by John McDevitt

Created on: October 29, 2007   Last Updated: February 21, 2009

Money is an abstraction. Prosperity and scarcity, having or not having are just ways of living and thinking. Prosperity or scarcity are only real, because we make it so. The power of money (or the lack of power) comes from the way we think about money and what we believe about ourselves.

Cultivating our money consciousness lifts the curtain and brings the role money plays in our lives out in the open. Many people drag the mental and emotional baggage they have about money around with them like a ball and chain with no understanding or even awareness of where their beliefs about money came from, or if these beliefs are even true.

Cultivating your money consciousness means bringing your unconscious beliefs about the relationship you have with your money and possessions to the surface where they can be looked at and changed when they are false or strengthened when they are true and empowering.

The only way to have any measure of control over money is to become aware of how you think about money, of the role of money plays in your life all the way down to your core values and beliefs. If you don't, money and any mistaken beliefs you might have will control you.

Consider the person who was raised in a home where they heard the refrain "we can't afford it" over and over. Is it any wonder then, as an adult, they are trapped in a mental and emotional prison of scarcity? Contrast this person to another, who may have come from a home with fewer financial resources but a constant belief in the power of self, in the power of prosperity, where poverty and can't afford it were never part of their vocabulary. Which of these people is in control?

Another mistaken belief many people have is their association of money with self-worth. How sad that is. Money can't buy happiness, nor can the lack of money deny happiness. How you spend your money is what matters, not how much you spend.

Do you see how a true understanding of the role money has in your life has the power to free you from restrictions? Cultivating your money consciousness goes far deeper than simply thinking about money. True money consciousness helps you dig deep into your inner values to challenge old, worn out beliefs and discover the real truth, truth that will help you create new patterns and attitudes that can empower you.

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