "true."
I believe, instead, that money can help us become all we wish to be if we connect to it with our hearts and minds, if we approach it with eyes wide open and if we are willing to create a balanced money relationship that supports our growth. I've witnessed in my career coaching work with women to transform their lives and work that there are healing properties in earning, growing and managing your money more successfully, and I've seen too that consciously working with the energy of money helps you:
1)Hone the professional "chops" you need to do your soul's work
2)Learn what is required to be fairly and well compensated for your work
3)Clarify exactly what's important to you and bring your priorities and values forward
4)Discover where you are powerful (internally and externally) and where you are not. (To learn more about your "power gaps" and how to overcome them, download my free homework tool "Assessing and Closing Your Power Gaps" from the Amazing Career Project).
5)Grow, stretch and expand to new levels
6)Develop stronger boundaries and speak up to protect yourself against those who would tear you down
7)Identify exactly what your talents and gifts are, and who you want to share them with
8)Overcome your obstacles to self-love and self-acceptance
9)Take powerful forward-moving action even amidst fear and insecurity
10)Step up to embracing the most passionate, powerful and purposeful version of you that you can create
So the next time someone tells you that there's a rightness to your financial hardship and offers it to you as a medal of your spiritual purity, I'd ask yourself this: "Am I buying into the false belief that money is a distraction from my true purpose and work?"
Shifting away from that constrained viewpoint that money is negative or tainted is a powerful success step that will transform your life and career. Explore where you resist the notion that it is possible to feel spiritually fulfilled and enlivened while making great money.
Perhaps 2013 will be the year we pave the way for a new reality that is much more about ease, fulfillment, and self-actualization than our current thinking allows.
I'd LOVE your comments on this issue. Is money a distraction from your soul's work or is it a tool to help you uplift and expand yourself to be of service in new, fulfilling and exciting ways?