Abundance Goes Far Beyond Money

Traditionally, when most people hear the word “abundance” they immediately think about money. And while that would seem to be the most common understanding of the word, as I’m finding out more and more often in my own life it is a very small part of how we can truly experience abundance.

Abundance can come in the amount of joy we have in our lives, in the amount of love we have for others, in the amount of beauty that we see in nature, and in the exciting and unexpected mysteries that pop up in our everyday lives and enchant us. And quite honestly, I could go on and on and on about how many other places we can see abundance!

However, in speaking with my clients when we talk about abundance they understand it in concept (as in, how they could see it or experience it in their lives), yet they have trouble either generating it or seeing it once they’ve generated it.

So what can be done to increase the amount of abundance that you are experiencing in your life? I’m glad you asked! I’ve been in the question of how to do this for myself for the last few months and here are the key steps that I’ve been practicing that have been working for me:

1) Chase inspiration – There’s something about the high energy and positive vibration of being in an activity that you love and could spend countless hours doing. It creates joy in your soul and often times allows you to offer the best of yourself to the world as you step out of over-thinking (which many of us do, myself included!) and into a place of flow and ease. From this place of flow, you’re best able to clearly understand what next step is best for you and you act as a lightning rod for new and exciting opportunities to show up.

2) Surrender – This is the hardest step for me, by far! Yet I am reminded almost daily to surrender my ideas of where my life is going and what is best for me. As Marianne Williamson says in her book, A Return to Love: “God’s plan works, yours doesn’t.” For those moments when you find yourself struggling to figure everything out and you can’t see how it’s all going to work out and you’re feeling those thoughts of scarcity and fear, just remember – you can surrender anytime and the natural self-organizing and self-correcting pulse of the universe will take over and guide you. When we’re able to surrender, it allows for answers and opportunities to show up that we couldn’t have ever dreamt of in our brains! (PS – this is not only a daily occurrence for me, sometimes it’s an hourly occurrence or every 10 minutes…it depends on the day. I’m still working on this one myself for sure.)

3) Be mindful – You may have heard the phrase “thoughts become things” and I am a firm believer that we create our own reality with our thoughts. So, for example, a few months ago I was experiencing thoughts of fear, and guess what showed up in my life – scarcity! When I was able to shift my thoughts to a more positive outlook (which took some heavy focus, let me tell you), what showed up was much more joyful and peaceful.

4) Practice presence – This step is the key for me to be able to take the other steps I’ve mentioned so far. When I slow down enough to create quiet space, it allows me to gain clarity on what inspires me, where I get to surrender, and what thoughts I get to be mindful of and shift. There are many ways I create quiet space including meditation, reading, hanging out at the local park (where the landscape is gorgeous!), journaling, and working out (it clears my head and has me focus on my body).

For me, the practice of each of these steps has supported in shifting me away from a feeling of scarcity toward abundance and joy. And while some of that abundance has been showing up in my bank account, I can honestly say that the majority of it has been showing up in how I feel in my body, how clear my mind is, and how many creative ideas I’ve had and how much I’ve been able to enjoy the small moments that show up in my day.

Each of these steps is simple in concept, yet not necessarily easy. It takes a dedicated focus, commitment, and practice to create the wide range of abundance that each of us has access to – we only need to take the time to tap into it!

Share this:
Share this page via Email Share this page via Stumble Upon Share this page via Digg this Share this page via Facebook Share this page via Twitter
Comments { 0 }

Being a Financial Victim Won’t Get You Very Far…

“My ex screwed me in the divorce and I’ll never recover.”

“Money’s so hard to understand that I’m not even going to bother to try.”

“My parents never taught me about money growing up and now I’ll never catch up.”

Sometimes this is what being a financial victim sounds like. This isn’t a judgment on my part whatsoever, it’s simply some of the ways I’ve experienced people avoiding taking accountability and ownership in a powerful way.

For me, being a victim (related to money or otherwise) is accepting your fate as it is and taking the position that there’s nothing you can do about it. And often times it involves pointing a solid finger at someone (or something) else as being responsible for things and not accepting any impact on the outcome.

For a more formal definition, the dictionary defines “victim” as: “one who is harmed by or made to suffer under a circumstance or condition.

(Not sure about you, but I particularly enjoy the part of the definition where someone is “made to” suffer. Don’t get me wrong, there may be occasions in life when someone is holding you against your will to do something, although thankfully I find those situations are few and far between!)

At this point, you may be thinking to yourself “well in the situation of the ex, it’s entirely possible that the other person did get screwed over, I’ve seen it happen.

And I can certainly understand this point of view, and it’s likely that many others would feel similarly. But let’s see if we can take a different look at this that would support taking accountability for the situation, shall we?

And before we do that, let’s define accountable: “capable of being accounted for, explainable.

In the situation where someone is left with less than positive feelings about their ex after a divorce, it can be easy to slip into a place of blame and pointing the finger, particularly if you’re feeling like you’re getting the short end of the stick when it comes to money. However, staying in that negative energy is unlikely going to support you in moving forward with your life, whether in general or specifically with respect to your finances.

What I propose is this – that if you’re feeling like something is all someone else’s fault, that you stop and take some time to be honest with yourself about the entirety of the situation and your role in it. View the situation with the lens of “what part could I have done differently to create different results?” This is not an opportunity to beat yourself up about what happened, it’s merely a chance to neutrally step back and see if there is something that you can do differently going forward. It’s as if you’re willing to learn from the situation and be accountable for whatever your contributions were, even if they were small ones.

Ultimately, it is only when we are willing to be accountable for ourselves that we can access the freedom to live our lives from a place of ownership and choice. Because without a willingness to be accountable (and yes, sometimes this means looking at the not-so-fun parts of ourselves), we leave our power in the hands of others instead of using it to grow and take charge of our lives.

It may not always be fun to look at things through the lens of accountability, and I understand that. All I can share is that my clients who are willing to do so are infinitely much more successful than the ones who don’t. They ultimately decide to let go of the finger pointing and blame (even though it feels really good sometimes), and create results anew in the present instead of being stuck in the past.

The journey to financial health is an ever-winding road, and shifting to a more accountable mentality is a powerful and significant way to forever alter your relationship with money for the better!

Share this:
Share this page via Email Share this page via Stumble Upon Share this page via Digg this Share this page via Facebook Share this page via Twitter
Comments { 0 }

Putting Lipstick on a Pig Isn’t Very Effective!

Transformation vs. change — if you look these words up in the dictionary, you’ll actually get somewhat similar definitions, however as I explore in my own life and work more and more with clients, I’m finding that there is a very important difference in these words.

Transformation (noun): A complete or major change in someone’s or something’s appearance, form, etc.

Change (verb): To become different; to make (someone or something) different; to become something else.

(As you can see, even the word “change” is used in the dictionary definition of transformation itself!)

In my understanding and interpretation of these two words, it’s almost as if “change” is about having things be more, better, and different as opposed to transformation which is about a fundamental shift in thoughts, beliefs, actions and results in our lives. Almost as if to “change” is to build on top of what already exists, whereas transformation is more comprehensive in the sense that it includes reexamining our underlying thoughts and beliefs that have generated our past actions and results in order to make new choices to generate new thoughts and beliefs, and thus new actions and results.

Let’s see if an example will support in clarifying the difference between the 2 words (yes, this is where you get to learn about putting lipstick on a pig!). If we were being honest, a pig doesn’t necessarily have a reputation as an incredibly attractive and clean animal, does it? Nope, it doesn’t. (Sorry little piggies…I’m sure you’re sweet.)

So, if we put lipstick on a pig, it could be perceived that we were trying to dress up the pig to change its appearance and have it feel more beautiful or to look better. Yet what happens if deep down inside the pig doesn’t think or belief that it’s beautiful? At this point, you will have changed its appearance on the outside, however will the pig truly have an experience of transforming into something beautiful? Will it truly believe it is beautiful and act accordingly? It’s unlikely since the pig may have underlying thoughts and beliefs based on what others have told it that it isn’t beautiful; so regardless of the outside change in appearance, the thoughts and beliefs won’t have changed which will mean the pig will keep taking actions and creating results consistent with the belief that it isn’t beautiful.

While this is a dramatic example, I hope it makes the key point here. You can make an attempt to change something by making it “more, better, or different”, yet if you don’t address the thoughts and beliefs under the surface that are having you take action that creates results, you’re only glossing up the outside surface instead of creating lasting transformation.

I’ve seen this time and time again with my clients as well, so I’ll close with an example from a client (and good friend) several years ago. This friend wanted my support with understanding her finances better and learning positive financial routines and habits to help her begin stabilizing her financial situation while paying down her debt and increasing her savings. I was enrolled in supporting her to do that, however I was aware that she had an underlying belief that she wasn’t good at math or money. So I could try to support her in changing the way she approached her finances (I knew the techniques and mechanics of proactive money management), however she was unlikely to actually be able to transform how she handled money if she didn’t address the thought/belief that she wasn’t good at math or money. It was only once we acknowledged that belief and spent some time to shift it to something more positive that she was able to absorb and implement what I taught her in terms of money systems and processes to create financial stability for herself.

So, based on this distinction what do you choose – transformation or change?

Share this:
Share this page via Email Share this page via Stumble Upon Share this page via Digg this Share this page via Facebook Share this page via Twitter
Comments { 0 }

Shifting Away from Scarcity

Every once in a while, we get an unwelcome visitor who knocks on our door – SCARCITY.

He’s not a very fun houseguest. In fact, I’ve experienced him as a downright nuisance and intrusion when he shows up. (And for some reason I envision him as a male energy…so we’ll go with “he” for right now, ok?)

Yes, it happens to me too. Anyone who is taking themselves on and is growing and expanding their relationship with money and breaking through to a new level of financial consciousness is likely to run into some roadblocks on their journey. And sometimes those roadblocks are labelled with a big S-C-A-R-C-I-T-Y.

Within the last month or so, I’ve been really focused on growing both myself and my business. And like everyone else I have fears about whether or not I’ll fail, and sometimes I have fears about what will happen when I succeed too. One of my favorite quotes of all time on this very topic is from Marianne Williamson:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

The reality is that feelings of fear and scarcity feel real when they are happening. And so the question, at least for me, becomes what can we do to move through those feelings and get back to our best selves and the work that we are here to do?

As I’ve taken big steps forward over the last few weeks, I’ve had the chance to also be present to the fear and feelings of scarcity that showed up in my life. Some days it felt like I was taking hits from every side, and other days I found quiet pockets of peace in what felt like a storm. Along the way, even in the harder moments I was aware of consciously working to move myself through the challenging feelings of scarcity and shifting back to a more productive and abundant energy.

While there are many tools that I use to shift my feelings when they are less than pleasant, there are 5 consistent things that I do when I’m wrapped up in feeling fearful or scarce (and sometimes that relates to money, sometimes that relates to time, or sometimes that relates to me not being enough for whatever I’m up to):

  1. Breathe – Yup, back to basics here. Often when I’m feeling tight or fearful I realize that I’m not breathing fully. So I stop what I’m doing, and breathe deeply in and out for at least 5 minutes…and sometimes it’s more like 10!
  2. Focus on what you’re grateful for in your life – I remember a few years ago when someone taught me that fear cannot co-exist with gratitude for very long, and that accessing gratitude can quickly shift us away from feelings of scarcity and/or fear. I didn’t believe it at first, and after years of practicing this when I’m feeling down I can attest that it works. I don’t stay fearful for very long after I spend time honoring the amazing things in my life.
  3. Take care of yourself – It may seem obvious, however often times when scarcity pays a visit I realize that I’m long overdue for some sleep, some exercise, or maybe even for some pampering and self-care like a massage. I’ve come to think of it like this – when we aren’t taking care of our greatest asset (ourselves), we aren’t able to access our full power and abundance and we often quickly get dragged into energies that don’t serve us.
  4. Meditate – This goes along somewhat with the deep breathing, although for me there’s a distinction in meditating as for me it allows me to quiet the noise in my brain and any negative or unsupportive thoughts that are traipsing through there at the moment . Whether it’s simply sitting still and focusing on my breathing and visualizing what I want in my life for 15-20 minutes, or listening to some guided meditations (these are two of my favorites: Getting Into the Vortex and The Secret to Attracting Wealth), I experience calm and quiet after meditating that stems the energy of scarcity that is present.
  5. Hold off on making any major decisions – This is less about doing something and more about not doing something. Making major decisions when you’re feeling off-kilter can sometimes introduce an energy into the equation that isn’t helpful. So any time I’m feeling fearful or like scarcity has me in his grip, I am clear that it’s not the best time for me to make any major choices!

Navigating through feelings of fear and scarcity is never fun, however it often results in powerful insights and wisdom once on the other side. So the next time the scarcity monster knocks on your door, know that you have the presence and power to invite him in and politely ask him to leave after you’ve gained whatever insight that you were meant to.

Share this:
Share this page via Email Share this page via Stumble Upon Share this page via Digg this Share this page via Facebook Share this page via Twitter
Comments { 0 }

Generating Financial Peace of Mind in Your Life

For me, inspiration is often sparked from the most unlikely of places and while it isn’t always easy I’ve trained myself to translate unexpected inspiration into action, for myself and for my clients.

Last Thursday was no different as I prepared myself to attend the “Peace of Mind Speaker Series” in Providence, RI. I had been gifted a ticket to the event by a friend, and while the topic of the speaker series (mental health awareness) may seem a bit outside what I normally focus on in my work, I found that the conversation that was generated by the speakers that day sparked a new way of thinking about financial health and the importance of designing a financial plan customized for each and every person to support them in their lives.

The event inspired me to begin thinking about the concept of financial peace of mind, and how I’m creating that in my own life and the lives of my clients. There’s a certain centeredness and clarity that comes from the work that I do, and there’s freedom and peace on the other side of knowing how to use money as a tool through a solidly aligned financial plan.

And of course, as I began to think about financial peace of mind, my clients and potential new clients showed up this week needing to understand what financial peace of mind looked like and that it was possible for them. I got to share what I’d been thinking about, and the 3 key steps that take place on the journey to creating financial peace:

  1. Get clear on your goals and what you want — In order to design a financial plan that works powerfully to support your life, it’s critical to first and foremost get clear on what you want. Each financial plan that I design for my clients is customized to support their wants and desires, and so if those wants and desires are unclear, the plan that is designed won’t truly represent what matters to them and as a result the level of commitment isn’t as high to the plan. Our lives move so quickly these days, that creating space to think about what we want often feels like a luxury when in reality it’s one of the most important things we can ever do to get clear on the results we’re looking to generate.
  2. Revisit your financial plan as an expression of your goals — In working with my clients, we’ve come to define “financially authentic” as the ability to use money in a way that is aligned with what matters to them in their lives. The concept of alignment, while perhaps new, is critical in creating financial peace. When a financial plan is an expression of your goals and what matters to you, there is little, if any, resistance to sticking with a plan. It’s as if the clarity of the aligned financial plan allows you to know what you’re up to and generates purposeful action for you to take in your life. Money then truly become a tool to support your goals and what you want to create.
  3. Test the new plan in the real world — How we use money in our lives is rarely, if ever, static and unchanging. What we’re up to and how we want money to support us is always evolving, and therefore our financial plans must evolve and adapt with us. Once the clarity has been achieved on our goals and we’ve revisited our financial plan as an expression of those goals, it’s time to use the plan and see how well reality matches with the plan that we designed. As I’m known for saying, “life happens” and at every turn our priorities can adjust and our plans then ideally will adapt with us. It’s important during this time of “testing” the financial plan in our lives that we pay attention to the details of the plan we’ve designed, however at the same time allowing for the possibility that something different may show up. I say this because many times I have clients who are committed to the plan as designed and aren’t present to the fact that new opportunities and goals may arise in the future that alter even the best-designed plan! How we use our money does not always need to be a perfect expression of the plan we designed – sometimes new and exciting things pop up that we get to factor into our lives!

Designing a financial plan and using money as a tool to support our lives is an ongoing process, one that is constantly evolving. And through that evolution and our individual growth, aligning how we use our money to support our lives is what generates and creates financial peace.

Share this:
Share this page via Email Share this page via Stumble Upon Share this page via Digg this Share this page via Facebook Share this page via Twitter
Comments { 0 }