Naming Your Price
Our Matriarchal Inheritance
The Blessing of Money
Guilt
Finding your inner entrepreneur
Transformational Teachers
Beyond Money
WELCOME TO THE MINDFUL MONEY SERIES.
The Blessing of Money
Guilt
Finding your inner entrepreneur
Transformational Teachers
Beyond Money
WELCOME TO THE MINDFUL MONEY SERIES.
Do you have peace with money? Or does it make you feel uncomfortable when even the thought of it comes up?
Money holds a lot of emotional energy for most of us.
Everywhere I see people struggling with it:
- Those who scorn money and won't admit that they need it, and then get angry at the world because they are struggling.
- Those who live in enforced deprivation.
- High flying gurus who are cashing in on $1000 an hour coaching fees, flogging over priced products to the desperate, promising miracles they cannot provide. The spiritual movement seems as guilty of this as pure capitalists.
- The majority of the world who sell their souls for the highest wage they can get, in work that sucks them dry, that they don't believe in.
- Women who when asked to name their price for their work prefer to give it away for free than value themselves.
- The mega rich who squander their wealth.
- Those who use it to manipulate and abuse.
We're in a very unhealthy state about money - as individuals and collectively.
We scrimp and save, we waste and splurge mindlessly. We borrow what we cannot afford. We undervalue ourselves, then steal to make up the difference. Or we drive too hard a bargain which impoverishes others.
Richness, and poverty are incredibly subjective terms. Many people who are financially wealthy feel they don't have enough.
We are mindless about money. Often it "makes us feel" guilty, angry, greedy, needy. We become obsessed by it. Or try to have nothing to do with it.
What's that all about? Why all the emotion?
Money is just paper, just numbers... or is it? It seems to hold humanity in its thrall.
Money can become our shadow.
We scrimp and save, we waste and splurge mindlessly. We borrow what we cannot afford. We undervalue ourselves, then steal to make up the difference. Or we drive too hard a bargain which impoverishes others.
Richness, and poverty are incredibly subjective terms. Many people who are financially wealthy feel they don't have enough.
What's that all about? Why all the emotion?
Money is just paper, just numbers... or is it? It seems to hold humanity in its thrall.
Money can become our shadow.
Our civilisation is being brought to its knees by our mindlessness to do with money - the banking crises and credit crunch, bankruptcy in nations and individuals.
So this week we're going to spend exploring money - how we make it, how we charge it, how to feel good about it, how to value ourselves, how to move beyond money...
In order to become mindful, we need to be honest. The only way to see a shadow is to shine your light on it and look.
This can feel uncomfortable.
But get this: THEY ARE ONLY FEELINGS. ONLY THOUGHTS.
Yes, really!
So take a deep breath. And let's get to work.
So this week we're going to spend exploring money - how we make it, how we charge it, how to feel good about it, how to value ourselves, how to move beyond money...
In order to become mindful, we need to be honest. The only way to see a shadow is to shine your light on it and look.
This can feel uncomfortable.
But get this: THEY ARE ONLY FEELINGS. ONLY THOUGHTS.
Yes, really!
So take a deep breath. And let's get to work.
I'm really excited about this!! I vision it as a way that we can support each other in becoming healthy in our earning - and spending. So that we can make our peace with money. So that we can transition to a new sense of value, of economics, of worth in our own lives - which can seed itself into our culture.
This may well become an e course in the future - so consider it a work in progress, which you get to see emerging, for free - and get to contribute to the creation of!
I ask this of you in return - in the spirit of giving and receiving which we are exploring. If what you are reading touches you - please give something in return, whatever feels really good to you - no expectations, no obligation. And absolutely NO guilt!
Giving back could mean ...
Thank you...
This may well become an e course in the future - so consider it a work in progress, which you get to see emerging, for free - and get to contribute to the creation of!
Giving back could mean ...
- Share the posts whether on Facebook/ Twitter or by email (see the buttons below this post for a quick and easy way)
- Join the discussion. Add your comments, your questions, your experiences.
- You can support my work financially by donating, buying from The Happy Womb or Etsy, or buying via any of the affiliate links I share on this site.
This is the introduction to the Mindful Money series at Dreaming Aloud. Take some time to check out the other posts on...
Naming Your Price
I read a great book once from my local buddhist centre once called Mindfulness and Money ... was a good read, one I might dig out and re-read having read this post. Much love x
ReplyDeleteI found this little project last week, knitting without borders (really a way to give to medecins sans frontiers), as a way of saving a wee bit of money that doesn't need to be spent and giving it to someone more worthy. Her simple philosophy re money kind of rang true to me "I am not a wealthy woman. Still, there has never been a day that I went hungry or wondered where I would put my kids to bed. I choose between my varied and warm clothing in the morning and at least once a week I throw away food that went bad before we could eat it, buying fresh without even feeling a pang of decadence. I have never wanted for anything more than "more" of what I already have. I am... to most of the people in the world, obscenely wealthy.."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/tsffaq.html
I will do my own post on this topic soon - promise to link up when I do! Been thinking about this a lot just recently.... Well done for bringing this topic up for discussion - its such a fundamental part of life that isn't discussed amongst women in this way in many forums....
ReplyDelete@rose - when you find it do share a quote that touches you
ReplyDelete@Little Macaroon- what a great link. Incredible how much they've raised, love her approach
@motherfunker thanks, as always sweetie, for jumping on board with both feet. Do link up!
Can I offer an open invitation to all bloggers to write on the topic of mindful money this week and link up here. I have more than a weeks worth of posts ready to go!
Looking forward to these posts. I'm working on breaking out of a pattern of deprivation, but there sure are alot of blocks in the way that seem real. . .
ReplyDeleteOh yes there are Erin - great that you're looking into it - that's the first step - hope you'll find some of this helpful.
ReplyDeleteFabulous post Lucy! yes Money is a problem, because we make it one. If we try to see things as "trade" your energy for mine the world would be fairer place, without greed. That is how it started long long ago, until gold became the universal energy.
ReplyDeleteIf I make something, I am more likely to make it for free, because I have wanted to make it. When I try to make things to sell, they dont work, the inspiration goes. so I have decided (with my dolls) that they are art, and when I have many, I shall put them "out there" Those who have asked me to make them one, I have, and then they say "how much" and I say "how much would you spend on it in a shop" the last one I made, I got £10 for. the materials I had already bought for a project for myself, so there was no cost, but I had to take the doll to her, (a 30 mile trip)so I had expenses.
The way I look at it, is : there is want and there is need. If you need something you pay what it costs, kettles, clothes, food etc (dont get me started on the cost of fuel!). If you want it, you see how much you need it. Many times, I have seen things, and said "ooh thats nice" until I see the price, then I dont need it so much, if something is within my "price range" of what I would pay for it, then I would buy it. But when you see that one thing, that you go back to again and again, you find the money, no matter what it costs, because it becomes a need.
We need the courage to name our price, and yes we need to value ourselves, and if the customer doesnt pay the price, then they dont value the work that we have put into something. Say for example, your Creative Rainbow Mama book, when it is published, I want to read it, if it costs £15 per copy I would buy it, if it cost £20 per copy I would buy it, if it cost more than that I would save up for it! I feel that it would help, I feel that it will resonate, and I love the way you write, so it would be a very good purchase. The main thing is to at the very least cover costs. People dont think about the time it took to make/write, as there are many things out there, but if they had to do it themselves, would they put in the time and effort?
anyway, I am wittering and I shall go and crochet. Just as an aside, I shall email you a photo of one of my dolls, how much would you pay for her in a shop? (pretend you need one!)
I look forward to more posts on this subject.
Suzanne
Great Mrs T. Your copy of the book is £100 ;)
ReplyDeletejust going to empty the piggy bank, 5p 10p 20p, just give me a bit longer! It will be worth that!!
Delete