If there’s one topic that make people squirm on the self-love journey, it’s money. Yep, the big awkward, avoid-at-all-costs ‘M’ word!

But here’s the truth… If you want to grow real, unapologetic self-love, you’ve got to tackle your ‘money story’. Why?

Because our sense of worth and how much we value ourself, is deeply intertwined with our relationship with money.

That’s why today on I Love Me The Podcast, we’re rewriting the script on money, so you can see how dating money and getting into relationship with money, can be a fun and sexy ride! Yes, buckle in, because it’s time to journey into a healthy, happy and committed, relationship with money.

 

Simple, inspiring lessons in self-love. Hello superstar, it’s Tamra here.

Imagine what life would be like if you felt abundant and free to live the life you dream of.

Seriously… think about that for a moment…

What would you be doing differently?

What choices would you be making?

And most importantly…

How would you be feeling?

Take a moment now to feel into that… right now… you living with complete ease and freedom, balance and abundance.

Now, let’s be honest, that dream life may look a little different to your current reality.

And that’s ok.

Because we’ve all got to start somewhere.

And if you’re not living a love-rich life right now, it simply means you hold some ideas and thoughts and beliefs around money that are not currently serving you.

So let’s start to clean those up, so you can move into a healthier relationship with money.

And don’t worry, cleaning up your money stuff doesn’t need to scare the knickers off you.

The way I help people clean up their money stuff, tends to look more like a decadent self-love practice, than a gruelling uphill battle.

So let’s begin by asking the question:

What is money?

Money is a resource.

A resource that – just like the air we breathe – is an essential part of living on planet Earth.

And it’s this resource that helps us enjoy more freedom in our life.

For, in today’s world, money is the main currency that people use.

It serves the single purpose of giving us a means to trade or exchange things.

Interestingly, cacao – the main ingredient in chocolate – was once used as a currency in Mexico.

Now imagine if you loved money – our current currency – as much as most of us love chocolate!

Simply consider how more welcoming you’d be of money, if it was that delicious!

Well, when we’re willing to see money in a new light, that’s how money can feel.

Like a stable, certain, reliable and fun resource in our life.

Of course, in order to have a healthy relationship with money, we need to be willing to explore what money ignites within you, while realising, that money is not the problem.

It’s what money means to us – what we believe about it – that’s the problem.

If you’re willing to look at how you unconsciously block out money, then you’ll start to realise you can change your money situation, really quite quickly, and crazy as it may sound, you can actually fall in love with money!

Money can be your chocolate.

And when I say ‘fall in love with money’ I mean that you can feel good about money – where money is a positive force in your life – as opposed to it filling you with fear or dread.

So I’m not talking about unhealthy attachments to money, or money obsessions…

When I refer to falling in love with money, I’m talking about having a relationship with money where we accept it for what it is – a resource – that is here to make our life easier and more joyful.

But for this to happen, we do need to be willing to take a radically new approach when it comes to how we treat money.

In the Money and Me course I run, I invite my participants on seven ‘dates’ with money.

Yes, we actually date money, one delicious rendezvous at a time.

The purpose of this, is to help us get comfy with money, release the fears and attachments and past hurts that money can spark within us.

And in doing so arrive at the point where money has no emotional charge.

Where we can engage with money in a way that is healthy and supports us in living the life we actually want to live.

Part of being able to enter into that kind of relationship with money, we need to be willing to give up our money story.

We all have a money story.

I talked about the stories we tell ourself in last week’s episode, and how at some point, they reach their expiry date.

Well…

It’s these money stories that cause us to put up walls.

Walls that block out the inflow of money.

Yet just as we built these walls, so too can we deconstruct them, by taking the time to get clear on what our money stories are, identify what beliefs have led to those money stories, and then releasing those beliefs.

When you’re willing to clear out those money beliefs and fears and worries, your belief in yourself begins to amplify, so you can show up for your life as someone who is worthy of money, knows how to attract money and trusts themself to use money wisely.

But you know what the most magical part of this whole dating money journey is?

It’s that in entering into a loving relationship with money, you’re entering into a loving relationship with yourself.

For money simply acts like a mirror, showing us a direct reflection of ourself; what needs our attention, what we need to heal, what we need to love more.

Shining light on our wounds, and the ways we’ve been making life hard for ourselves.

Where we’re not valuing ourself.

Where we’re not supporting ourself.

For only when we have that kind of razor sharp awareness, can we then make the necessary changes, to live with more ease.

Where we feel fully supported and fully nourished.

Where we feel worthy.

Worthy of having it all.

All of the things that truly mean something to us.

In this way money acts like a teacher, showing us how to cultivate self-love.

What’s really beautiful, is that when we’re willing to get to know money in a new, intimate way, like I teach in the Money and Me course, we get to know ourself more intimately.

As we start to feel valued and worthy and abundant, so too do people treat us differently, and we start to attract in outer abundance.

You start with the inside stuff, and the outside world reflects that inner shift.

For that’s where any good love story begins.

With you!

Ok, now you know why you want to enter into relationship with money.

How to do you get started?

Firstly, you stop hating on money. Ok?

Think of it this way.

Would you want to spend time with someone who criticised you, avoided you, spoke harsh words about you, treated you disrespectfully, and blamed you for all their problems in life?

Probably not.

Well, money doesn’t like spending time with people who do that either.

If you’re saying ‘I want more money’ and then two minutes later bagging money out, or saying ‘There’s never enough to go round’, money gets confused.

It doesn’t know if you want it or not.

Money’s thinking ‘She says she wants more of me, but she keeps on criticising me and avoiding me…. she says she’s not worthy of me…. mmmmm… I think I’ll go hang out with someone who respects me and knows they truly want me in their life!’

In all truth, money is none of the things we make it out to be.

Money is numbers and pictures written on paper or metal.

OR it’s numbers you see when you log into your online bank account or receive a statement in the mail.

A lot of the time money passes between bank accounts without even touching a human hand.

Yet, somehow it creates a whole lot of money stress.

Resentment and judgement.

All of which are counter-productive to attracting in more of it.

In order for money to flow into your life, you need to love it.

Not in a greedy kinda way, but in a way that allows you to feel positive vibes when you think about it, when you receive it and when you use it.

Where you realise that money is simply here to support you and your loved ones in living a full and prosperous life.

That kind of money love.

To be able to love money in this way, it takes the simple realisation that money is here to ‘serve us’.

It’s here to offer us a means to live joyfully in the world.

It’s a resource that is neither positive or negative.

Money has no free will.

It’s simply responding to you.

To your thoughts, your ideas, your expectations and how you believe money works, acts and behaves.

When you change how you relate to money, money responds in kind.

We all deserve to experience abundance.

That’s what we’re here for!

To enjoy a rich, happy, healthy life, where we can share our gifts with the world.

But in order to have that kind of life, we need to welcome money.

We need to be fully open to receiving it.

Hanging out with it.

Treating it with respect.

And feeling good when we spend it.

That’s what it means to have a healthy relationship with money.

Now money is a very tangible energy source.

When it’s leaking out, it’s really obvious.

We know when we’re not in alignment with money, because there’s less of it.

So if at any time it feels like money has abandoned you, take a moment to consider:

Where have I abandoned money?

Just imagine you were dating this awesome person and then you stopped returning their texts.

Eventually, they’d stop sending them too.

In any relationship, be it with a person or money, you need to reciprocate.

You need to show up.

Have money dates.

Get clear on what’s coming in and what’s going out.

Be totally aware of your spending habits.

When the old money story rears its head, you need to breathe into it – maybe do the Love Wrap I teach in Episode 3.

Let go of the fear of getting hurt, and start to embrace money.

Like a relationship with someone else, in order for it to truly thrive, we need to show up and commit to working through the more challenging times.

The times that press our buttons or trigger our old wounds.

And if we do…

Then we’ll be rewarded.

In any relationship there are ups and downs.

The ups are awesome and make it all worthwhile.

The downs are opportunities to heal.

It’s the same when it comes to our relationship with money.

You need to be willing to get vulnerable with your money, show up when it isn’t, and be willing to love and respect it, even when you don’t feel like it.

Even when you feel like you’re never going to get ahead, or your mind becomes plagued with worrisome thoughts on how you’re going to pay your bills.

So, the first step in healing your relationship with money, is admitting that you have a relationship with money and that your current experience with money is a direct reflection of the health of your relationship with money.

Whether we like it or not, we ALL have a relationship with money.

Money is a part of living in this world.

You can either fall in love with it, or you can despise it or avoid it.

The choice is yours.

But just think about this for a moment…

If you avoided and resented someone, do you think they’d want to be in your life!

Ummm.. no!

They’d run a mile, right?

It’s the same with money.

Money is just energy.

And it’s our thoughts and beliefs around money – how we relate to money – that allows it to either enter our life in full flow, or get stuck in the channel, never making it to our purse.

Money flows through the path of least resistance.

If you’re resisting money – if you say to yourself you want more of it, but deep down you don’t believe you’re worthy of having money – then it simply won’t flow.

This underlying belief is like a dam wall, it stops the water flowing.

Flowing to you!

It’s your job to uncover what’s getting in the way of your flow, so the money can pour into your life.

So you can experience an overflow of abundance.

So what does it mean to have a self-love practice with money?

It’s carving out time to hang out with money, getting to know money on a new, more inspiring level, learning how to trust and work with money in a way that feels expansive, and inviting money to be a constant in your life.

A support.

An alley.

A dear friend who is always there to support you and offer you the resources you need to share your gifts with the world; whatever they might be.

For when you’re willing to enter into this kind of committed relationship with money, money shows up!

It flows.

It is always there for you.

My invitation to you this week, is to go on a date with money.

On the first date in my Money and Me course, I invite people to get connected to their ‘Why’.

Why do they want money?

We rarely want money just for the sake of wanting money.

We want money for what it can buy us.

For the life it can provide us with.

So take yourself out for a cuppa tea, sit down with a pen and paper, and start journalling.

Never journaled before?

Have a listen to Episode 20, where I teach you how to journal.

Then…

Sit down and take the time to get clear on the life you’d like to be living, with all the frills and trims.

Get super clear on it.

Once you know what you want money for, then you might like to create a vision board around it.

A visual representation of what you’re moving towards.

Or simply spend time visualising it in the movie of your mind, feeling all the feels you would, if this was your reality.

Then the following week, go on another date with money.

Maybe you look at your finances and get clear on what’s coming in each month and what’s going out.

When we’re getting to know someone, we need to be vulnerable with them – for that’s how true connections are formed.

So sitting down with your figures, while scary at first, can be extremely enlightening, letting you know where you’re at, and what you need to change to get to where you want to go.

Awareness really is the first step on any self-love journey.

And if you’d like me to guide you on your dates with money, so you know how to date money in a way that uncovers your money stories, so you can heal them, take a peek at my Money and Me 7-week program.

What I LOVE about this program, is that it’s fun!

You go on weekly dates with money, you flirt with money between your dates, and as you do, you start to shift how you feel about money, until you feel the ease and joy of being in a healthy, fully committed, relationship with money.

Then simply watch how the shift in your money story, allows you to be open and receptive to allowing money in, so you can enjoy earning money, having money and spending money.

And knowing that there is always more than enough to support you in living a love-rich life of your choosing.

You’ll find all the details at my online school gettingnaked.com.au and if you do decide to enrol, a percentage of profits go to planting trees, so together we can re-robe Mother Earth.

Thanks for listening, and if you’re loving the show, please leave a ranking or review, so we can share the magic of self-love with the beautiful people who needs it most.