I’ve talked in previous blogs about ‘embodied messages’. These are the words or observations that find their way into our subconscious during early childhood and there they stay, until our life experiences start to show us that we have triggers, or preconceived ideas, that relate to or are generated by them.

A common way for these triggers to surface is in anything related to money. If I told you that the way you think about money, your shopping patterns, how it makes you feel, and even, to a degree, how much you have, is all related to the way your parents either behaved, or spoke to you about money, would you believe me?

Sometimes, the things we take for granted as part of our personality were put there by someone else. We are not ‘good’ or ‘bad’ with money: we have learned to save or spend, to feel entitled or not, to use our wealth for help or hindrance.

My money story workshop invites you to explore what money means to you. What do you see as the function of money? What role does it play in your life? What can you do with it?

What is money?

It’s really interesting to try to suspend our physical impression of money – the banknotes and coins – and think about what our heart wants to do with money. What does it really represent for us?

For money to truly have value, it needs to mean something other than a means with which to buy things. There’s a saying among many that are money-related “money doesn’t buy happiness” but by engaging with what our heart thinks, learning to link this with our conscious mind and understand how it connects with our ‘why’, we can actually link money with happiness even if that’s not in a materialistic way.

Try this practical exercise

Take a moment and ask yourself:

• What did my mum model to me when it comes to money?
• What did my dad model to me in relation to money?
• Are there any strong cultural ideas or opinions related to money which I am aware of?

Then just take a few more minutes to listen to the thoughts and memories that surface. Note them down. You are very likely to find things you didn’t know you knew, all of which will have some meaning or bearing on the life you live today.

If you know enough, you can even go back a couple of generations and find out what you’ve been told about money in your grandparents’ time. Was there a sense of abundance or frugality? What opinions or beliefs did your parents have about money which may have been handed down generationally.

Working it all out

My workshop starts with thinking and ends with doing. In a practical and useful conclusion, we will spend time creating a vision board related to money and what we want its purpose to be. This highly visual and creative approach captures our dreams and aspirations and provides us with something we can keep and refer back to. In turn, this enables us to catch and avoid any negative thoughts or behaviours and reminds us to focus on what’s positive.

The workshop runs on Sunday 20^th February 2022, at my zen den in Oxfordshire.

If you’d like to find out more, or to book a space, please drop me a line at ali@perfect-future.co.uk.