Let’s talk about money, y’all.

Or rather, let’s talk about prosperity.

I’ve gotta say… as a teacher, mentor and coach in the spiritual self-realization space, money is a highly fraught topic. Today, I’m putting out a big prayer: that the following post is deeply transformative for your relationship with money.

Perhaps there’s simply a small course correction in your language, or perhaps this conversation will illuminate a whole new horizon from which you can begin to look at finances differently.

Before we start, let me say this: It's a journey. Not about making a quick buck.

Money is a form of prosperity, and prosperity is simply another iteration of energy. I’m offering this to you, beloved, because I feel it is deeply needed. Most of the wealth on the planet belongs to white men, most of the successful businesses in the world are owned by white men, and the majority of the assaults on our environment are literally fueled by greed and scarcity.

Way too many of us are sitting on the sidelines, broke or barely scraping by, definitely not thriving, wondering how we’re supposed to contribute to the solution and not the problem. Of course money is not the solution in and of itself.

That said, it can certainly support our ability to contribute financially and energetically to the causes we care most about.

PRINCIPLE 1

Prosperity is a tapestry

Become a weaver with me. A weaver of creativity, a weaver of wisdom, a weaver of willingness, a weaver of curiosity, a weaver of innovation. When I think about Prosperity, I see a brightly colored tapestry composed of many different threads. I want to address all the aspects of prosperity that I weave, and encourage you to do the same.

Prosperity is not simply how much I have in my bank account, though that is one thread. To be prosperous includes financial abundance… And, it’s bigger than that.

What does it mean to feel prosperous in love, inside of your closest relationships?

What does it mean to be prosperous with your time?

What does that actually look and feel like on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis?

What does a prosperous relationship with your body look and feel like?

With mother earth?

Let’s widen our scope, friends. Prosperity and wealth are not the same thing. They are connected, but to have wealth does not necessarily imply prosperity. This is a holistic picture we’re painting. Become the artist and start using more colors than just green.

PRINCIPLE 2

Prosperity is the fruit and blossoms of your creativity

Prosperity is an ability to turn your skills and creativity into resources. Prosperity doesn’t arrive of its own accord. The most basic example of this is nature. Yes, it can seem like the apple tree just blossoms and then fruits… It's a miracle! And you could say the apple doesn’t have to work, it just sits there and prospers.

How unfair!

And yet, how limiting that view is…

In actuality, the apple tree needs so many elements aligning in its favor to thrive. It requires the right amounts of sunlight, spaciousness, clean air, fresh water, and nutrition from the soil. It requires to be left alone from invasive insects or other critters who might threaten the health of its bark, roots or leaves. It depends on the 4 seasons to fortify and prepare it for the best possible harvest. In the same way, your prosperity depends on a great many factors, all which stem from the roots of your own creativity.

I’ve been apprenticing with two hindu goddesses to ground this fact ever deeper into my psyche and my energetic field. First, Saraswati, the goddess of learning, wisdom, teaching, music, art, beauty, and creativity (to name a few – of course, words can never fully encompass the complexity of any one face of the Divine Mother).

I’ve always had ‘Saraswati codes’ as my friend Katerina likes to say. My own creativity is vast, both in the literal realm of arts and music, as well as a predisposition to think and see the world creatively, outside of the box. Saraswati governs all I do when I’m in creation mode.

The second goddess is Lakshmi, who I think of as the maestra of prosperity, wealth, and abundance (again, very limiting, but sufficient for our purposes here). Lakshmi is who I call upon when I want to learn more about investing, when I lean into discomfort as I file my taxes, when I carve out time to track my revenue each day throughout the month.

She is seen sitting on a lotus, gold coins pouring from both hands. The eternal fountain of abundant prosperity, seen not only in coin, but in beauty, grace, confidence, and courage with which we step into our self-worth. These two goddesses work side by side, hand in hand. I have them both hanging in my office, right behind my desk.

If you watch any recent video I’ve done, you’ll see them, hanging out over my left shoulder, watching over me while I work. I’m fully embracing these two in what I think of as a divine marriage of creativity and prosperity. They feed one another, working in an endless loop of creation and abundance, over and over.

PRINCIPLE 3

Prosperity is created through labor

Another piece of art I have hanging in my office is a beautiful block print – it’s a close-up rendition of the center of a yellow sunflower, with two honey bees circling the center, harvesting nectar. Underneath the flower in bold black lettering, it says “labor creates all wealth.” Truth! I think labor has taken on a negative connotation, and understandably so.

In American society, “labor” is thought most commonly to refer to hard labor. Those jobs are often lower paying, harder on the body, and end up employing people on the lower spectrum of the economic class system, as well as many people who are not legally citizens. Therefore we often see labor as “below us”, which is really unfortunate – the bees remind us that is not the case.

The phrase ‘labor of love’ is a great reframe on this word. Also, the fact that mothers go into ‘labor’ when they give birth! Labor as a word refers both to bringing a child into the world as well as the conduit of work which provides us with a real, viable product as a result. Whether that is beauty, food, a book you publish, a class you teach or anything else, your labor is valuable, and it is sacred.

Yes, by all means, let’s learn to work smarter rather than harder, let’s find all the ways we’re creating more work for ourselves or making it harder than it needs to be and streamline. And, let’s honor our labor like we honor the pollinators who are literally laboring outside so that we can have our food supply.

I treat my work as sacred, and I endeavor to move ever more in alignment with my most sacred work. Bless the labor of which your hands, your mind, your voice, your words and your creativity takes part. This is, after all, your sacred service to the world. It’s all about how we think about it.

Speaking of which…

PRINCIPLE 4

Prosperity is created through mindset

This could really be Principle 3 part B, because labor and mindset are both required for true prosperity to blossom. This is an important one, because I see a lot of folks doing only one of these and hoping that a windfall of money will come their way.

Mindset work around our money is incredibly important. We can work ourselves to the bones, but if we somehow feel we’re not capable or worthy of earning more, then we won’t. Money blocks are common, and insidious. We learn a lot of them from our parents and our society, and it's our job as conscious creators to take matters into our own hands and start the work of unwinding these limiting money beliefs.

There are SO many amazing women* I’ve learned from over the past decade teaching these principles. Shout out to Monica Shah, Katerina Satori, Rachel Rodgers, Kelly Diels and Denise Duffield-Thomas.

*Yes, note those are all women I’ve mentioned. I’m most interested in learning about money from women. That’s because we’ve been on the margins for a long time, so personally, I find a woman sharing her wisdom around cultivating prosperity typically more helpful and more holistic.

If you’re already doing money mindset work, keep going friend. Me too! If you haven't started in earnest, please start today:

Put on some meditation music and visualize a specific number landing in your bank account (I spent 17 minutes with a client last week doing exactly this)
Write yourself a check for the amount you want to earn next year and put it on your wall where you see it daily
Journal about your money story and the myths you feel trapped in
Look for mentors, teachers, authors and speakers who resonate with you

Invest some funds into it! I promise you, this is money well spent. If you really do the work, it will deliver.

PRINCIPLE 5

You are simply a treasurer for the Great Mother

Here’s a reframe to try on: Money is holy ground. If you feel repelled, resistant or stuck in an unhealthy relationship with money, I invite you to sit with the possibility that money, wealth and prosperity is your next spiritual edge of learning and evolution.

There is a beautiful booklet by Sri Aurobindo, an Indian guru, called The Mother. Inside this booklet are some of the most transformational ideas I’ve ever read about money. These words are so fortifying for my heart. I want to share a few excerpts with you. Take a few breaths and read on. Let these words seep into your bones, beloved.

“Money is the visible sign of a universal force, and this force and its manifestation on earth works on the vital and physical planes and is indispensable to the fullness of our life. In its origin and its true action it belongs to the divine…. Some even put a ban on money and riches and proclaim poverty and bareness of life as the only spiritual condition. But this is an error; it leaves the power in the hands of the hostile forces. To reconquer it for the divine to whom it belongs and use it divinely for the divine life is the supplemental way for the Sadhaka (spiritual practitioner). Regard wealth simply as a power to be one back for the mother and placed at her service. All wealth belongs to the divine and those who hold it are trustees, not possessors. Make no demand but accept what you receive from her And use it for the purposes for which it is given to you. Be entirely selfless, entirely scrupulous, exact, careful in detail, a good trustee; always consider that it is her possessions and not your own that you are handling.“

PRINCIPLE 6

Make the choice to create a prosperous life

This is a choice.

It may sound simple, and in some ways, it is.

As we’ve spoken about, there’s work involved, both internally and externally. The blessing of this choice is that you can decide for yourself how much work you truly want to do, and what your prosperous life truly looks like.

For me, prosperity not only includes living without money worries (though that’s a big one). It also includes slowing down and feeling spacious in my life. A recent mantra I’ve been working with is “as my prosperity expands, so does my spaciousness.”

That one is directly pointed at the money myth that says “I need to work harder and harder to create more abundance, and as more comes in I need to sacrifice my well being and my free time to keep it flowing in and manage it”.

I’m calling BS on that one.

That’s what delegating is for. So find your own rhythm. I deeply value dismantling oppressive patterns of ambition and productivity, so my personal definition of prosperity accounts for that. I also take a stand that prosperity is an earthy, grounded energy that requires full embodiment.

I offer this choice to you, on a golden platter, and I hope you’ll accept the delicious fruits that come with the decision to create a prosperous life.

I choose to bring this money conversation forward with a deep soul embodiment. Prosperity is not only possible for you too, but actually necessary. I’ll make a case that we need folks who are awake and doing the good work to have more of those dollars!

A beautiful woman I know, Ivonne Delaflor, says "money is the default of mission in motion." The more fully you walk in your mission, the more easily and playfully prosperity will weave with you.

Your tapestry is the prosperity of service, living in harmony with the earth, the quality of your relationships.

A great question to leave you with: If you had 1 billion dollars drop into your bank account right now, what would you do with your time and your life energy? I can honestly say for myself, I’d do exactly what I’m doing now… with a lot more delegation and a team to help me more fully support my mission!

You are enough. Please stop arguing for your limitations, and start making the conscious choice to be a trusted caretaker of the divine Mother’s dollars.

I got you, I see you, and I’m doing the work by your side.

6 Prosperity Principles to Implement ASAP