Cultivating Your Money Consciousness

Hello everyone.
I hope all of you enjoyed your weekend. Tonight's money/personal finance topic is about, as you've probably surmised from the title of this post, how to develop your money consciousness - that is, create a hospitable atmosphere for abundance in your life. Actually, I lie. It pertains to money consciousness, but I believe that it also applies to a wider realm of things beyond money.

Before I get into the nitty gritty of things though, let me give you a bit of context. Around this time last year, I was getting ready to head to Korea to teach English. After teaching there for a few months, I somehow realized that my life wasn't necessarily taking the direction that I wanted it to take. Since I didn't know where to find self-help books in English, I began downloading self-help audiobooks in order to get to the root of some of my personal angst. This was probably one of the best things that I've done in my life.

One of the audiobooks that had a profound effect on me was called, "Think and Grow Rich", by Napoleon Hill. Now this book sounds like it's all about money, and a large part of it is. But there is an even broader motif within the book. And that motif is about how the thoughts we hold create our realities. I know this sounds a little cookey and new-agey, but bear with me.

"Think and Grow Rich" informs the reader that in order to achieve anything in life - be it weight-loss, a college degree after years of being out of school, or millionaire status - desire has to be present. This desire cannot be a half-hearted desire. It must be an all-consuming desire that one pours herself into completely. Once this desire has planted itself firmly inside the heart and mind of its bearer, then action will take place. But the most important ingredient to achieving what you want in life is desire.

Desire comes in many formats, but it is basically a thought. Now, I often hear people saying that they're broke or can't afford certain things. These words are thoughts and the subconscious mind takes them in and if the subconscious mind hears them enough, it will start to believe these words. This is similar to the way that a child, no matter how intelligent he or she is, will believe she is stupid if she is constantly told so by a person close to her in her life. Your mind believes what you tell it also. If you tell yourself that you never have enough money, or that you could never stick to a budget, guess what? You'll never have enough money, nor will you ever stick to your budget. However, if you operate from a paradigm of abundance, thinking and believing that your coffers are always full, you will find ways to save and you will create avenues by which you can create more income.

Another thing that I do to cultivate my money consciousness is treat money, which is basically an inanimate tool, with a great deal of respect. What do I mean by this? I mean that when I see pennies on the street, I pick them up. I don't just disregard them as being worthless, because they aren't! As a result, I've been increasingly finding larger and larger sums of money on the street. Yep, I'm talking about nickels, dimes, and quarters. I also don't crumple money in my wallet and I keep track of my expenses. If you respect your money and don't disregard "inconsequential" sums, you will begin to see more of it flow into your life.

Lastly, one of the greatest ideas that I gleaned from "Think and Grow Rich" is the fact that daily affirmations help keep us on track toward our goals. So if your goal is to have more money left over at the end of the month, or to be a millionaire and free of financial worry, tell yourself, "I have more than enough money. I am capable of paying all of my bills and still having money to invest. I am free of financial worry." I don't care how untrue that statement may be for you. Just believe it and then your subconscious mind will begin to find ways to make those statements true. Your subconscious might push you to further your education for greater income, to save more, to generate different streams of income, or whatever. But it is essential that you get comfortable believing that you can have "enough" in your life, as opposed to focusing on the lack in your life, if you want the former to be true.

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to post them or email me at jcp182000@yahoo.com.