What's Your Money Story?

This past Sunday, I had the pleasure of speaking at a spiritual community called Project: Service Los Angeles where I shared a story. I love story-telling because stories give a peek into the world of the person who's telling the story, not just in the words but also in the emotion and the way the story itself is told.

Stories are very powerful because they frame how you look at an experience of life. It's said that at a scene of an accident, you can have 20 different witnesses, and at the same time, have 20 different stories of what happened.

I spoke with someone recently about his "money stories." He described how unhappy he was with his financial situation, and how he was tired of "just getting by." He talked about how he experienced this pattern with money for most of his life. When I asked him what his earliest memory was of this pattern showing up, he described his mom and dad fighting about money and how tired they were of "just getting by." At that moment, he exclaimed, "OH MY GOD! I've been living out this story from my childhood!" He realized he was playing out a money story that he learned from his parents.

The beauty of our conversation was that he became aware of his money story playing out in his life today. One of the first steps to moving forward in a new direction in life is to bring this state of awareness of the stories and beliefs that play out in your life.

Once you become aware of your money stories, you get to choose which ones you get to keep and which ones you get to change. Do you want to hear the same bedtime story every night, or do you want to change it up? It's your choice.

For your coaching assignment for this week, let's see what money stories might be operating in your life. Take out your journal and ponder these questions, or simply take a moment to answer them in your mind right now:

• What is your earliest memory of money in your life? Describe what happened.
• How did you feel in that experience? What lessons did you learn?
• Have any of these thoughts or lessons about money shown up in your life? Are they playing out in your life today?
• What of these lessons do you want to keep, and what do you want to discard? What new lessons can you embrace?

As you contemplate these questions, I want you to take note of your feelings and your bodily sensations. What feelings come up? Do you feel constricted and tight, or do you feel open and expanded? Where in your body are you feeling? Simply notice. This is the first step of awareness. (I'll cover some of the other steps in later blog posts.)

Some of you know that I've been making the shift to do more work explicitly with gay men. If you happen to be one, or know other gay men, I wanted to share with you that I'm putting together the final touches of a program called "Re-Write Your Money Story: Step One on the Spiritual Gay Guy's Path to Prosperity." I'm looking for a handful of gay men to test out this program, so feel free to send me an email to joselito@abundantgood.com if you're interested.

If you're not a gay man, no worries. I do one-on-one spiritual life coaching with anyone who needs support. To give you a taste of my work, you can click here if you want to schedule a Free Clarity Session with Prayer.

I'd love to hear what you think about "Money Stories." Like this and leave a comment below. I'd really appreciate it!

Here's to a greater awareness to the money stories in your life, and to your ability to choose the stories that serve the highest and best of you and the world.

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