Money and Abundance - What's the difference?
My 3 recent understandings around money and abundance.
Hi! my name is Sam. I am a Gardener and Storyteller of the Soul who weaves shamanism, story-telling and spiritual mentoring with the wisdom of the ever changing seasons and moon cycles. Soft. Simple. Still. is a sacred space where I can share this wisdom with you.
Hello lovely one,
How are you today?
As you know I recently facilitated one of my Let’s Talk About…sessions. This one was about MONEY AND ABUNDANCE…Due to such a positive response, I will organise another Let’s Talk About Money and Abundance in the next few weeks. I will take into consideration time zones too!
For those who have yet to share a “Let’s Talk About...” with me, in a nut shell “Let’s Talk About…” is a sacred circle where truth and honesty, depth and contemplation become the cornerstones of deep healing and awareness.
Prior to each session I sit and write about 10-12 prompt questions that we could chat about pertaining to the chosen topic. Sometimes we get through all the questions, sometimes not. I encourage conversation, ideas and thoughts to be shared and voiced in a safe and secure environment. At the end of the session I facilitate a 30 minute meditation around the chosen topic helping to release any final blocks, to encourage any messages from the Spirit Realm and/or your Higher Consciousness and to help ground and balance you.
Last Sunday we spoke about Money and Abundance…
These are my 3 new understandings that came from the “Let’s Talk About…Money and Abundance” workshop
Understanding 1: Abundance is Free and Plentiful -
True Abundance is all around us. It is Nature. It is the sunrise and the sunset. It is the ever changing colours of dawn and dusk, of the leaves on the trees and the feathers on the birds. It is the smile from a stranger and the kind word from the neighbour. Abundance is the unlimited love that comes from your animal, your loved one, a child. Abundance is tangible and yet it is felt more with the heart and soul rather than with your wallet.
Abundance is for EVERYONE no matter what socio-economic class you come from. Abundance is a blessing. It can come in many forms and many ways. Surprise gifts. Homemade meals. Hand-me downs. Friendship. Kindness. Love.
It enhances your life by making your heart smile. Abundance may have a “price-tag” on it, mostly though it is priceless. It seems to be what your heart, your sense of creativity, your sense of moral compass needs.
Abundance is nurturing and loving and invites softness and rest and expansiveness.
Money on the other hand…that is man made. It has a sense of inequality about it - “you either have money or you don’t.” While money is very helpful, money can be the cause of great stress, anxiety and pain when one does not have enough.
I am a very, very abundant person.
Abundance flows so easily into my life that every day something is shown, gifted and offered to me that makes my heart smile and my life simpler.
Abundance does that. It makes me feel alive and happy and free.
Understanding 2: That I still hold many negative beliefs around money
Beliefs such as:
“Money is the cause of all evil.”
”To earn money has to be a lot of incredibly hard and arduous work.”
“Healers can’t charge for their work.”
“Women can’t earn as much as men.”
”Spending money on myself is selfish.”
”Having big money dreams is out of my league.”
”To dream the big dream is unachievable and unrealistic as it just costs too much and why can’t I be satisfied with what I have now?”
”To have money isn’t spiritual.”
”To have more money means I am stepping too much into the consumerist lane.”
While I have worked a lot on my money mindset, for want of a better word, it feels that this is such a big learning and understanding for me.
Some of my friends will be reading this and thinking - I am sure we had this conversation the other day. Maybe we did…I feel that each time I do I go deeper into my inner wounds, my inner sabotages, my inner belief systems and I find more hidden artefacts. Like an archeologist, I am tenderly and softly digging each piece out. Sometimes I can recognise what that piece is, other times it is broken and I need to keep gently brushing away the dirt to find where it meets, what it joins, what it means. Those statements above have been the latest find in my Money Archeological Site.
Understanding 3: That to do what I am passionate about is more important than working in an area that debilitates me and increases my anxiety.
I have worked many jobs in my life. Some I loved. Some I did for the money. Some I did for no money (is volunteering a job?) Some I would never do again!
I learnt many things when I worked in all these different situations…one of the main things was that working just for the sake of earning money made me sick! It made me experience huge anxiety attacks and my mental health suffered badly.
Working because I LOVE THE JOB,
that my friend,
is a different kettle of fish!
My parents always said to us children (I am one of 4 siblings) “I would rather you be happy Garbologists than unhappy Doctors,” (not degrading any of these professions). They just wanted us to be HAPPY and VIBRANT in our chosen career path.
Our happiness (and health!) was their first priority.
They instilled this in us.
It is part of their legacy.
My Mum was an incredible artist. She was also a stay-at-home mum. She sold her artwork and taught her skills. She taught art classes from home for both children and adults, and inspired many, many people who came her way. Word of mouth gifted her more students and more commissions.
What she taught me was that:
* I too can put my children first.
* I too can work in the area that I am passionate about.
* I too can work from home.
* I too can work my own hours.
* I too can be paid appropriately for my skills and talents.
When my children were at school (this is our 4th year of homeschooling) I remember one of the parents saying, “School is important. It teaches children how to work within prescribed hours.”
I am a healer.
My partner is an actor.
We don’t work “normal hours.”
We work the hours that our passions take us.
Our work is not “WORK.” To me that word implies hard-slogging-tiring-stress-induced-worry
rather what we do,
WE LOVE TO DO,
and this shows in how we share our skills with those who we engage with.
I choose to rewrite a different dialogue for myself and my children…one that says
“Live your passions. Follow your heart. Live your Truth.
Once you do that, then find a way to make a living from it
in a way that sustains your health - mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually -
and ultimately the health of the Earth. ”
(I believe when we live our passions and our vision we tread lighter on the earth as we no longer tread with heavy angst and stress, rather we walk with lightness and fun.)
I recently wrote about Not bending myself out of shape. Maybe this is part of it…
However these words are easy to say.
What happens in between finding your passions and paying the rent?
What happens in between leaving a job that suffocates your heart and soul and paying for food?
Can one just leave a job and free fall, trusting that something will come up?
I have no answer…maybe you do.
PLEASE SHARE YOUR STORY…
Your story may give wisdom to another who is in this situation
I would really like to chat more about this…
What are your belief systems around money and abundance, financial wealth and success?
Where did they come from?
What can you learn from them?
Has your perception of money and abundance changed over your lifetime? How so? And why?
If you would like to know when my next Let’s Talk About Money and Abundance session is, please type your name in the comments section and I will be sure to let you know. Or check out this link to find out what other Let’s Talk About topics I am holding space for this year.
Until next week,
May you be abundant in all you do,
May the finances you need to live the life your heart requires be ever flowing and free from stress and anxiety,
and, if you are in transition between one job and another, may you find the work situation that inspires and uplifts you - mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.
Until we meet again,
Blessed be. x
Soft. Simple. Still is a reader supported publication. Everyone receives the same privileges. I believe in equality. Your financial support enables me to pass my knowledge on in a way that enables everyone to access it freely. Thank you.
ps/ I am inspired by the writings of
and who write openly and honestly about their relationship with work and money, life and creativity, and how they are consciously choosing to live a more mindful gentle and simple life. You may like to be inspired by them too.
Who is rich? One who is satisfied with their portion. —ancient Jewish teaching
I’m mostly, but not 100%, with the “money is energy” folks commenting here. Here’s where I diverge…Before money, people also exchanged energy for goods. But it wasn’t calculated to the penny. It was based on trust. Money allows us to take trust out of the equation. Now we trust in the system that guarantees the money’s value. Money allows our relationships with people to be purely transactional, taking human relationships to a strange place. This doesn’t HAVE to happen with the existence of money, but it’s hard to resist.
So “yes” to money, “yes” to money as energy BUT a) careful to keep yourself rich by paying attention to where dissatisfaction in your life is coming from and b) resist relating to humans as transactional beings rather than the energetic beings that they are—even though money encourages the transactional mindset.
Sam, I would have loved to join this meeting...but my time I was already fast asleep for a few hours. I am sure it was a lively conversation because it's a big subject! Abundance is easier to talk about because it can show up in multiple ways. Ways that you brought forward, like Nature, for she is soooo fruitful. And she teaches us what abundance is even in times of waning, ebbing & wilting. For it is not always the harvest. It can be gratitude, silence, stillness, compost, change, etc. And also, as you said, love and kindness.
Money is another conversation. I feel at its root it is only energy. Truly that is what everything is. The bottom line is how are we in relationship with this energy and as you also brought forward, what are our beliefs about it. Anything can be made evil if done with greed and used in ways that are demeaning, exclusive and withholding. I feel it is not so much money that is the issue, but more the structure of our culture. For as it is right now, it seems to be only breeding disparity and hierarchy. The very wealthy and the extremely poor. Money can be a beautiful way of exchange. A win-win relationship. The key being relationship. But our society seems to focus more on the win-lose.
And I believe grass roots change is powerful. For me that is an inside job. Focusing on similar ideas that you brought forward in your third understanding. Which is how I live my life right now. This has not always been the case, but that is what growth and transformation is all about.