Money and Spirituality Archives

Our First Spiritual Responsibility

Occasionally I read or hear stories of people who sound like they’ve taken a tremendous leap of faith. They’ve quit their job from one day to the next, without any idea of how they’ll now go about creating income. They traveled across the country with no idea of where they would stay or how they’d get back. That sort of thing. And they loudly pronounce that they trust the Universe to provide for them as needed.

That sounds good. Sometimes these are indeed very powerful choices. But the thing is, the Universe acts through actual people. If we put ourselves in a position where we can no longer provide for ourselves … we put someone else in the position of having to provide FOR US.

And there’s nothing spiritual about that.

Following our intuition, or our Soul Purpose, or Divine guidance, is NOT an excuse to be irresponsible. I don’t care how drawn we are to a training program, a place, a teacher, or how horrible our day job or even our marriage has become … there is a difference between a leap of faith and spiritual escapism. If other people end up being responsible for the consequences of our choices … then we’ve engaged in spiritual escapism.

When we think of “the Universe” providing for us, we have to remember that WE ARE THE UNIVERSE. And if we don’t provide for ourselves, then other people will have to do so. And while we are all here to help and serve one another, there is a difference between giving assistance – and having the burden of responsibility for someone who refuses to be responsible for themselves.

As adults, empowered by free will, our first and foremost responsibility is to take care of ourselves at the physical level. There are many unfortunate people who don’t have this privilege of personal empowerment – people who are mentally or physically disabled, people who are sick or injured.

But if we are able-bodied and able-minded adults … it’s our first spiritual responsibility to take care of ourselves. Because if we do not, we can’t possibly serve others. And we, in fact, become a burden. We make others responsible for a roof over our heads, food on the table, transportation and other necessities of physical life. Meanwhile, we have our heads stuck so far up in the spiritual realm that we abdicate our human responsibilities.

That’s not “trusting the Universe.” That’s having people who are more responsible than we are pick up our slack.

I learned this lesson the hard way.

I had a friend who’d been spiraling downwards financially for a few years. When he told me he didn’t even have money to buy food, I had him stay with me for a while.

I discovered that a two-year downward spiral is usually no accident. Financial misfortune rarely happens overnight. As it turns out, he didn’t work particularly hard. He was totally comfortable living off my efforts.

It didn’t take me long to realize I wasn’t helping – I was enabling.

These days, should sudden misfortune strike, I would still offer any friend in need my couch or my guest room. But I’d better see them working their tush off sixteen hours a day in order to create income.

Our first responsibility is to BE the Universe and provide for ourselves. This IS the most basic aspect of every Soul’s Purpose. It’s only from this most basic place of empowerment that we can serve others, and step into the experience of our Divinity.

Living From Fifth-Dimensional Consciousness

Occasionally, I get requests for articles from my newsletter subscribers, which I really appreciate! Here’s one I just received:

“Andrea, please just consider writing a blog on how to align and connect to the 5th dimension. Is there a simple way to state it so we can live from there?” – Dee

This request really got me thinking. Can living from fifth-dimensional consciousness be stated simply and concisely? Here’s my attempt.

1. Know your Soul Purpose. Our Purpose is at all times to live the authentic self-expression of our Soul, and so we must get to know ourselves at Soul-level. This is an ongoing process! Getting to know our Divine Soul-level gifts is key to creating an abundant and fulfilling human experience. Luckily, it’s not that hard to know our Purpose. (I think it gets overcomplicated a LOT!) I’ve got a free video series on the topic over at Your Purposeful Money Path, and of course I dive into Soul Purpose in detail within my readings.

2. Set clear intentions. We can’t leave the ego out of the picture. While the Soul most certainly is here to express itself into this human experience, the ego is the manager of this process. It is up to the ego to decide how we want to implement our Soul Purpose. The Soul sets the general direction. The ego decides on its practical implementation. The Soul and the ego truly must become partners in creating the life that we want – both as spiritual AND human Beings. The ego must be as satisfied as the Soul, because at the end of the day, we are just One Being, creating this experience!

3. Listen to inner guidance. Now that we know our Purpose, and the ego has set a clear intention on how it wants to make our Soul Purpose manifest, our intuition can guide us as to what practical action steps will create our desired reality. Guidance is information that comes from our Higher Self, our Soul. Guidance doesn’t always make logical sense to us, because our intuition comes from an aspect of ourselves that resides outside of linear time. Of course, that’s what also gives our Higher Self a bird’s eye view of our situation – one that our mind simply cannot give us! If you find yourself not taking action on guidance because you’re not sure about your own intuitive accuracy, I have a great free resource for you here.

4. Take congruent action. This is where I find many spiritually oriented people encounter their greatest challenge! When we work on connecting to fifth-dimensional consciousness, there’s a tendency to become ungrounded. We focus on our inner reality to the detriment of our third-dimensional circumstances. Let’s never forget that no amount of healing, clearing, or spiritual practice is a substitute for rolling up our sleeves and taking action towards what we want.

But what is “congruent” action? It is action that aligns with our intention, which aligns to our Soul Purpose. Congruence is when the Soul, the ego, and the physical body are in impeccable alignment with each other – which is exactly what makes manifestation occur.

Action speaks the loudest in this Universe, because it requires the most effort and thus also sends out the “loudest” energetic statement. Not only do we have to take actions that are congruent to our intention … we also have to STOP taking incongruent action! If, for example, you want to create your own business, going after that promotion at the job you despise would be incongruent action. This will inevitably make manifestation impossible. Taking business opportunities that have nothing to do with your purposeful self-expression JUST for financial gain would also be incongruent action. Creating business relationships in which you cannot be authentically self-expressed, just because you want the “connections” would be incongruent action.

Is all of this simple? Yes. Is it easy? Well … no. It’s not easy because we simply haven’t been brought up to live this way! Most of the world is still operating from a place of fourth-dimensional consciousness. It is up to us to have the courage to do things differently, in order to ground fifth-dimensional consciousness into our human experience!

Blessings,
Andrea

How Long Does It Take To Manifest Money?

When we become more conscious, it seems we also become more impatient with the physical world! This can really create a problem when we’re trying to manifest financial results.

Here’s what’s happening.

More than ever before, we’re now able to tap into the super information highway that is the fifth dimension. Intuitive guidance, the vision of our Soul’s purpose, the desire to serve others … all of these are heightened as we develop fifth-dimensional consciousness.

Sounds great, right? And it is! We have SO MUCH MORE information available to us about our Divine nature than ever before!

Except we are still physical beings, looking to create in this third-dimensional, human experience.

The fifth dimension lies outside of the confines of time and space. Which means everything is instant and available. Fifth-dimensional consciousness allows us to tune into all that is possible for us and helps us create big purposeful visions for our life. It’s all right there, right now, and it’s effortless.

This physical dimension, by comparison, isn’t nearly as much fun.

The physical world is dense. It takes huge amounts of effort (i.e. action!) to move energy. We have linear time to contend with, which means everything happens so sloooooowly!

What I’m noticing more and more is that us highly conscious folks aren’t patient enough to truly GROUND our fifth-dimensional vision and guidance into this third-dimensional experience.

Let’s say you have a vision for a coaching or healing practice. Fifth-dimensionally, you see how many Souls are poised to work with you, you witness your global reach and impact, you tune into the abundance of your Divine Gifts and the abundance they will create for you and others … and it is remarkable.

Third-dimensionally, on the other hand, you put up a website only to discover that no-one seems to care. You realize that building a mailing list of thousands may take a LOT longer than you thought. You talk about what you do and, surprisingly, clients do not immediately recognize your Divine Gifts and take as long as six months of “thinking about it” before signing up with you.

It’s slow going in the physical world.

The temptation is to assume that the original vision was obviously not the “right” one. After all, if that vision were the “right” one, surely finding clients and creating income wouldn’t take so much time and effort, right?

And so we try something else – we access the fifth dimension for a new vision, new inspiration … and because we are the boss, we inevitably get one.

Only to discover, AGAIN, that implementing that vision third-dimensionally is not what we thought it would be.

And so it goes.

But here’s the secret:

YES, grounding our vision and our Divine gifts and our purpose into this third dimension initially feels like we’re trying to get a massive freight train rolling through our personal efforts. We have to do annoying, tedious WORK. And at first, nothing much happens.

But there is also immense power in this dimension.

If we stay committed to our vision, if we insist on grounding our Divinity and purpose and stay focused … a little movement happens.

Movement begets more movement. The freight train shifts a bit, and a bit more.

Does that mean income rolls in? Not necessarily – not yet. And I see lots of people who jump ship right at this point … because the little bit of movement seems so dissatisfying compared to the effort we’ve put in.

But if we just … keep going, keep doing, keep grounding our vision, more movement will happen. People are suddenly interested in what we do. We find that we have people responding to us – in person, on our blog, via social media, even socially.

We are gathering momentum.

And one day, it’s as if a dam bursts. We start getting paid – finally!

We grounded our Divine value, we anchored our purpose into this dimension and allowed for that energy to travel through time and space. And we allowed people to respond.

It takes time. I know that’s annoying at times (I’m not a patient person, either!), but imagine if you instantly manifested every single thought you had. Life would be a mess!

The time it takes for the physical world to respond to your manifesting efforts is what you want give you opportunity to refine and course correct and stand in utter commitment to your purpose.

In the spiritual realm, everything is instant and effortless and available. But we live here, in the physical world … and our job, more than ever, is to bridge the gap between the two.

It takes time.

The good news is that, once we have third-dimensional momentum, once that freight-train is moving … everything gets easier. We are in action, we are broadcasting the energy of our vision and purpose loud and clear, and we attract, and attract, and attract.

If you are starting, be patient. Notice the tiny shifts of movement and celebrate them … even if they seem ridiculously small compared to the effort you’ve invested. Movement begets more movement.

Stay with your vision and purpose. Focus on grounding both into your physical reality. The physical world WILL respond. It just takes time.

Blessings,
Andrea

What Do You Deserve?

Imagine this scenario:

You are very, very hungry. In fact, you haven’t eaten all day. In order to eat, you have to catch a fish. So here you are, hungry and fishing for your next meal. You are practically salivating as you think about the big, juicy fish you are about to catch. You imagine your favorite fish dangling at the end of your fishing line. You imagine how you’ll season it, how you’ll cook it, and how good it will taste when you finally get to eat it.

Finally – it appears you’ve caught something! Excitedly, you reel in your fishing line and pull your fish out of the water! You can practically taste the fish already!

You are immediately disappointed.

It’s a fish. But it’s not your favorite kind of fish – far from it. And it’s kind of small. Sure, you can eat this fish, and it will fill your belly. But it’ll be a mediocre meal at best.

You stare at this unimpressive fish, knowing that you’ll still have to put in the effort of cleaning and cooking it in order to eat it. You know it won’t be a very good meal … but you’re really hungry.

The choice: Do you throw this fish back in the water and keep fishing for the meal you really want? Or do you take what you can get right now and eat this mediocre fish?

What would you do?

Most people will eat the fish they just caught – even if it’s not the fish they wanted, even if it’s not going to be the meal of their dreams.

Most people will tell themselves that tomorrow is another day. They’ll tell themselves that tomorrow, they’ll finally catch the fish of their dreams. They’ll tell themselves that tomorrow, they’ll finally have that really, really great meal.

Too bad that, with every choice, we tell the Universe what we think we deserve.

If you agree to fill your belly with mediocre fish, or fill your life with uninspiring relationships, with so-so income levels, with a business that runs you ragged, with a whole bunch of stuff that has NOTHING to do with the Divinity of your Being …

… you are telling the Universe about what you think you deserve.

Remember, the Universe upholds you as the powerful Creator of your experience. The Universe will never argue with you.

You will always receive more of that which you agree to fill your life with. Through your choices, you’ve told the Universe your own value perception.

The good news?

You can always throw out that mediocre fish. Heck, even if you’re in the middle of cooking it, even if it’s already on your plate, you can still declare: “I deserve better than this fish.”

Sure, it means going back to fishing.

But what does this choice state about what you deserve?

It tells the Universe that you deserve ALL that you want for yourself – a big, fat, juicy fish that will turn into the meal of your dreams.

Remember, the Universe will never argue with you!

To your infinite abundance and sublime fish,
Andrea

P.S. Don’t forget to join me for “The Sacred Sale” – a new, FREE teleclass happening this Thursday! Sign up here: http://thesacredsale.com

How NOT To Manifest Money

Here’s a great way NOT to manifest money: Allow money to be the boss of you!

There are two (pretty pervasive!) ways in which we allow money to run our lives:

The first is that we make our choices based on how much money we have (or don’t have!). “Living within our means” or “living on a budget” is upheld as a sensible choice in our society. But it often means that we shrink our world, our dreams, and our authentic self-expression to fit our finances.

I once overheard a mom in my daughter’s Girl Scout troop complaining how she couldn’t take a class because of her limited income. My immediate thought was: “Why don’t you just increase your income?” The mom in question looked at me like I had two heads! The idea of taking charge and simply increasing her income had never occurred to her.

Creating an additional income stream is not hard these days. There are a million small ways we can make money outside of our “steady” paychecks. But we’ve been conditioned to accept the limitations of our income and arrange our lives based on the money we have … rather than increasing our financial abundance so that we can make the choices we WANT.

The flip side of this pattern is very different, but equally non-abundant.

We allow money to be our boss by making choices based purely around wanting to manifest money, or needing to make money. This pattern has given rise to the concepts of having to work “hard” and “sacrificing” for the sake of financial gain.

We do what we “have to” do in order to make income, right? Even if we don’t like our jobs, don’t like what we think we “have to “ do in our business … hey, it’s all just part of what HAS to be done for our paycheck. We gotta do what we gotta do to bring home the bacon, right?

This side of allowing money to be in charge of our lives is, perhaps, even more pervasive than the first. Because, after all, we can tell ourselves we’re just being sensible, that we’re doing all the “right” things in order to be financially responsible. We tell ourselves that this is the way of the world – that everybody does things that they don’t really want to do in order to make money.

But in reality, this is STILL allowing money to determine our choices.

Even if we get paid … this is not living in abundance. Any choice we make out of obligation, or perceived necessity, cannot ever create true abundance.

What’s the solution?

We have to understand that money is simply a natural consequence that occurs when we put our Soul-level Gifts into the world in a way that adds value to other people’s lives. Our Gifts are our natural, inherent abundance. Money is what happens when you express your Soul’s Divine nature into this physical dimension in tangible, practical ways, through action. YES, we have to set up some structures through which we can exchange our value for money. But our choices to do so are made based on our desire for authentic Divine self-expression, NOT on money. Money is just the inevitable consequence.

If money were NOT an issue … how would you want to add value to the lives of others? What would you want to do all day long? (Keep in mind that sitting on a beach all day, cocktail in hand, does get boring eventually! Although if that lifestyle were truly your Soul’s most authentic self-expression, there would still probably a way to monetize it …)

Ask yourself what choices you truly would WANT to make, if money were a non-issue. Start aligning your life to THOSE choices, as much as you can. Chances are, you will attract more financial abundance!

If your choice are made by your money – the money you have or the money you want – then money will always be in charge of you, regardless of how much of it you make. Abundance will remain elusive.

Step into Divine Creatorship. Money is a mere consequence, nothing more. It is a by-product, a natural result of choices that reflect your Divine Gifts and Soul Purpose. Money is a fantastic and desirable consequence. In fact, money showing up (or not!) can teach us so much about the abundance-level of our choices.

But let’s not put money ahead of self-determination, because that is not the path to financial abundance. Allowing money to be your master – in EITHER of these ways! – is a great way to create only lack.

To your Divine self-expression and infinite abundance,

Andrea

P.S. Your Purposeful Money Path starts on June 16th!!!

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