The Energetics of Money
Whenever people talk about their relationship with money, other topics always come up. It’s always an interesting thing to talk about as it allows us to reevaluate and explore new ways of how we can improve our relationship with money.
Our Ideal Relationship with Money
Money should be seen like most of our external relationships. The only meaning it has is the meaning we put in it. For example, the high currencies were gold and silver, and now, there are crypto and NFTs. This shows that the power of money comes from the consensus of its inherent value. With this in mind, we now see it does not have real power over us. However, it’s very important to get interested in how it works, how it plays out as a part of our lives, how to use it, and how to spend it wisely. This is one of the ways that your relationship with money matters. It does not hold power over us until we let it.
How We Develop Our Relationship with Money
The brain most often does not have happiness as its priority but rather to prove that we are right. Hence, the phenomena of confirmation bias. Once our thoughts become beliefs, our brains go into a mode wherein it works to prove you right.
Suppose these are your thoughts — “Money is evil, difficult, a struggle, and the source of all the hardships of man.” Over time, these thoughts will turn into beliefs, and over more time, your brain will go into overdrive to prove that.
Your brain will always look for evidence that this is the truth — that money is bad and hard to get. This steals your chance to see the positive things that bring you more money and how money gives you happiness.
The anxiety around money is one that most have experienced. You may be reluctant to fill up your car at the gas station, then worried that not filling it up may cause it to break down, which would cost money. This seemed to ALWAYS happen to me for a long time! However, these are thoughts and not facts, yet your brain has been on the side that money is problematic; hence it is the belief that it confirms.
Say one gets a job with a salary of $50,000. Depending on your current situation with money, that $50,000 can feel very different. We tend to anchor our value on our highest salary so for someone who has earned less this may feel like a great number. Someone who has earned more may find it disappointing. The number itself hasn’t changed but our feelings around it do. Also, for those who have developed a negative relationship with money, the only thing that will dance around their minds is that no matter what the amount it will never be enough.
The Energetics Surrounding Money
There is energetics surrounding money, just like in health and fitness. For example, most people have their “number” regarding ideal weight, maybe what they weighed in college or before they had kids, etc. Even if you’re healthy now, that number will always be something you want to return to. This is the same with money. It is especially evident in debt, where people who were in debt believed they would always be in debt. With their brain confirming their beliefs, they will look for evidence or even create evidence for it to be true.
Some may get out of debt and then spend themselves towards debt again. It’s almost like self-sabotage since they may suddenly feel like this debt-free person is not them; thus, their brain acts in a way that confirms this.
Once you’re debt-free, spending can only be positive if you’re spending towards investments and generating wealth, but then again, it always circles back to your relationship with money. If it’s coming from the anxiety and belief of scarcity, then money will always be an elusive factor in your life.
Manifesting Positive Relationships with Money
We have established that what you believe to be true will be manifested in your life as your brain finds evidence to support it. This is also true when trying to have a positive relationship with the energetics of money.
The rational part of your brain knows that the smart decision would be to discover how to build wealth and to learn from those who have done so. All you have to do is fight off that side of your brain that tells you to stay small yet safe, which is easier said than done.
The first step is to start the practice of creating the right set of beliefs to do it. Dave Ramsay once said that a great indicator that someone can climb out of debt is if they believe they can. The positive belief is something that your brain will hardwire itself into and bring to decisions that support a positive relationship with money and will have a positive outcome.
How Our Relationship with Money Relate to Our Relationship with Other People
How you connect to money is typically a good measure of how you connect to other people in your life. Negative people often have a negative relationship with money and their finances. They make fun of their money or even be embarrassed about it. Often, this negativity extends toward everything else in their lives. They tend to have a feeling of inadequacy and lack that they tend to ignore the fact that they are enough. It’s crucial to form new beliefs that help you look at the things that are going right.
Think of your relationship with money as a relationship with your significant other. Would it be a healthy relationship if you keep describing yourself as inadequate, pathetic, or embarrassing? No, of course not.
You need to view your relationship with money the same way as you would another person. It’s important to see only the bad sides but also to recognize how far you’ve gotten, the pride of having it, and that they will be there for you when you need them. Thinking like this can help you create beliefs that will support a good relationship with the energetics of money and, therefore, something that your brain will pursue and confirm.
How to Start Creating a Good Relationship with Money
If you don’t currently have a positive relationship with money, a good starting point is to have a certain respect for it. It takes care of you, helps clothe, and feed you. Appreciate it and reinterpret it somewhat, so it doesn’t seem like your money is out of whack, and you’re always going to get rid of it, or it needs to go someplace else.
If it’s difficult to think about it in terms of money – perhaps because you don’t like money or don’t like obsessing about it – think about it in terms of an individual, a child, or something that, if it was anything you wanted to grow and love, how would it be best to think about it and approach it in a more abundant, more kind way?
What you think about it plays a very important role. If you don’t like it and can identify where your behaviors and outcomes are coming from as a consequence of those thoughts and emotions, you may begin to move toward a more purposeful model.
Do I want to feel empowered? Do I want to be secure? To get there, you may just work on those thoughts. You don’t have to get it right the first time. It is a perpetual process, and you need to remind yourself constantly of it. The important thing is that you should never stop trying to have a good relationship with your money.