The first thing you need to understand about money is that its energy is meant to flow. That’s why it’s called currency. This doesn’t necessarily mean spend, spend, spend. The human body offers an excellent analogy: We need fuel in order to function properly, but that fuel needs to be nutritionally valuable and taken in moderation. Overfill the tank, and movement slows down. Again, proper flow does not mean eat, eat, eat.
Living in prosperity proposes a shift in consciousness, an awakening. According to J. D. Roth of the blog Get Rich Slowly and author of the book, Your Money: The Missing Manual, “Money management isn’t about numbers; it’s about goals and dreams. If you feel stuck, the first step is to figure out why you feel stuck. One way to achieve clarity is to take some time to actually set some financial goals.”
With this in mind, I admire J. D. Roth’s simple approach to flow, balance, moderation as it relates to gaining financial freedom. Roth advises to take charge of your debt by assessing what you can live without and stop spending money on it, i.e. change the flow of currency.
How do you go about applying this to everyday life? I give up my latte every day before work, for example and at the end of the week I have $20, sometimes more. This equals $1040 per year or about enough for an overseas plane ticket, or a nice dent in debt.
While Roth offers solid advice on changing the direction of the flow, Edwene Gaines, who wrote The Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity, takes this shift deeper by acknowledging the flow of currency and its impact on spiritual community. She lays out four spiritual laws of prosperity:
1) You must tithe 10 percent of all that you receive to the person, place, or institution where you receive your spiritual food.
2) You must set clear-cut, tangible goals.
3) You must forgive everyone all the time, especially yourself.
4) You must seek, discover, and follow your divine purpose.
Late last year, I faced many financial roadblocks. I picked up Edwene’s book and applied her rules to my life. Every time I tithe, money does come back to me in abundance. I feel lighter in my life because I have let go of the burdens of regret and recrimination. Letting go allowed me to receive. I have clarity not only about what my monthly income needs to be, but a deeper understanding of self, which answers the question of how to attain that income.
At first, there is fear about the 10% tithe. “I don’t have enough as it is! How can I tithe?” As soon as it becomes your consistent practice, the power of currency becomes immediately apparent. You find yourself in the flow of money.
The forgiveness rule is tricky, as well. “You mean I have to forgive my parents for raising me to believe that there is never enough!?” Yes. And then forgive yourself for believing it years after childhood. When you let go of grudges, you make room for gratitude. Gratitude invites abundance.
Deepak Chopra, in Creating Affluence, puts it this way: “Knowledge has organizing power inherent in it. It is simply enough to know, to be aware of the principles; the knowledge will be processed and metabolized by our bodies, and the results will be spontaneous. The results do not occur overnight, but begin to manifest gradually over a period of time.”
Maybe that’s the real shift in consciousness. When we decide to get our bodies into shape, we have to acknowledge that we didn’t gain weight overnight, and that losing that weight doesn’t happen overnight either. For many of us, debt did not happen overnight. The solution is a long-term spiritual shift around your control of currency. Go with the flow!
