How To Develop A Conscious Relationship With Money

“If your mind carries a heavy burden of past, you will experience more of the same. The past perpetuates itself through lack of presence. The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future.”
~ Eckhart Tolle

If you were struggling to lose weight, you might be asked to keep a food diary. In that diary you would record what you ate and when, and your emotions at each meal or snack. The purpose of this would be for you to begin to develop mindfulness around your eating habits. Much of the way we live our lives is unconscious. We walk through each day on default patterns, running on habit and ingrained beliefs and behaviours.

Many of us treat money the same way that we treat food. We consume (buy) without thinking, we spend to make ourselves feel good, we ignore our money or treat it with disrespect, or perhaps we don’t really think about it at all.

Food is vital to life and to our health. Our choice of food and consumption levels directly affect our wellbeing. The flow of money in our life is also vital to the quality of our lives.

Money is simply energy that flows to you and from you. It has no value of its own – it holds only the value that you prescribe to it. If you have never actively thought about money and what it means to you, then you will run subconscious programs about the value of money based on your family’s beliefs or of other authority figures in your life.

So how do you become conscious in your relationship with money?

In the same way that a dieter may become aware of their relationship to food.

Whether you realise it or not, money and your spending and earning are actually extensions of yourself and your conscious or subconscious core values. When we give and receive money consciously, we become aligned with our innermost values and we can begin to develop a positive relationship with money. We also become aware of any subconscious patterns or beliefs that may be limiting us, or which are out of synch with our conscious beliefs.

As you move through your week, think about the following questions:

1. What do I feel when I pay a bill, or receive one?
2. Where do I spend my money? Do the products and services I buy sit well with my inner values?
3. Do I know where I stand about the important things in life?
4. Do I have a plan for my life and for my money?
5. How does the work that I do and the money that I earn  make me feel?
6. How do I feel about my bank balance?
7. Do I understand money, and my personal financial position? How does that reflect my core values? What charities do I support?
8. Am I comfortable to ask for money that I have earned or that is owed to me? Can I speak up about my worth? Does the money that flows to me reflect that worth?
9. Do I think about my life priorities and are they reflected in my spending and earning plans?
10. Do I take care of my needs before I take care of my wants?

Each time you spend or earn money this week, pause and reflect on the energy of money as it passes in and out of your life, how that makes you feel, and whether your money supports your conscious or unconscious beliefs.

Becoming aware of the patterns of money in your life allows you to consciously align your values around money, and to move in flow with this energy in your life. Money flows to you and from you. How do you want this to look? How do you want to affect the world around you with your money flow? Know that you have the power to change your relationship to money simply by aligning your values and thoughts.