For the last month I have been receiving intuitive nudges to re-examine my relationship with money. I did a colour and astrology reading with a colleague when I was out in Tuscany and I found myself picking up the bottle in the photo above along with lots of turquoise bottles – you can read about my initial insights here. I was drawn to it because the coral top had an almost golden hue to it. And then when I took a step back and looked at my bottles in the round I realised the message for me was that I would come into a sense of greater wholeness when I dived deep into the murky depths of my relationship with money. It was suggesting that there would be movement. A month on, I can definitely see that occurring. I am not all the way through yet and so I am sharing as I sense the shift unfolding.
This is also one of the reasons that I tend to see clients only once a month because to get the profundity of the message, it’s important to sit with the colours paying close attention to whatever is coming into your field. If you do this you will find that over time you get more clarity and insights. The key is to not dismiss anything even if it’s not what you expected.
The Gift economy
During August I have found myself taking a course on the gift economy. When it first came into my awareness, I felt quite a bit of resistance. I felt that I was already giving a lot to many people and wondered what more there was for me to learn. I overcame my reluctance by committing to a taster of the course: this felt much easier than a commitment to doing the whole thing. Rather like dipping a toe in.
And I became hooked because I realised how much truth there was for me. All the work I have been doing has allowed me to see that I want to change my relationship with money. What I loved about the course is that it encourages us to hold paradoxes. For example the idea that there is both scarcity and abundance. There’s scarcity because 1 in 5 children in the US go hungry whilst at the same time 50% of the food produced is never eaten and is thrown into landfill. That is a very uncomfortable truth to hold isn’t it?
What does this bottle mean if you are drawn to it?
With all bottles it depends on the context and other bottles picked with it but there are some general themes we can mention. Red is the colour we associate with making money and as you may know the Chinese see red as a very lucky colour because it is vibrant and exudes a lot of energy.
If the bottle turns up in your colour DNA blueprint then you are destined to be an entrepreneur. I think that’s really exciting, don’t you? At it’s highest level this bottle suggests that you are grounded enough in this reality that you will find ways to make money whilst being sensitive to your own and others’ wounds. When working in the negative it suggests you overplay being a victim so others feel compelled to rescue you and potentially you tend to feel unworthy.
How does the gift economy work with being an entrepreneur?
The job of an entrepreneur is to have a viable business and that means to make money through their products and services. At first glance there seems to be very little alignment between the gift economy and entrepreneurialism. It may explain why I felt a fair bit of repulsion initially.
As I got deeper into my exploration of these two ideas I began to see more of the connections. For me running Whole Self Leadership has never been about the money: it came from a desire to be of service by sharing with others ways to expand consciousness to avoid getting stuck in the traps that exist in the 3D. The essence of that is captured in the following quotation:
Money is like love; it kills slowly and painfully the one who withholds it, and enlivens the other who turns it on his fellow man.
Kahlil Gibran
And what I have realised is that being the gift happens when we are immersed in the field of love and vibrate at a high frequency. There are no conditions set when you offer a gift. It is given without expectation of anything in return.
This is only possible when there is deep trust that there is something bigger than the conditioned self out there that will support us and give us what we need if we act with pure intentions. That trust comes when we can surrender our will and the act of surrender is scary particularly when the will is strong! Believe me I know from personal experience.
My experiment with the gift economy
Earlier in the week I went to buy more dog food for Benji. His diet is part raw and part a special vegan kibble made from insects and other wholesome ingredients which gives him a very glossy coat. When I went to purchase it the price had increased by 25% since my last order. I was horrified and wrote to the company who justified the increase because of the current all round hike in prices.
One of the impacts of the war over Ukraine is that the cost of many items is increasing as it is the bread basket of Europe. My sense is that we are only at the start of this. The logical thing in such a situation would be for me to increase my prices as the cost of living has already increased significantly. I am not going to do that!
Instead because I believe that more than ever we need spaces where we can come together to heal any fear around scarcity and connect to our essence so we can feel love vibrating throughout our body, I had this crazy idea which I have to share with you.
If you have been following me for a while you will know that I offered several series of meditations on a pay from the heart basis during the Pandemic. Now I am offering you an in-person day of colourful magic with me where we will explore our relationship with money on exactly the same terms.
I am not going to pretend that I don’t have needs because I do that said I place my trust in the Divine that my needs will be met. Realistically I feel a fair price for a day retreat with me is £150. That is the same as an hour 1:1 with me so feels like a great deal. However you get to set the price based on what you think the day is worth.
If you can pay £175 that helps me really show up, and sustains the business. If you can stretch to £200 that will support those who need to pay less.
That said you can pay whatever you can afford. I want you to be able to attend and realise that it’s a tough environment out there right now. Please if you are stretched financially, I invite you with an open heart to choose an amount lower than my suggested minimum.
I am serious about welcoming everyone so pay what you can afford. What matters is that you commit and confirm your place by signing up now as that way you are helping to build the group energy.
Part of the reason for offering this day as pay from the heart is that it is likely to trigger your own money patterns. That alone could provide you with rich data. For more about the day click here. And if you want to know more then feel free to drop me an email.