What is your relationship with money?

What are some of your core beliefs about money?

What are the core monetary beliefs that shape your reality?

I am starting to step out of my old beliefs about money that I inherited from my parents and my family. My family was middle to low class and hardworking people.

The common beliefs in my family around money became a poison in my mind that left me in scarcity for many years, no matter how talented or skilled I was. Some of the common beliefs were: 

“Money never comes easy.”

“Money comes with hard work.”

“Money arrives slowly and leaves quickly.”

“Money is dirty.”

“If you want more money, you are greedy.”

“What you earn is enough to survive.”

“You have to exhaust yourself to earn enough.”

“No matter your education, money is difficult to earn.”

These and more are the beliefs upon which I based most of my life. My finances were always slipping away.

I never had enough money to do all the things I wanted; having a scarcity mindset always leaves you in the poverty of “not enoughness.”

Lately, while navigating the difficult terrain of past conditioning, I had to dig deeper to uncover the hidden-in-the-dark beliefs that had been ruining most of my adult life.

As a freelance artist and independent contractor at the dance studio I currently work, I’ve had to redefine the value of money and my worth—many times.

As we opened the doors again in the post-COVID-19 world, I saw that I had changed, grown, and many of my old beliefs were falling away. It’s a long and hard process of digging into the mud of my unconscious beliefs and allowing them to dissolve—it can be painful.

Still, as I prepare myself for my classes as a fitness and exotic pole choreography teacher, I am setting new rates for private sessions.

This whole process is making me wrestle with a part of my mind that continues to say things like:

“But you are not that talented to charge that much.”

“You are not yet certified, how can you expect to ask for that much money?”

“Who do you think you are?”

“Who is going to train with you at these prices?”

“People want cheap and you are setting high rates; no one will come to you. They will choose someone else instead.”

“When did you become so confident?”

To witness all this crap going on in my head is not fun; these thoughts make me feel small, ashamed, and guilty for wanting to improve my financial situation, even though my time, energy, hard work, knowledge, and experience are all worth the new prices and rates I have set.

These thoughts and voices seem to come from some other source: “not enoughness” and scarcity, the roots of my conditioning.

I am witnessing all these thoughts, but I choose not to allow them to direct or distract me. I won’t allow these thoughts to become part of my new identity.

I won’t allow these beliefs that are not mine to become part of the new reality I am creating for myself.

At the root of all non-serving beliefs is the fear of not being enough; as a result, we feel unworthy. 

I am dedicated to changing my inner narrative into one that is self-affirming and self-validating.

I am dedicated to changing my inner narrative to that of a person who feels worthy and enough. I deserve to have all that I desire. I deserve it because I am worthy of it.

I am enough, and so are you.

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