The Energy of Money

by Jennifer Baltz

If you feel like your money controls you more than you control it, it's time to take a closer look at The Energy of Money!

What is Money, Anyway?

It's not as simple a question as you might think. Money was originally created as a way to mark an exchange of life energy between two people. Money can have value in itself, as in gold, gems, and other precious metals. Or, money can be a marker, such as a piece of paper or an electronic transfer, with no intrinsic value in itself. Paper money would be worthless if we did not all agree that it is a marker representing a certain value.

One of the earliest uses of this kind of marker in exchange for goods happened when Mesopotamian farmers brought their grain to city granaries and stored it there, in exchange for tokens. The city kept some of the grain as payment for storage, and the farmer could trade in his tokens with merchants, who traded them for other merchandise or redeemed them for bags of grain.

When people used real gold and silver coins, it was acknowledged that these precious metals had value in themselves--perhaps because of their beauty and their ability to ornament our lives. Gold pieces could always be melted down and made into art or jewelry. But in the Middle Ages, the impracticality of transferring large quantities of gold and silver along dangerous country roads gave birth to banks and bank notes--more markets These paper tokens for gold and silver could be safely carried from one end of the country without risking your gold to Robin Hood along the way.

Giving Up Your Seniority to Money

Today, even token money like our currency is becoming token-less, transferred over fiber optic cables from bank to bank. Now, more than ever, it represents a pure energy transfer. You are still trading a certain amount of your life energy (work) in exchange for something that you can trade for more energy in the form of goods and services.

But because we are paid for our time in money, it gets easy to value ourselves in monetary terms. When you put a dollar value on your life energy (time at work), it's easy to go one step further and get unconsciouly stuck in the idea that you may actually be worth that amount--or what is in your bank account. You might be in resistance to the idea ("They aren't paying me what I'm worth!"), or you might be happy about it ("I'm worth a lot because they pay me the big bucks!"), but either way you're valuing yourself in terms of a unit of exchange. And this is the first step in allowing your money to control you rather than the other way around.

If you've ever felt stuck in a rut financially or in your career, felt trapped by your obligations, or unable to get out of the corner you've painted yourself into, you are being controlled by this kind of picture. Here are a few examples to clarify this concept:

Pete works at a deli, making $8 an hour. He hates his job and thinks he deserves more. He often comes in late, and recently got demoted from assistant manager because of this. He feels angry and believes that he can and should get more; people owe him. His father paid for him to go to the local junior college for classes, but he dropped the classes in the first week and spent the money having fun with his friends. He lives with his girlfriend, but doesn't pay half the rent because he doesn't make very much and his anger keeps him from owning that responsibility.

Dave is a stockbroker, and he makes $100,000 a year. He wears only designer labels, buys only the best toys and drives a Porsche. He only dates women who are beautiful and make above a certain income (though always a bit less than he does). He feels he has a certain right to more in the world because he makes a lot of money. Dave spends more than he makes, and he has hefty credit card debt on his Platinum Visa Card. He feels good because he makes a lot of money, and he is confident that he will always be able to pay it off ... down the road.

Both Pete and Dave have given up their seniority to money: their concepts about money control their actions and their happiness. Pete, in feeling like the world owes him, has stopped trying to grow and learn. He allows someone else to take care of him, rather than achieving his true potential. He does not respect other people who care for him, and at some point, he will lose their love. Dave cuts himself off from people who are not in his income class. He isolates himself from 95% of humanity. He may miss out on a special woman just because she does not meet some money-based standard. And he may be in for big trouble financially if he continues to overspend just to validate the picture that he is "worth" six figures. If Dave loses his job, he will lose the basis on which he values himself.

I hope you see the point. Your money is made up of your life energy. But your life energy is not defined or limited by your salary or your net worth. You are far greater than that, whether you make six dollars an hour or sixty. By valuing yourself and your life energy in terms of your salary or net worth, it's easy to fall into the trap of letting money rule your feelings. If you do this, you'll always lose out because you will lose perspective. When you have a lot of money at hand, you feel flush, abundant, deserving, worthy of everything. It's OK to spend more, buy more, waste more because you have more and you're worth it. But when you don't have much money, it's easy to feel smaller, less consequential, weaker, less able to be happy and strong, and less able to create your dreams.

How do you get out of the money-self-esteem trap? First, try to see money as a simple energy exchange, not a valuation of who you are. When you have money, don't let that feeling of being flush send you out to the store to spend it all to validate your self-worth. And when you don't have it, try to create a feeling of inner abundance by noticing what other riches you have: your body, your senses, your family, friends, the world, a flower, a good meal, etc. When you focus on the energy exchange, you start to see what you are really spending when you get out your credit card. It's not a meaningless blip on your credit card statement: it's your life energy spent in exchange for something. When you make a purchase, ask yourself--Is this really worth the life energy I am spending to gain it?

In the book, The Millionaire Next Door, authors Thomas Stanley and William Danke note that most millionaires don't flaunt their wealth. On the contrary, they see frugality as a sporting challenge--they truly love getting a real bargain, and they don't waste their precious life energy on the latest gadgets and gizmos if they don't need them. In fact, the millionaire next door is often someone who dresses down and doesn't look like a million bucks at first glance. Why? Because they they value their life energy more than they care about what other people think.

Your money represents your life energy. Value it!

Second, don't let your fears of a lack of money stop you from going after your dreams. If you've always wanted to be a nature photographer, and you hate your job as a lawyer, start bringing this energy into your life by doing it on weekends. Give yourself permission to have your dream, on a smaller scale at first. Don't let the perceived lack of money stop you from creating a rewarding hobby that may actually develop into a career someday if you put enough energy into it. A great book on bringing your dreams to fruition is Barbara Sher's Wishcraft. Read it, and find out how other people created their dreams on a shoestring.

The Karma of Money: Respect and Ye Shall Receive

Suze Orman, in her book The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom, notes that when we don't respect others in regard to money, it actually pushes wealth away from us. People who ignore debts or take advantage of others usually remain poor because they are acting in scarcity mode. Those who face their debts and make an effort to pay them off, even a little at a time, begin to draw more wealth because they are respecting the life energy of others--and by extension, their own life energy. It is tremendously empowering to honor your promises by clearing an old debt or obligation. The very act of doing it frees up more life energy so that you can enjoy the present that much more.

Money carries its own karma. Nearly every family has a horror story about a relative who died and the ensuing fight among previously peaceful family members for a piece of "what they deserve." Very rarely are the deceased's last wishes respected without anger or grumbling. One elderly woman saw this coming and she went through her house with masking tape, labeling all of her possessions so that her daughter would do the right thing and give them to the people she intended. But after she died, her daughter had an auction instead, and family members were forced to bid with strangers for objects that her late mother had intended for them.

What her daughter did not understand is the law of karma and money. By going against her mother's wishes, she not only angered her relatives and earned their disrespect for a lifetime, but she also created bad money karma for herself. The sayings "what goes around comes around" and "what you give out, you get back" are true. She still carries this energy with her to this day, having made no effort to repair the rift she created in her family over the incident.

When receiving an inheritance or a gift, ask yourself what the donor would have wanted you to do with the money, and spend part or all in a way that honors both yourself and your loved one's request. Spend the money with respect and gratitude, honoring the gift you have received. When you respect the wishes and the life energy of another, you are also respecting and valuing yourself. Remember, we are all connected: no one lives in a vacuum on Planet Earth. We are all part of the same whole, and how you treat others is usually a reflection of how you treat yourself--and allow yourself to be treated.

Orman also notes that giving to bonafide charities is another way to increase abundance in your life. Why? When you give money, you feel abundant--you feel good about yourself. You are using that money-emotion connection to positive advantage. The other aspect of giving is karmic: when you send something out into the universe with good will, it comes back again to you many times over, in the same spirit you sent out.

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