Financial Abundance in the New Year

Goals and resolutions are traditional for New Year. But a week has passed since the celebration, and many people find that those well-meaning ideals have already been challenged. It’s a bit like the person who commits to giving up smoking and drinking for the new year, but after his celebratory champagne and cigar at midnight, he decides he might as well wait until NEXT year to try again. I call that falling into the trap of “either/or.” We’re either on a nutritious diet, or off it. Either we are not drinking or forgetting all control. Either we’re exercising and meditating every day, or giving up and never trying again.

Optimal health is not a one time shot. We don’t exercise once, meditate once, pray once, eat right once, get a massage once, do stretching once. Optimal health is a practice, one where some days we play well and some days we fall down. Such ups and downs are a part of the game. It’s easier to play the game, of course, when we don’t live with the World’s Harshest Critic in our heads!

That harsh critic, and his or her destructive energies, stands in the way of us experiencing all the wonderful aspects of a thriving life—physical vitality, emotional freedom, mental clarity, and spiritual connection. Just observe in yourself how self-talk and self-image affect your willingness to stretch and grow. It’s easy to feel inner resistance to making positive change.

One of the excuses we come up with is, “I don’t have the time or money to do those things, to take care of myself.” It is true that finances significantly impact our time and the options available to us. But it is a mistake to look at the lack of money as the cause. Financial constriction is the effect caused by tension and fear elsewhere in our energy system. Address the energy system and its disruptions… and the financial state begins to evolve and change in a healthy way.

Financial abundance means that we experience a flow of money and support that allows us to fully express Who We Are without constriction or fear. When we experience true financial abundance, the primary feelings are gratitude, peace, and generosity.

Raw wealth is just one measure of abundance… and often a poor one. The caricature of the rich, cynical, distrusting, greedy miser can apply to anyone when money is hoarded as a thing to possess (rather than as an asset flow to be managed responsibly). We know wealthy people who feel happy and blessed, and we know wealthy people who are desperately scared they will lose it all. We know people who live very simply who feel equally happy and blessed as our most wealthy acquaintances. There is more to the experience of abundance than bank balance and the number of nice cars and homes. In my own life I’ve noticed only a partial correlation between the ups and downs of my net worth and whether I feel financially blessed.

Most Americans—living in the richest country in the world—do not feel financial abundance on a regular basis. Doesn’t that seem goofy to you? Just contrast what we have with others in this world… even before the tsunami hit.

The fact is that almost everyone has beliefs, experiences, and emotional disruptions that block both the emotions of financial abundance (gratitude, peace, generosity) as well as the energetic flow of money. Let me give you an example.

Growing up, I was constantly hearing how teachers were underpaid. You can never make good money as a teacher! This “fact” was so ingrained in me that I would never have considered teaching as a career. After all, even the garbage collectors made more money! I went into computers where in high school I was already making more per hour than many public school teachers were, reinforcing my belief that teaching = poor.

I remember the session when I used EFT on this thought. “Even though my love of teaching can never pay off and support my family, I choose to be open to a new perspective.” When the fear and anger and helplessness around the “teaching = poor thought” were released through tapping, I had an insight. “Coaching is just a specialized form of teaching, and coaching offers financial opportunities along with the joy of making a difference in people’s lives. That’s what I can do!”

You see, the emotional blocks to financial abundance also block our creative spirit. These same ones also affect body image, weight, and self-esteem. Working on our personal blocks to prosperity consciousness pays dividends in all areas of our lives. It’s an area that always offers rewards for self-exploration.

I’d like to encourage you to make the exploration of success and abundance one of your avenues of personal growth and healing. Over the next year I will be talking with you on the ways that our blocks to success are tightly woven into our physio-emotional state of health. I am very interested in your thoughts and questions in this area, and I am pulling together a team of clients who wish to work with me over the coming months.

We’ll be using as a key resource the work of my friend and colleague, Dr. Carol Look. Carol is an exceptional EFT practitioner and teacher who taught me the successful approaches to food cravings, emotional overeating, and stopping smoking that I use with my clients. I have also published her 4-part article series on the website.

May you have peace and abundance in this year and every year,

Rick@Thrivingnow.com