Were you taught that being wealthy is not spiritual?
I believe my money personality was influence by factors from my childhood. I grew up in a home where I felt the stress of my parent’s financial problems. As an adult, I suffer from bag-lady syndrome at times and it’s often hard for me to spend money on big-ticket items. For me personally, money has always been about feeling secure and less about the material things it can buy.
That said, I never thought there was anything wrong with achieving or having wealth. But I know a few people who were conditioned to think that money isn’t good and this idea affects their ability to be successful.
Did your parents say things that made you think that having money was bad or that it was hard to come by? ‘œRich people are seldom happy,’ or ‘œMoney doesn’t grow on trees.’ Perhaps these thoughts took hold through other forms of socialization like listening to church teachings or participating in a spiritual community that promoted poverty like this author writes:
Poverty is not pious. There’s nothing sacred, honorable or even particularly spiritual about being broke. In fact, as I’ll explain here in more detail, creating and redistributing mindful wealth is a far higher spiritual calling than being broke and lacking the financial resources necessary to accomplish important things (like planting a hundred tropical fruit trees).
In fact, earning and spending money mindfully is, at its very heart, a compassionate, loving act. It is a genuine expression of mindful, high-vibration living.
Lana wrote similar words in her Wealth Consciousness series:
Your style of thinking ‘“ victim or prosperity ‘“ has controlled your financial decision and money outcomes thus far. This insight alone ought to motivate you to anchor yourself in healthy thoughts that will create financial balance. Money is not good or evil. Money is energy. It’s a symbol’”a metaphor’”of how you, as a result of your thoughts, are allowing an aspect of the life force energy to harmoniously flow through your life.
If you were taught that money is not good, how did you overcome this type of thinking? Or is it still holding you back as an adult and if so, how? Comments welcomed below.
Great question, Nina. I don’t think that I was taught that money is evil, but I definitely wasn’t taught how to manage money in a productive way. The prevailing mindset was “spend it while you’ve got it, because it won’t be around for long.” I’m trying very hard to be responsible with my money. Having a full savings account is still a challenge, but it’s a very important goal. As for debt, I was always told that debt is bad and I fortunately don’t carry any debt myself. The downside is that I have an aversion to credit cards (I don’t even own one), so I’m sure my credit is different than it would be if I had a card that I used. I’m happy with that, though.
I’m a bit on the cynical side…in my experience those who preach loudest about money not making you happy are the same ones that tell you to give it all to them and THEY will take the onus of being rich and unhappy on themselves while you become poor and happy.
that is because christians want you to donate all your money to the church till your poor
Interesting post. For a while growing up I seemed to have the sense that having lots of money would be a bad thing. But now I think that the more I have the more I can give away and do for others. If I am always having to worry about money to pay my own expenses I won’t have much to give away. So for me, at this stage in my life, I would definitely say having money is not a bad thing – It’s really just how you use it that matters.