Hello and welcome.
My name is Lew Redman and today we are going to explore how to make money a spiritual practice.
And what I'm going to share today is something that I learned from Kate Northrup in her book Money A Love Story.
And she also has a great talk on YouTube that's called It's Spiritual To Be Rich and it has some of the practices that we're going to talk about here.
And so let's define elements of a spiritual practice.
A spiritual practice involves presence.
It involves looking at challenging material and bringing awareness to that material so that it can change.
It involves gratitude,
Love,
Devotion,
And also being kind to ourselves when we don't get it right.
It may also include consistently checking in if we are living in alignment with our values.
And so what we're doing is taking all of those elements of a spiritual practice and putting it towards our money.
Because so often money becomes a place where we push things under the rug.
It's a source where our shadows lie rather than being a genuine place of love,
Appreciation,
And healing.
Attention is always the first step we need.
And that is how we bring our financial life in alignment just as we would any other area of life.
And so let's shift into this practice.
And closing your eyes,
Relaxing your shoulders,
Letting your body get heavy.
Let's take one conscious breath together,
Breathing in through the nose into the belly,
The ribs,
The chest,
Holding the breath at the top.
And long exhale,
Let it go.
And let your breath be natural.
Let everything start to settle.
Using this time to bring awareness to your body,
To your breath,
To find your own sense of presence.
And so that we can bring that to any area of life,
Especially the ones that are challenging.
So as you stay rooted in your chair,
Your cushion,
Feeling energy moving up your spine,
To move into bringing awareness to our money.
And the first is to explore what might be challenging,
And that is to look at any debt that you have.
And so debt might be student loans,
Credit card debt,
Maybe it's a mortgage or a car.
Anywhere you're having money that you owe,
And if you don't have any debt,
Really opening to appreciate that.
If you do have debt,
Can you just see,
Just sense how that energy feels to look at it?
Maybe you know how much it is.
Maybe you don't.
And if you don't,
That's some homework to make sure that you can see and actually know,
Because we can't change things that we don't bring awareness to.
And so spend some time just being aware of the debt.
Notice what it does in your body,
And then open to it.
Can you slow down and relax?
Just open into it.
And see in this moment,
If you can thank it for what it's given you,
The car,
The house,
The education,
The couch or TV,
Maybe you bought on credit card,
Maybe it's things that you regret buying,
But still there was something in that moment that it gave you something.
And so if it's possible,
Can you open to having some gratitude around it?
And if you're not in debt,
Please open to the gratitude for not being in debt.
It's like not knowing what it's like to be sick.
It's something we take for granted.
So appreciate not having debt,
Feel it,
Open your heart.
And then letting that go,
We're going to shift our awareness to imagining that you are looking at your bank or credit card statement,
And all the purchases that are on it,
Internet,
Netflix,
Groceries,
Insurance,
Coffee,
Maybe even Insight Timer,
Whatever you spend money on,
Go through these items in your head and imagining what they are providing for you,
All these things you enjoy,
How the light turns on,
How your fridge is cold.
And can you appreciate,
Can you feel gratitude for all of these purchases,
For your ability to send this money out and receive the value?
So just take a few moments to go through that and feel the gratitude in your heart.
And then letting that go,
In this last portion of this little practice,
Is going to take a moment to think of something that you've spent money on that is not aligned with your values.
Maybe you bought something that you regret,
Or maybe you become aware of a monthly payment you don't use,
And this is not to beat yourself up,
But can you just slow down,
Just bring awareness to this space,
Because the awareness helps you be more conscious of it the next time that you might go and be in a position to make a similar purchase.
So just bringing that presence to any purchase or area where maybe you'd like to change your spending.
Breathing as you do this,
Again with kindness to yourself,
The beauty of this practice and whatever spiritual practice,
Whatever area of life,
Is that we get to begin again.
Every moment is a new beginning.
So honoring whatever showed up for you,
Taking a breath in with me,
Letting it go.
And whenever you're ready,
You can open up your eyes.
And I really want to invite you to actually take your phone,
Your computer,
Go look at your bank statement and do this practice in real time where you're actually seeing those purchases.
This is hugely transformational and you can really notice what you feel aligned with and what you don't by doing it and by looking at the numbers,
What we appreciate,
Appreciate.
So knowing just daily,
Looking at your bank account numbers,
Just that simple practice helps you bring awareness and helps it grow,
Helps it have more connection.
So I wish you lots of support.
If you want to stay connected to me here,
Go find me on Lew's Circle and yeah,
I look forward to connecting with you more.
Namaste.
