by: Halina Goldstein
How much happiness is there in a piece of paper with the word "happiness" printed upon it? It depends on the person who holds that piece of paper...
How much value is there in a 100 dollar bill?
Same thing...
If you think you're poor and have just enough to make ends meet, an unexpected 100 dollar bill is very valuable. If you believe you're rich and more money is coming to you all the time, an unexpected 100 dollar bill is nice, but not very important.
So, it depends on the person...
But it also depends on what's going around that person. For example:
The "free" game
In the "real world", we expect to pay a certain price for the goods we receive: tickets, books, doctor's advice etc. Not so on the Internet. Here many people expect - more or less - these goods to be offered for free.
But I wonder what happens to us, to our perception of our own value, when we read these words again and again and again: "take it, it's free", "it's worth 100$ but you get it free", "you don't have to pay".
We might be paying a high price
Not right away, not in terms of dollars. But in terms of value.
If the approach is honest, you will understand that the free offer is an invitation to exchange something. For example, you give me a possibility to share my expertise in some area, which then leads you to buy a certain product, which you really enjoy, just as I enjoy the extra income. We are both being enriched.
Let's now say I consistently give you something for free, without acknowledging that I also receive. Why would I do that you wonder (consciously or not)? There can only be one explanation: we have nothing to exchange. You will feel you have nothing of value to give me. Just as I will feel my product or service is not worth paying for. We will both become poor in the process.
Spending and accepting money
Money is about exchange. Although temporarily attached to certain pockets, purses and bank accounts, money is being exchanged all the time. It is always in motion - or should be. Money is the oil that allows the society's wheels to turn smoothly. You don't want to hold on to the oil, do you? You just want the machine to work as good as possible. Likewise, the secret to money is indeed not to hold on to it, but to let it flow, let it come and go where it's needed.
In that sense, when you spend money, you add to the whole, you energize the flow, you enable the wheels to turn, you enable the society and its members to take part in the exchange.
What is your attitude towards spending?
Do you enjoy it?
Fear it?
Control it?
How do you feel about spending money?
Again, when accepting payment, you are not just taking something for yourself. You enable the flow, the movement can continue, enriching you as well as everybody else.
So how do you feel about accepting money?
Do you feel good when you accept payment?
Do you accept payments as big as they should be?
Do you know how to set a price on your work or your goods?
Would you accept payment from a friend?
Love and Wealth
Saying "spending is a way of adding to the abundance of all" is not quite correct. It would be more precise to say, that by spending and accepting money you share the abundance that is around you.
Wealth is a state of mind. It is seeing the wealth around you and connecting to it.
Although this might sound outrageous, wealth is somewhat like love. The more you give, the more you receive. But then - you can't give love really and you can't keep it either. Love doesn't belong to anybody. Love is free. Love is a feeling, an energy, an awareness. Love is something that connects us and unites us - if we let it. It's the same with wealth.
Obstacles
Love is right here where you are, endlessly. But you can keep it at a certain distance. We all do that to some degree, for our own reasons. The reason can be called an obstacle, a blocker. An experience, a thought, a feeling that stands between you and the endless abundance (of love or money).
The blocker can make you feel that there's no love (or money) available to you. It can prevent you from receiving it, or feeling good about giving it. That's OK. It still can't prevent you from looking...
Beyond the blocker
Let's take a look then... What is there? What is really there?
If you experience some imbalance, some lack of money in your life, think about this again ('cause it's a fact): You live in an abundant world. Think about all the billions of dollars flowing all around the world. All the gold, all the diamonds, all the big houses, all the luxury cars, all the fortunes...
If you experience that none of it is available to you, then... you're "normal" :-)) Just kidding... If you experience that none of it is available to you, then there must be something standing between you and all these riches. It's the blocker. What is it?
What exactly is preventing you from sharing these riches, receiving and using this money, for whatever purpose you'd like? Think hard, think deep, and feel deep: what is it?
Oh, that :-))
OK... So let's take a look again: There's you, there's the abundance and there's the blocker. How on Earth are you going to unblock the road and be free?
Freedom
Freedom has been quite a fundamental theme in my life. In my younger days I was like a freedom fighter. But the older I grow, the more I get to admit, that freedom doesn't come from fighting. On the contrary. Freedom is knowing or even deciding in your very heart that you are free. You are holy. You are one. You are unbreakable, undividable, limitless. You are utterly free.
What is there to fight? You are free already.
Play-fully
Freedom is playfulness. Freedom is like dancing. Freedom is natural. Freedom is light.
So you want to unblock the road to abundance? Lets play abundance then! Not powerplay, but play with an open heart, like children do. Seriously. Forgetting it's a play and still knowing it's a play, a dream.
Nights
Tell me: at night, when you are asleep, where is your money then? And your debts, your bills, your possessions? And where are your loved ones, or those who you think don't love you at all?
For you, they are nowhere. They are gone. Because you are not there to experience them.
At night you are in another realm. You leave the earth and your sleeping body.
Even if you dream about lack of money and loads of money, about loneliness and intimacy, it's still just a dream. It's just your consciousness playing with the possibilities, playing and rearranging things for you to learn from.
Days
It's the same with your days, you know. Even if your thoughts are busy with lack of money or love, it's still just thoughts, day-dreams. It's just your consciousness playing with the possibilities, playing and rearranging things for you to learn from.
As you wake up today and yesterday is gone, so can your perception of yourself and the world be renewed every morning. You can adjust your perceptions to who you want to be and how you want to live.
A Way
Here's a simple way:
Breath in and out a few times. Easy. No strain. Just breath
Now, imagine that when you breath in, you connect with all the abundance there is. All love. All money.
When you breath out, you let go of all your losses, your greed, your discontent, your fears, your pressures - all that bothers you, right out and into the Universe.
To the Universe your problems are tiny and invisible, and they will burn away within no time. That's just how it is, it's a universal law, so don't worry about it.
Now play with these sentences - or create some other sentences that would suit you:
"I am just playing"
"I can go wherever I want"
"I can do whatever I feel like doing"
And these too, or something similar:
"I am a light in a million playful lights. I am a sun."
"I am a cloud in a million playful clouds. I am a sky."
"I am a wave in a million playful waves. I am an ocean."
Abundance is Now
Not next year, not in the next job, not in the next town.
Now.
You become free, and abundant, by simply acknowledging you are what you want to be.
You are a creative being.
Isn't this exciting? Nothing will be blocking your way forever.
You have created it and you can remove it when you're ready for
the next stage of the play.
It's as simple as that.
I'll see you around :-))
©2004 Halina Goldstein