What does money have to do with your spiritual growth? In my experience, everything . . . this isn’t about believing that you have to suffer to finally be rewarded, or about staying strong through misfortune. Spiritual growth makes you stop suffering, and you no longer perceive a misfortune to be bad luck. Spiritual growth is about learning your spiritual truth, and then making choices around your money so that you are always in alignment with them.
Spiritual Truth
Spiritual truths are THE WAY THINGS ARE FOR YOU — and you along. People may not agree with your spiritual truth, but for me, once I remember my own spiritual truth, they help me let go of unproductive behavior around my money.
One of my spiritual truths about money is that the more I take care of myself, the more abundance I experience. This isn’t just some affirmation I decided drill into my head; my life has proven this truth to me time and again. This is true for me to the extent that, if I am getting worried about a lack of prospects calling, I KNOW I need to immediately leave my office and go have fun for at least 4 hours and quit thinking about work. When I come back, I ALWAYS have new prospect emails from people requesting to chat.
Another spiritual truth for me is ME first. This sounds selfish, but what I have found is that if I give to others first—my time, money and efforts—I end up becoming so worn out that I don’t have anything left for me (and then I end up resenting them!). For me, I have to take care of myself first. Then, I usually have plenty of energy, money and time left over to devote to others.
Another spiritual truth for me is that when I stay true to myself, I have all of the money I want. I learned this one when I sold my practice. The financial allure of working as a consultant to financial advisors was strong, but it was draining me and preventing me from paying attention my own newborn coaching business. It wasn’t until I forced myself to only work with the people who inspired me (and quit worrying about the money) that I had enough time and energy to get my own venture up and running effectively—to the point where I didn’t need ANY consulting work anymore.
Once I faced up to my spiritual truths, I saw that my level of success and prosperity is directly tied to my spiritual growth. If I am willing to take the time to understand, I always reach a new level with my relationship with money.
Finding Spiritual Growth
Your spiritual truths may be different from mine. We’re all here for a unique experience and all on different paths, so it’s up to you to find your own truth. Here are some signposts to help you along the way:
If you’re in emotional pain, you’re not living your truth. Spiritual growth and truth have nothing to do with misery, frustration and sadness. You may feel these things currently, but you don’t NEED to feel bad in order to grow spiritually.
Spiritual truth is an experiment, but NOT a test. You don’t need to prove anything in order to experience spiritual growth. Your truth isn’t about putting everything on the line to demonstrate your faith that something will work out. The Universe wants you to do things that make you feel good. It does not want you to do things that make you feel like you’re looking for evidence that confirms you were “right.” There is no “right.”
There are no victims. True, somewhere in the world, people are being victimized. Terrible stuff happens. However, your loved one making a rude remark, getting into a fender bender or getting laid off from your job doesn’t make you a victim. Once you decide to take responsibility and refuse to see yourself (and others) as victims, you move forward more quickly and find the spiritual lesson.
Giving away your money is not spiritual. Some people believe that they can’t be spiritual unless they give away all of their money (or unless they don’t make any in the first place). But if abundance is a spiritual principle, then denying it is denying a spiritual truth. It’s okay to give and share. Give to charity. Give to family and children. Just know what you can give without costing yourself.
Spiritual growth = clean money. In my “old” life, when I worked with people who I was only working with for the money, each time I got paid I felt like, “Darn RIGHT, you’re paying me!” Or any time I gave money to someone to “help” them, the relationship energy got icky (because of my codependent expectations, of course). The more spiritual I got about my money choices, the better energy I felt ALL of the time around money.
Actions This Week
- Review. Mentally review your life to this point and think about the financial highs and lows. What else was happening in terms of how you treated yourself and others? What truths were you living when things were going well?
- Live A Step. Decide which signpost resonates with you, and go through your week and notice how often it comes up and how you respond—or how you change the way you respond, now that you’re more aware.
- Be Proactive. What is the spiritual truth about money that you most want to experience? Even if your outer life isn’t perfectly, aligned, the moment you define the world you want to live in is the moment you start changing it. You can alter your truth statement as you experiment.
Are you committed to finding your own spiritual truth? You might want to check out my free ebook on Money Chakras, which help you uncover the energy you’re bringing to your money life and how to change it for the better (this is how I uncovered my own spiritual truths). Download your free copy here.
photo credit: Gabriela Camerotti via photopin cc