March
2010
In this issue...
- What Can
Money Teach Us?
- Your exploration this month.
- From the Blog...
- Quotes of the month
- Want to comment or contribute?
- Personal coaching
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1. What
Can Money Teach Us?
Here’s a great topic to avoid – money!
In my experience of coaching, discussing financial
issues
can be one of the areas that clients have most resistance
to broaching and yet money is something from which we
can learn a tremendous amount.
You’ve only got to set yourself
the challenge of living just a single day without spending
any to discover
just how dependent we are on using this tool of modern
society. What does our approach to using it tell us
about ourselves and how can we benefit from that knowledge?
Security
For many of us, having enough
money gives us a sense of security. But what does enough
mean? In absolute
terms, enough can be a different amount of money
for each of
us. So, clearly it’s not a magical fixed sum that’s
enough for anybody to live on, but rather how we value
it and what we use it for that determines what’s
enough for us. So perhaps what we can learn from our
feelings of security or insecurity around money is how
much money – savings, debt, monthly income – represents
a feeling of enough for us.
Vehicle for Expressing Ourselves
When I asked Jane what her concerns were around her
financial situation, she replied that money just
seemed to flow
into her bank account and then disappear! She
didn’t
know where it was going or how it was or wasn’t
supporting her way of living. Naturally, this
led to some worrying on her part and also feelings
of lack of
control of how her hard earned wages were being
used.
One way to view money is as a vehicle for expressing
ourselves. What does “where our money goes” say
about us? Our level of debt might represent our
willingness to be led by others. When we manage
debt well, then
this could indicate that we know our boundaries
and responsibilities.
How much we spend and where we buy the necessities
in life can express much about our views on the production
of food, clothes and toiletries. It can illumine our
attitude to health versus convenience, ethics versus
costs and wisdom versus blind compliance.
Jane summoned the courage to investigate the particular
stream of money that made its way through her life,
following its arrival, stemming trickles running into
areas she
no longer valued, creating pools to store some savings
and encouraging a small and steady flow into good causes.
Gratitude and sharing
To what extent are we prepared to share our money?
Jane decided that she was happy to share 5% of her
income
with good causes and also that she would carry a small
amount of cash with her each day for what she called
spontaneous donations! This, she said, gave her the
flexibility she needed and also the reminder each day
of the joy
that she could experience from giving.
In addition to these changes in habits, Jane
decided that she wanted to change her attitude
to paying
bills. She’d noticed her tendency to
feel resentment towards paying others for
services
and goods, as
she perceived
bill paying as something that depleted her
funds. With some encouragement, she was able
to find
and express
gratitude for the services that others had
provided for her or the goods they had made.
She also
discovered that
she felt gratitude for her ability to pay
and for the skills she had that enabled her
to earn
a living.
Living Without Spending
A great way to highlight the effects of something on
our lives is to try living without it. Having committed
to 2 days without spending money, Jane reported that
she had become more creative! How had this happened?
A couple of common rat race habits are:
• spending our way out of misery and
• spending our way out of problems.
Jane noticed that, on days when she was resisting spending,
she used her creativity to find solutions to problems,
for example by reading the manual on her central heating
boiler when it failed and finding out how to reset it,
rather than calling out an engineer. She also reported
enjoying a relaxing walk in the park during her lunch
break rather than buying a bar of chocolate to cheer
herself up and working through her lunchtime.
Old rat race habits die hard, especially when it
comes to our approach to money and especially
in a recession
when the temptation is not to face up to our finances.
When we know what’s enough for us, how to express
ourselves – our gratitude, shared joy and creativity – through
money, we can learn a lot about ourselves and how to
embrace money as a life serving tool.
2. Your
exploration this month.
Complete the following sentence
in as many ways as you can (but at least 10) that are
true for you.
Money is...
Reflect on which of your statements are life serving
and which are life limiting.
3. From
the Blog...
Love Letter to the Future
I
was prompted to write this blog and my Love Letter
to the Future by a campaign that
Greenpeace ran during
the Copenhagen summit. However, it seems just as pertinent
on Valentine’s Day, as a reflection on our love
for others, for the earth and for other life forms
More...
What is Work/Life Balance?
The New Economics Foundation
published a report last week about the possibility of
reduced working hours leading
to a more sustainable future.
More...
Looking Deeply, Trading Fairly.
We are
in the middle of Fairtrade Fortnight here in the UK and
I find myself feeling somewhat irritated with
that phrase. Why do we need reminding to buy fair trade?
Why don’t we just choose fairly traded goods all
the time? How come there are such things as non-fairly
traded products?
More...
4. Quotes
of the month.
“Give
what you have. To someone it may be better than
you dare
to think.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“You
never know what is enough until you know what is
more than
enough.”
William Blake.
“
Man’s needs are infinite, and infinitude can
be achieved only in the spiritual realm, never in
the material.”
E. F. Schumacher
5. Want
to comment or contribute?
If you would like to comment on
any aspect of this newsletter or to submit an article
for inclusion in the newsletter and blog, please contact
me by email.
6. Personal
Coaching.
One-to-one coaching can help you:
- let go of your old,stressful
way of life, find a new path of vitality and an improved
way of living and working.
- deal with fears surrounding
financial responsibilities, your relationships with
others and other consequences of making a major life
change.
- improve your health, wellbeing
and spiritual life.
- further your personal growth
- achieve balance, clarity and
peace
You can view further details on personal and professional
coaching here
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Have a fruitful
month!
Sally
Sally Lever
coach, writer, educator
downshifting, sustainable living, sustainable business
+44 (0)1749 674842
sally@sallylever.co.uk
http://www.sallylever.co.uk/
7 Welsford Avenue, Wells, Somerset.
BA5 2HX. UK. |
