The Last Taboo: Money Problems (Part 1)

Every article feels like the next exciting step. Now I’d like to take you where we have never been before. I want to talk to you about what I like to call The Last Taboo: Money Problems.

This is crucial because our money problems are symptoms of far deeper issues. If you don’t use these difficulties as opportunities, you limit your ability to effectively influence your life and pass up a great chance to heal and grow. This is not only about you and me, as we are all connected in this quantum universe. When we heal — or don’t — so does the entire planet.

Nowhere is our conflict with money more evident than in the spiritual community. Is money good or evil? Highly regarded figures from numerous religions and spiritual paths have taken vows of poverty.

We halt the flow, and at times it almost seems like we are trying NOT to be prosperous. In the process we make our lives more difficult, even interfering with our time for spiritual pursuits.

Is wealth a sign of God’s favor, or evidence of our straying from what is important? Is abundance the result of spiritual connection, or instead … are vows of poverty a reflection of proper attention to the Divine? Is wealth a hindrance in our search for purity, interfering with our quest for enlightenment?

Whether focusing on your need for money, or proclaiming its lack of importance, the facts are that at the end of the month, many seekers simply don’t have the cash to pay for what they want in their life.

Struggling to make ends meet, they share much with the rest of our culture. They complain about their financial difficulty, but they don’t really want to talk about it. Not really. They don’t want to discuss how they have created their shortage of cash … they aren’t serious about brainstorming strategies to resolve it … and more than anything they don’t want to talk about how much money they make!

As a therapist for more than 25 years, I’ve had tens of thousands of conversations about things involving sex, death, abuse, and personal finances that are considered taboo. But the thing that people are most hesitant to talk about is their money! Willing to share the most intimate details of their sex life is not a problem. But, when I ask a client "How much money do you make?" it’s an exceedingly rare person who answers as forthrightly as they do with the other "taboo" subjects. Instead, they often look away — trying hard to act like I have said nothing! … Or they look at me like I’m a two-headed alien who’s recently arrived from a distant planet.

When I go a step further and ask why that question causes this reaction, I get the anyone on earth — even a therapist! — should know better than ask that question look.

Certainly, these reactions make sense. We are taught the desire to be rich, and in the same breath that money is the root of all evil. We are taught to dress rich — but not too rich. "Money doesn’t buy happiness" -… but it sure doesn’t hurt either. And we all know what "marrying well" means. And think about it: is it good or bad to be "filthy rich?"

What do you expect the results to be, if we have been taught such mixed messages?

The big deal is that your money problems, and your difficulty dealing with them, result not only in financial scarcity, but also in illness, relationship nightmares, spiritual conflicts, and ultimately interferes with your sense of wholeness.

If you have a problem in your relationship with cash, that’s an indication that there is a problem with the alignment between your body and spirit. Because of the connections that weave us together as friends, families, communities and cultures, your problems with money affect not only you … but everyone else, as well.

So many of us are concerned with our spiritual growth, often focusing on opening our third eye and crown charkas. We work hard developing our intuition, our spiritual practices, and our connection to Source. Unfortunately, we don’t place enough value on the human, down-to-earth side of our experience. We forget that we aren’t only spiritual beings, but spiritual beings having a very real, earthly, social, human experience. It is our humanness — our life in the physical/material plane that provides the foundation for our growth and spiritual development. We are here to learn the lessons of aligning body and spirit. When we de-value the body and the physical dimension, of which money is a vital part, our spirit suffers as well. The fact is, you can only raise your vibration so much, without whole-body/spirit alignment and integration.

Lacking alignment, we feel disconnected, "out of our body" in a realm of atmospheric chaos … or excessively burdened and heavy when in it. This is not a place of creativity … and definitely not a place of joy.

You can only come so far without removing this last taboo. Money is about energy exchange, manifestation and creation. If you have a money problem, you have a problem creating wealth in every area of your life. Even your relationship with Source will not be as rich as it could be.

Working with your mental/emotional, energetic, and spiritual patterns will get you the quickest, deepest results. Look at your stories, realign your energetic patterns, and re-affirm your connection to Source.

Who are you? How will you be different if you change your money dynamics? What do you believe about money? What do you believe about spirituality and money, sex and money, self-worth and money? How much are you willing to change? And, what will your family, your friends, and most important YOU think about the new you … with a new, upbeat, and optimistic view of money?

We must get beyond the last taboo. Who would expect to resolve the problems of STD’s, drugs, or suicide, for individuals and our culture, without discussion and really dealing with the issue itself? It is time to move our money problems out of the silence and darkness where they’ve been hiding and into the light. Taking the first step to a new point of view and a new reality with money, is simple but perhaps not easy. But, you can do it! Start by making a commitment to align spirit to the whole body … to the whole physical dimension … and be prosperous in every area of your life.