Mentor Path

Spirituality And Money: Surface and Shadow Stories

David Krueger MD

Neuroscientists estimate that about 95% of our behaviors and core beliefs are pre-programmed in the unconscious mind. Among those behavioral patterns and belief systems operating on subliminal autopilot are shadow stories about money.

Compromises occur when people write two simultaneous money stories. For example:

The surface story: I would like to make more money and accumulate wealth

The shadow story: Money and wealth are unspiritual

The split between spirituality and money is one of those assumptions like starving artists. Why should someone of exceptional talent assume a compromise in converting that ability into significant income? Spirituality and profitability can be quite compatible. There is nothing intrinsically unspiritual about money.

Abundance, wealth, and spirituality are synonyms. The antonyms: suffering, scarcity, and nonspiritual.

“Wealthy” does not automatically equate with worldly riches. Yet it must incorporate aspects of freedom and choice in the experience of abundance. If you spend some of your energy preoccupied with scarcity, focusing on the limitations of your income each month, you will not carve out the space to experience true spirituality. How can you be totally free to be spiritually resonant if you’re worried about making the rent payment by the first of the month?   You may not really know what it is truly like to be spiritual unless you are wealthy.

If you’re running and a bear is chasing you, you don’t have the contemplative space to think great thoughts and create new ideas. Or be spiritual.

When someone says, "I'm not in it for the money," I believe that person, because I know the experience. Unless it's a rationalization for not making much money. True immersion in passionate delivery of value to others should be synonymous with both internal alignment and abundant income. To create an experience of bringing value to people and to make abundant money can be seamlessly interwoven in a spiritual path. Rich and spiritual are reciprocal.

If you are not making enough money, why are you not showing up? Where are you hiding out?

You will even improve your health by writing a unified money story of wealth and spirituality. The attitude and experience of abundance enhances wellness by dissipating stress.

One of my favorite descriptions of spirituality is from John Updike. “Pressed, I would define spirituality as the shadow of light humanity casts as it moves through the darkness of everything that can be explained.”

Mentor Path

Comments

Subscribe Me

Read More Blog Posts