As I reflect on money this morning, I realize how seriously warped my ideas about money are. It has nothing to do with greed or taking advantage of other people. Rather, my thoughts flow to memes I have incorporated into my being that limit the money and other blessings I allow to flow into my life. I realize I am my own worst energy block when it comes to receiving!
The first meme that has created havoc in my life is the idea you have to put effort out in order to gain money. The meme in and of itself is not a bad concept. Life is about putting energy out and gaining it back in a never ending cycle. Energy exchange. That is the way it works. What is messed up is energy exchange as it relates to physical money. We have been taught that only certain actions are worthy of receiving money. The fact of the matter is, each and every one of us expends a good amount of energy doing things for other people, animals, the environment, etc. that we do not get paid for--often actions that are extremely valuable to life on planet Earth.
A good many problems in our world are the direct result of believing only certain occupations are worthy of receiving money for. If the energy you put out is not on the list of jobs that can earn income, you are considered lazy and good for nothing. Ironically, much of this can be the exact same energy output as what we actually do every day. For example, you get actual money for taking care of elderly people in the nursing home. However, take care of your elderly parent in your home fulltime and get nothing back in return (except the knowledge you are providing for someone you love). Is this right? Is this fair? Granted, it all needs to be done. My point here is, we expend positive energy and should receive positive energy back. We allow society to dictate what we can receive back. Blessings blocked!
Our beliefs about income earning jobs are also warped because we value certain jobs much more highly than other jobs. That's why workers at places like Walmart and McDonald's get paid minimum wage and high level managers at corporations get paid millions of dollars. The basic idea here is that "brain power" should be much more highly paid than manual labor. After all, anyone can do physical labor. Not everyone is intelligent. Right?
I'm going to call BS on this idea right now! We are all gifted in our own ways. If we are putting our energy out in the world in positive ways, shouldn't we expect to see it come back to us as a liveable wage? We need to become a people so conscious of our actions that we value the contributions each of us makes to society, even if those actions are currently deemed selfish--like taking care of an older parent or our children! We need to understand that taking care of our own families often has even greater value than taking care of people outside our families because we are also loving, valuing and honoring the ones we take care of! We need to understand that flipping burgers at a restaurant has value! We need to understand that collecting others' trash has value! Even a simple smile has the power to make another's day better! We need to be a people who understand what REAL value is!!!
The next meme that has created problems for me is "Do no harm". While this, too, is largely a good meme, I am one of those people who takes it to the extreme. I want to be sure that the energy that comes back to me is good, untainted energy. I am very conscious of my actions towards others, animals and the planet. What creates problems for me here is my prejudgment of situations and potential outcomes.
For example, in my part-time retail job, we are encouraged to have our customers apply for credit. For each person we get to apply, we get a couple extra dollars on our paychecks. I have very definite ideas about credit and indebtedness being the very institution that creates modern-day slaves. Consequently, I do not get all that many credit applications. I do, however, find it interesting how several of my young, high school aged coworkers get lots of credit applications. I attribute their success to the fact they do not prejudge the impact applying for credit is going to have on the other person's life.
What I usually fail to recognize when I prejudge a situation is that there are often consequences I do not anticipate. I do not know what others came here to learn! Maybe one of the lessons they signed up for was to face hardships when they got themselves into too much debt! The point is, when I fail to offer someone else a certain experience, I may not actually be helping them. I am also denying myself the blessings the situation may be able to bring me.
Our world is seriously twisted in so many ways. We are here to help bring it back into balance. It is only by questioning the status quo that we can make the changes that benefit the whole. Money and energy exchange play such a huge role in our lives on planet Earth today. Isn't it time we rethought how it functions so that it is much more fair and balanced as well? By doing so, we have the potential to create a life of abundance and prosperity for all!
~CSE
