Healing Money Wounds

We all have money wounds – have you noticed?

Often we think we’re the only ones. If we feel inadequate about money – as many people do, especially women – we generally keep it to ourselves.

Money is one of the main things people feel shame about, and naturally we hide that shame. We all tend to think everyone else has it together, and we’re the only ones “pretending.”

Actually, our culture is wounded about money, so how could we not be?

Most of our wounding we inherit from our families, often passed along from one generation to the next. We absorb pain and anxiety about money as we grow up, maybe hearing our parents fight about it, or being scolded for wanting something they can’t afford.”I’m not made of money,” I used to hear as a child.”Money doesn’t grow on trees.”

Or maybe it’s the opposite problem. Perhaps we were indulged and given too much by our parents, who either lived on credit cards, or were determined to give their children everything they had lacked. Either way, we wind up not knowing the value of money, perhaps even feeling weakened, not developing the muscles of self-reliance that come  from making one’s own way. By being given too much, we have been robbed of something essential we truly need – our own strength and confidence.

There are so many wounds around money. Some of them are universal. Nearly everyone in our culture believes that they don’t have enough – even rich people feel this way, I’m told. And the more you have, the more you can fear losing.

Even though the saying goes that “money can’t buy happiness,” we act as though it can. And we’re encouraged by the media to want more, to crave things, to engage in a feeding frenzy of acquiring.

We’re taught to measure ourselves and value our worth by our money and material goods, and to compare ourselves to others. Our insecurities are exploited by advertisers to get us to spend money to feel better about ourselves. Hence money becomes equated with what will heal our ills, what will fill our lacks. By this very function of money, it becomes associated with our woundedness.

And the spiritual creative types among us, who reject material values, are just as wounded. We suffer deprivation, feel disempowered, and often lack the respect that our more outwardly successful neighbors get.

None of this is our fault. We can’t help being conditioned by the world we live in. It’s hard to find the right balance, to achieve a healthy relationship with money in our culture.

What is needed is a balance of the spiritual and the material, an awareness of gratitude for all that we have, and a dedication to serve the world in the ways our soul came here to do – and to be recompensed for our service.

Humanity is growing and changing. Our relationship to money, both individually and culturally, collectively, are among the focal points of that change.

What will the new world look like in regard to money? The decisions we make today in our awareness, our actions, and our relationships, are contributing right now to that new world!  What choices are you making? How would you like the new world to look? What choices can you make to create greater health and balance in the all-pervasive area of money in our lives?

Are You Living A SECRET LIFE?

Did you ever have a film crew invade your home? Well, I just had that experience.

Last weekend 20th Century Fox took over my Upper Manhattan street with movie trucks, trailers, and a swarm of intensely focused people.

They were filming The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, with Sean Penn and Ben Stiller (no, I didn’t see either of them). It’s based on a short story that you may have read in high school, about a man who seeks escape from his humdrum existence with fantasies of derring-do in which he casts himself as the hero.

In James Thurber’s amusing tale, Walter Mitty is as ineffectual in real life as he is heroic in his daydreams.

This got me thinking about the role of fantasy in my own life. 

It’s hard to admit, but I often have a tendency to project my plans and visions onto the future. The result is that I feel inspired and optimistic, while keeping my dreams safely at a distance. I can convince myself this future will come to pass, but for now I don’t have to take action.

It’s as though creating the vision and feeling the excitement is enough. And besides, I get so many great ideas – which one should I pursue?

Does this ever happen to you? Do you, like me, sometimes find it easier to think, plan, vision and dream than to act?

I think this is true of many creative people. And a lot of entrepreneurs, too. We come up with idea after idea. We open ourselves to inspiration and receive amazing “spiritual downloads.” But we may not be so grounded in the physical realm. It’s often easier and more fun to stay “up there” – am I right?

It’s only recently that I started using the word “fantasy” for this tendency I have.“Fantasy” does not have as nice a connotation as “vision” or “inspiration.” But if the vision never takes form, while I keep convincing myself I will do it soon, then it could be called a fantasy.

When I first confronted myself with this word, it stung a little. But it also brought much-needed clarity to something I had not been looking at.

I don’t want my creative visions to be my “secret life” – do you?  I don’t want to pretend to myself I’m really “going to do it,” all the while avoiding the real life risks that I’m afraid of. That fear is one of the largest factors in keeping action frozen and allowing fantasy to lull me into false complacency.

If you have a “secret life,” it may mean you have visions you’ve not known how to bring into manifestation. It may mean you don’t believe you can stretch that far, and be the person you’d have to be to live them. It may mean that your inner desires are at odds with your image of yourself or what you, or anyone you know, has done so far.

Your secret life may be a dream you haven’t ever spoken to another soul. Maybe you’ve not even fully admitted it to yourself – yet.

Moving from dreams to creating a new reality is not so easy. I won’t pretend it is. But here’s what I know: you CAN truly become the hero or heroine of your own life. It’s a process and there are steps. 

The most important steps are identifying your vision, knowing what actions to take, and starting to take them. 

For that it helps a whole lot to have someone to guide you, to hold your hand, and to believe in your vision... to believe in you even more than you believe in yourself!

If you want to stop living a SECRET LIFE and start manifesting your dreams right here, right now, give me a call. It’s on me.

By the way,  I am currently offering a trio of sessions to help you identify your Vision  – and to look at the first steps you need to take to make it a reality.

You can find out more by clicking on this link:
http://www.yourtimetobloom.com/springspecial/

What Does It Take to Succeed? The 3 Keys of Success.

 

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it takes to succeed. Perhaps you have too.

And I’ve come to certain conclusions. Some I’ve known for a long time, some are new awarenesses. I want to share some of these with you now.

 

Here are the basics:

  • Purpose. When you connect to the deepest motivation of your being, the thing you were born to do, to be, to give – you actually turn on the power source within you that will propel you forward beyond all obstacles. When you really “get” what your inner purpose is, and say Yes to it, you will start the process of aligning your energy, heart, mind, and actions around that forward momentum, to become unstoppable. When your actions line up with your soul’s reason for taking form, doors  open  for you, synchronicities show up, and your path is made clear. Because your soul is on board, the spiritual realms open up to help you. It’s a magical experience!
  • Clearing Blocks. However, most of us have all kinds of resistance, fears, doubts, hesitations, or reasons why we think we can’t or shouldn’t go forward, even if we know our purpose. We make things hard for ourselves. We each have our personal bag of “stuff” that we drag around with us, that defines who we think we are. Our “stuff” keeps us stuck in the same old place no matter how much we try to change. If we do not do the work to clear those blocks, we will continue to walk in circles, in our familiar limited patterns. The good news is, it is possible to clear them – if you know how.
  • Vision Plan. Once you know your purpose and clear your blocks, you need a concrete vision to bring into manifestation. You must take the high inspiration of your purpose and ground it in reality, by seeing the possibilities for living it in the world. From those possibilities, you must identify and choose the one that calls to you most, commit to it, and start taking actions. This is where you shift from Inner to Outer Action. And once you commit to engaging in action, there are pathways to follow and secrets to learn. The main secret that I have learned is this: Don’t give up!

Those are the Big Three, the central Keys to Success. Without any of them, you won’t get very far. Without clearing your blocks, you will continually stumble. Without a clear vision and plan, you won’t have a map or a destination. And without aligning with what your soul is here to do, you may achieve surface success, but it won’t be satisfying.

There are many other specifics that may be relevant to your personal success. For me, some of them have been deciding that it’s really okay to live on the Earth plane, and being willing to cooperate with the laws of physical reality  – for instance, those irksome limits of time and space. That includes clearing clutter, keeping agreements with myself, showing up in a responsible way.

For you those particulars may be different. We each have our history, our self-images, our lifelong limiting beliefs, and they all come up to be worked on and cleared when our goal is to bring our purpose and vision into manifestation. In fact, there is no more intense or accelerated path to self-growth and personal transformation – I highly recommend it!

Another thing I highly recommend for each of those steps is that you have a guide or wise companion. The habits of the ego will just not let us take certain steps if left to our familiar self.

I would love to be your guide on your journey towards inner and outer success.

If you would like to engage in a process of discovery to see where you are in relation to the Big Three – give me a call and we can talk – for free. You can easily contact me here.

11-11-11 is here!

Today is an auspicious date: 11-11-11!


There has been much anticipation of this date and the new era it may herald. The triple “master number”  (11 being an important master number in numerology), along with other influences, signifies to many a turning point, a portal to a new dimension. I have heard this date described as a gateway, an initiation, a quickening on the way to the ascension of 2012.

Are we really receiving an influx of energy, to lift us to a higher frequency? I believe that is definitely happening in an ongoing way, but is there something special about today, 11-11-11? Is this the beginning of a New Age?

I don’t pretend to know the answer, but there’s one significance of special dates such as this that I really appreciate: they are focal points for collective awareness

There is much power in pooling human consciousness towards a common goal, much as rays of light become aligned, from diffusion into a single laser beam. It is a way of manifesting the oneness that we all are feeling more and more, and which 11-11-11 is calling us to remember and honor.

One of the lessons we are all learning is the power and necessity of conscious intention as the first step towards manifesting what we are called to create. How much more powerful is the aligned intention of a group, focused on a high vision.

Many of us on the Earth today I believe were born to help midwife the transformation of consciousness that is humanity’s greatest challenge and promise – and greatest necessity if we are to survive!  Joining together in collective intention is one of the technologies required to bring this about.

The crises we as a species are facing will continue to call more and more of us to come together in unity. That is one of the blessings of this time.

May the focus placed on 11-11-11 also serve as a doorway – one of many – into the re-collection of our spiritual vision and  purpose, helping us to take the next steps forward in our evolution towards becoming who we were always meant to be: spiritual explorers in a never-ending mystery.