Defining our Relationship with Money

I just finished an incredible book that has completely transformed my relationship with money and how I pursue my passion for being an advocate to end sexual assault in our society. The book is called The Soul of Money written by Lynne Twist, an amazingly inspiritational women who is best known as an avid global activist for the past 30 years.

Lynne Twist has raised billions of dollars for The Hunger Project, a global strategic organization committed to the sustainable end of world hunger. In Africa, Asia and Latin America, The Hunger Project empowers people to achieve lasting progress in health, education, nutrition and family income. She co-founded the Pachamama Alliance which is committed to empowering indigenous people to preserve their territories and way of life and thereby protect the natural world for the entire human family. Her primary role within those organizations has been fundraising. Through her journey in fundraising, she has been able to work with individual mulit-millionaires, wealthy families and billion dollar corporations from around the world. This book documents the lessons that she has learned over time.

One of the first observations that she makes, made me stop and begin to analyze my own relationship with money. We as a human race created the concept of money and then the actual physical being of money, yet most people in our society allow money to own them. We all tend to get caught up with the perception that money is scarce, that resources are lacking. And we ourselves limit our abundance by our belief in scarcity. Paul Zeiter stated it best, "There is a natural law of abundance which pervades the entire universe, but it will not flow through a doorway of belief in lack and limitation."

Lynne Twist goes on to define 3 toxic myths of money;

1. There is not enough.
2. More is better.
3. That's just the way it is.

As I take a step back and reflect upon how I have been living, I realized I have been guilty of those thoughts. Those thoughts create a you or me perception of the world instead of a you and me world of connectivity, where we are all one, which is aligned with how I live every other area of my life excluding money...or have I been, since money facilitates so much in our lives.

I love it when a book challenges our deepest beliefs allowing us to have a breakthrough and raise our level of awareness. I have created the following 3 affirmations to assist in changing my relationship with money;

1. Abundance surrounds me.
2. I am grateful for all that is in my world.
3. I will create new possibilities and take action to achieve them.

As I move forward in my life, money will now be a conduit to express my inner being.

One of the other powerful revelations I had while reading this book relates to how I pursue my passion of ending sexual assault in our society. Historically, I have been focusing my attention on the aftermath, another words, the healing of victims/survivors, training for first point of contact service providers, ie nurses, police, attorney's, etc and changing laws to hold sexual predators accountable. What Lynne Twist made me realize, was that when you approach an issue from the stand point that you are going to end it, not just make it better, your choices become very different as well as how you allocate your resources. This has transformed the way I will progress in my efforts to end sexual assault in our society. The possibilites that I am now creating focus on education, at a very young age. The education would not be fear based but would have a three pronged approach:

1. Defining gender roles as equal in every aspect of our society.
2. To raise awareness in our youth as to what is appropriate and what is not, and what to do if you have been inappropriately touched or approached.
3. Educating the parents on raising their level of awareness on interpreting signs that perhaps something might have happened.

I am excited by this new approach and will keep you posted with my progress.

In closing, this book came recommended to me from a wonderful friend and mentor,Lisa Molina, and I highly recommend it to anyone that feels money owns them.