What Can Nature Teach Us About Money?
In the summer of 2017 I did something a bit out of the ordinary. I spent four days sitting in the woods alone with no food or water. I know, it sounds strange and maybe even a little crazy. But I promise I haven’t lost my mind! For a year or so prior to this I had felt a growing pull toward Native American tradition and specifically the Vision Quest.
On August 15th I responded to that pull when I walked into the woods to begin a Vision Quest. I was put out by an experienced teacher with a lot of experience. You don’t do this alone! I came back with a lot of insights and lessons from the greatest teacher – nature. But one thing I didn’t think of while I was out there is money. It wasn’t until I sat down to consider a newsletter topic that this insight occurred. If nature had a lesson to teach about money, what would it be? The answer came to me as clear as day. The lesson would be about abundance.
When you spend four days fully immersed in nature, sitting in one spot, with nothing at all to do but just BE with it, you really notice everything. What I observed on my first day is that nature is constantly growing and constantly dying. It’s a great circle of life that never stops (unless we get involved of course). Do the trees worry when their leaves begin to fall off? Of course not. They are completely non-resistant to change, fully aware that their leaves will be back soon in even greater quantity!
Nature lives in a constant state of abundance. Even when something is dying, it rests easily knowing its merely changing form. From rotten tree, to soil, to growing something new again. Nature also understands that everything is energy, and energy must flow. If it’s restricted or stopped, challenges manifest in various ways – none of them good. Eastern medicine embraces this concept of energy flow with the practice of acupuncture Thai Chi and Qi Gong. By restoring proper energy flow in the body with these techniques, many physical ailments are naturally healed. So what does this have to do with money? Well, if everything is energy, that means money is energy and it must flow too. That’s why we call it currency!
What is the number one block or resistance to the flow of money? It’s FEAR. We fear that we don’t have enough. We fear that we don’t deserve it. We fear that we’ll lose it. We fear that we won’t fit in with our community unless we have obscene amounts of it – or at least appear that we do.
Where does this fear come from? It primarily comes from our subconscious mind. According to neuroscience research, 95% our behaviors and patterns about money (and everything else) are formed in childhood between the ages of 2 and 12. By identifying and understanding patterns that are not serving us and creating blockages around money, we can ultimately release them. Then the energy around money can begin to once again flow more freely – which is our natural state.
How this is accomplished is, of course, a process. It begins with the willingness to change and to seek help. A Certified Money Coach is trained specifically to deal with these issues and would be an excellent professional to start with. To learn more about the money coaching process, you can visit the money coaching section of this web site HERE.