Dear Money Adventurer,
Without a doubt, the most obvious recurring pattern I’ve seen in working with thousands of people around money issues is this:
We all have our own unique, interwoven layers that make up the stories we have about money.
When we think about doing any kind of money work, or even do something simple like talk about our financial situation with our intimate partner, different parts of our money story can pop up and give you a basket of not-so-easy emotions.
This is why I always tell people that their challenges might feel like they’re about money, but they’re not really just about money.
It’s about all the other things happening in the deeper layers of our psyche beneath the surface.
My husband, Forest, loves when I pull this story out (sarcasm), but a long while back in the early part of our relationship, he would literally start to hyperventilate with fear and anxiety in the Whole Foods parking lot after buying one bag of groceries, back when we were barely making enough to cover our basic needs.
Just as he came face-to-face with some old, primordial fear after spending money on food, we all encounter profound, sensitive places within ourselves if we go deep enough into our “money stuff.”
Here’s the thing: these places are never just about money.
- Our money relationship brings us into direct contact with…
- Our relationship to pleasure, abundance, and thriving.
- How we access feelings of enoughness.
- Our ability to feel safe, calm, and grounded.
- The way we deal with power dynamics in intimate relationships.
- Our capacity to feel worthy and valuable.
- Our self-confidence, self-reliance, and resilience.
- Our ability to get vulnerable, get intimate, and ask for help.
Look, there’s so much going on under the surface layer of how we behave around money.
I’m bringing this up today to tell you two really important things about money work.
First, know that whatever part of your money story feels most challenging lately, you are not alone.
Every single person I’ve ever worked with around money has challenges around it, including me and my long ago hyperventilating, having-a-panic-attack-in-the-parking-lot-of-a-grocery-store husband.
It doesn’t matter if you’re struggling to make enough money for your basic needs, or if you’re comfortable with the basics and you’re able to do some extra things, or if you have plenty of money to live your version of an ultimate lifestyle.
Each of those different scenarios comes with its own set of money fears (i.e., fear around not having enough or fear that what you do have will be taken away.)
Everyone deals with their own combination of emotions, like shame/anxiety/fear, and other multi-layered topics like self-worth, power dynamics, feeling safe and secure, enoughness, or wondering if you can ever be a responsible adult around money.
You Are Definitely Not Alone
Fully getting that you’re not alone in this is a vital experience that happens in The Art of Money live class calls with me and the members of the program.
In these live weekly class calls I teach the tools and tactics from each module of the program, and I also do mini financial therapy sessions with several people.
Even if I don’t work directly with you in a given call, members of the program often tell us that there is great relief in just hearing other people’s stories, challenges, and breakthroughs.
Second, almost every tool and practice in the Art of Money methodology is designed to help you with whatever challenges you’ll find in the deeper layers of your own money story.
That methodology is broken down into three phases:
From the inner work and exploration into our past in the Money Healing phase, to the practical actions of working directly with your numbers in the Money Practices phase, to the work we do to create a future lifestyle we want to live in the Money Maps phase, you’ll find tools that will help you write a new money story.
A story that can lead you to a place with money that feels more like you want it to, whether that’s more clear and calm, or grounded and secure, or safe and secure with enough money for everything you want to do in life.
That’s what this financial therapy money work is about in the Art of Money program.
It looks like it’s about money on the surface, but in reality, it’s never just about the money.
It’s about finding what’s going on in the deeper layers of our psyche and using practical tools to help heal whatever wounds and trauma we find down there.
This is how money healing happens.
This is how you write new money stories.
This is the way to a new, healthier relationship with money.
And that kind of relationship? Can change everything about everything in your life.
Right now, you can join the program and get a discount off the already low price of the course until the first class of this Fall 2024 cohort of the program starts in 9 days on Thursday, September 19th.
You can get all the details about this 3-month financial therapy program and join the Fall 2024 round of The Art of Money right here.
Here’s to you writing a new chapter in your money story in 2024, 2025, and beyond…
All the best to you,
P.S. We’re about to begin a new, live cohort of The Art of Money. And this time? The Art of Money will be taught in a way I’ve never done it before: 3 months of live, weekly classes and weekly community co-working sessions, right in your home via video streaming.
Join me for the first ever 12-week, live Art of Money program and get a healthy discount off of the regular price. (I’ve never offered a discount before, and this one will only be available until the night of the first class of the program.)
