Lesson 102: Sound Like You

How in touch do you feel you are—especially on a financial level—with the dreams you enjoyed last week?

Do they still feel authentic to you… or is there another, more personal vision waiting in the wings, ready to be invited to emerge?

These are great questions. Something I attempt on a regular basis is to tune in to what feels true for me now, rather than something that used to feel true.

What is my current truest expression?

My strongest desire in all of life is to feel simultaneously secure and free. Feeling secure, or rooted, can come from many different things. It can come from financial prosperity, but, more reliably, it comes from being in myself and being myself. When I feel embodied and true to myself, I feel rooted. From that place there is infinite freedom because I know I am the one who can make myself feel secure. I can do anything and still come back to myself. 

Where does money fit in to this? I am not a person who thinks money is evil or shouldn't exist or  enslaves us or it can't be spiritual. I believe humans have always sought exchange. 

Once upon a time, in very small tribes, our gifts were understood and valued as we all naturally contributed to the collective. Caring for children, hunting and gathering and being a shaman were all necessary and meaningful to the whole. 

When our tribes become larger (too large?) and the potential contributions changed and grew dramatically, lines blurred. That, along with opening exchange with different parts of the world, we placed value on new things. We wanted (and still want) beyond what we knew. Throughout history, value has been placed on gold/salt/human life/tools/china/paper. 

All this to say, money is just the most current version of exchange. Money has legitimacy and exchange is important and demonstrates importance. If we want something outside our normal grasp, we must demonstrate its worth to us. 

I'm getting through my thoughts to clear up some space about what's important about money to me.

Money is a tool. It is an exchange. The trap (or part of it) is allowing others to dictate our financial worth, or to decide that our financial worth dictates our personal worth. More often the things we do for free have far more value than the things we do for money or the things that cost money. 

Back to the question, what is my genuine financial vision for myself NOW?

Part of my vision is to just HAVE money. I believe that comes from wanting to get out of the trap of trading myself/time/services for a certain amount to feel valued. Perhaps that looks like having a few million in the bank, living off the interest. 

I offer my services because it makes me happy, and the exchange is moment by moment. I love when my friends ask me for my services; I tell them to pay what they want. Right now in my professional office, there is a fee. For friends, it is open. That way, depending how much money they have and how much they value what they're getting dictates the amount. My vision is to feel so secure in my finances (or otherwise) that this is my way of exchange. It helps me to feel free to work with more creativity and at my own leisure. It takes the pressure off both people feeling like "for this amount of money, this is the expectation." When the amount is open and undetermined, decide at the end what it was worth. 

The truer I am to myself, the more secure I am. I said above that I feel this already in an embodied way; I'd like this to translate to finances as well. 

These are my stepping stones. With these three things, I feel security and, therefore, liberation.

I will say it feels like there's something that wants to be expressed that isn't quite coming up right now. Maybe in a future lesson...