Money vs. Spirituality - Why You Need Both & How to Have it All

Today we're talking all about money versus spirituality. Are they really at odds with one another? Not really. And here's why you need both and how to have it all.

I hear this topic come up a lot in the coaching community, which is really focused on wealth, starting a business and generating money.

But I also hear this contrast between money and spirituality - as though they're opposing or mutually exclusive. I also hear this come up in the spiritual communities where money is shamed or seen as superficial.

The truth is that money is energy and it amplifies who you already are and what is important to you.

Money amplifies who you already are.

So today I want to talk about why creating having earning money can be a deeply spiritual experience and some tools for connecting with your higher power through money. Let's start with the conversation about money, but without spirituality.

MONEY WITHOUT SPIRITUALITY

Scrooge Money Villain Character

I like to think of this kind of as like the Scrooge character, who embodies this idea of earning money, but it comes at the expense of others or people hoard it.

The money amplified the worst version of who Scrooge was. He was greedy, hostile towards others. He abused his power with his money and used his power over others.

Now, you're probably not the exaggerated version of this storybook villain, but having money without spirituality or depth can lead you to feeling empty. So some of these things might not be as exaggerated or as amplified, but the character is really pointing to some things that can seep into our life if we have a ton of money, but don't don't have any spirituality or depth or meaning behind it.

Spending Compulsively

Money can fill a need in you to some extent. It can buy you nice things. It can afford you security. There's lots of wonderful things that we can have with money that aren't necessarily spiritual. But you just want to watch out for putting your worth in the objects rather than in yourself.

Now you do see this a lot with people who are really superficial and only care about name brands or status symbols or things like that. But honestly, we probably all are guilty of this to some extent.

I'll give you an example of my own life and, just for the record, I have lived a very deep spiritual life for many years, have been really engaged in spiritual practice, doing my psycho-spiritual work. I've dedicated my personal, professional, and academic lives to exploring the head and the heart - Spirituality and psychology. But even I can fall into this trap.

So my example is: there was a time in my life when I had about 2,000 books. I love learning. I love reading, I love engaging and exploring topics, going deep, and books are a symbol for that for me.

So it may not have been a name brand like Louis Vuitton or Balenciaga or whatever. But the books themselves became the symbol of what I really cared about and what I loved. And so I ended up having a lot - like 2000 books.

It was way too many and it came from this sense of needing to spend endlessly and compulsively spending - compulsively buying books.

Any book on any topic I found interesting I would just grab. I would purchase it. I'd go to bookstores and I'd leave with bag fulls of books. And I didn't really have a meaningful relationship with the money I was spending. I was more so focused on the the status symbol in my own mind, my own version of a status symbol with the books.

And even though it wasn't gaining me social status necessarily, it was really fulfilling this idea that books are my access to knowledge, my access to learning, my access to exploring.

There wasn't really any intention behind spending or even earning money. I was just kind of churning it in and churning it out.

And it really it ended up with me having more books than I could possibly read in the lifetime. I have since narrowed it down. I've gotten rid of a lot of them. But it is an example even though it may not seem like the Scrooge character. It's a good example of how I didn't have any intention behind money.

I wasn't really being present with how it's using it or spending it. Instead I was just hoarding the status symbol for me. So it can't sneak in in different ways. So take a look at that in your own life.

Money as an Exchange of Energy

Let's shift into what money looks like when you have a healthy relationship with it. I like to think of money simply being a tool for exchanging energy. Just like any energy exchange that you have in relationships with other people, putting work and effort into your passions, learning a skill or a trade or a sport, and becoming really good at it.

Just like that, when you purchase something with money, you want it to come from a place of empowerment.

Just like you want to be empowered in your relationship energy exchanges by setting boundaries or having clear expectations or having meaningful connection with the other person.

Just like you want to be empowered when you are training for a specific skill or learning a new one.

So the way this works is that money affords you power. Money is a source of power because it earns you the ability to exchange your energy for the things that you desire.

So you can add intention to all of your money exchanges. You can embody and wield your power through money. You can wield it for good. You can make a positive impact in the world.

You can meet your own needs by purchasing experiences or gaining access to things that meet your needs, and in doing so, keeping your nervous system regulated.

You can have healthy boundaries and relationships because you're not dependent on someone else financially and just have to do what they say or you're at risk of not having any money.

You can invest in causes that are important to you and put your money towards good work and positive change in the world.

You get to make things easier for yourself and in your life by paying for support with things: housework, the latest appliances.

You can reclaim more of your time in your schedule because you can outsource the tasks that you don't want to do or that you don't have time to learn how to do.

So there's lots of ways that money is a force for positive in your life. And when you're able to shift into having a little bit more intention, more meaning, and a healthier relationship with money, that's when your life of spending money, your wealth starts to flourish in a more meaningful way.

When you’re able to shift into having a healthier relationship with money,
that’s when your wealth starts to flourish in a meaningful way.

SPIRITUALITY WITHOUT MONEY

So now let's talk about the flip side of it: When you have spirituality but without money. I see this a lot in spiritual communities, and I've been a member of various spiritual communities for most of my life. Certainly all of my adult life, and there's kind of this demonization of money, like it's the root of all evil. It's exploitative. It's focused on materialism and worldly possessions. And distracting you from a real spiritual path. It's putting profits over people.

The Money-Is-Bad Character

So the character that I like to think of that exemplifies this version of it. This extreme is like the I'm laughing cause I know people just like this. The the person who has culturally appropriated dreadlocks, sandals made out of rope and they smell like a mixture of Patchouli and BO. There's no boundaries. They're doing drugs at festivals, they're living on couches or in a van that they maybe they give all their money to a spiritual retreat center, but then they can't afford their bills. We all have probably, if we don't know anybody personally like this, we've probably. All seen somebody like this in their in your life at one point or another.

And the truth is that there is some truth to the idea that money cannot buy happiness, which I think is kind of the point of these vagabonds who live try to live money free.

Being Broke Doesn’t Make You More Spiritual

But having a dysfunctional relationship with money in the name of spirituality isn't going to lead you to happiness either. I'm also laughing because I totally lived like this as a teenager, and in my early 20s I was was wannabe hippy.

So I have seen so many spiritually minded people who honestly just create an incredible amount of suffering for themselves because they associate money with shame or with being selfish or superficial or any of the ideas that go against their spiritual spiritual beliefs. So their spiritual practice and their minds require them to keep as much distance from money as possible.

But what happens when you reject money? You live in poverty. And there is nothing spiritual about struggling to survive in poverty.

There’s nothing spiritual about struggling in poverty.

You can't help anyone or be of benefit to others when you can barely keep food in your belly, a roof over your head, or you're struggling to pay your bills. It's honestly just not the spiritual path that people think it is.

YOUR SPIRITUAL RELATIONSHIP WITH MONEY

So let's take a look at what it would mean to have a deeply spiritual relationship with money.

Now let's kind of back it up here a little bit and talk about how spirituality functions. A spiritual practice really requires you to take a look at your own complexes, to take radical responsibility for your life, and to see the deeper meaning hidden in everyday things.

When you're poor and broke and just trying to survive, you are completely distracted from all of that. Because you're just trying to make it, you don't have the space, the bandwidth, the attention, the time to start to unpack your own psycho-spiritual work or start to really look at exploring the the deeper hidden message from spirit in every day life.

So money allows you to be spiritual because it gives you the space and freedom to actually be present with your life in a meaningful way. When your bills are paid, you have a secure home, your nervous system is calm and regulated… then you can turn your attention inwards and start to explore the mysteries of your soul.

And you can use your money with this focused intention on causes that matter to you. So it can feed yourself spiritually. It can nourish yourself, but you also can be that force for good that you're looking for. You can feed the homeless. You can help empower people to get out of poverty. You can attend all the spiritual retreats that you want. You can buy sustainably made clothing. You can donate to the political figures that resonate with you and advance your causes. You can actually help support and empower others in a way that you can't do when you're just struggling to manage your own life and and pay your own bills.

The other cool thing about it is that it also requires you to confront - not in a confrontational aggressive way - but really just look at and turn your attention towards, and heal all of your wounds around worthiness, around reclaiming your power and healing any experiences where power was abused or exploitative. It requires you to get clear about your values.

So interacting with money in and of itself and healing your money relationship is a deeply transformative journey. It becomes a spiritual practice in and of itself.

Healing your relationship with money is a deeply transformative journey.
It becomes a spiritual practices in itself.

So I'm hoping that you're seeing by now that money and spirituality are not mutually exclusive. They are not at odds with one another.

When you have a healthy relationship with both, then it becomes this beautiful combination of power and depth, impact and meaning. You get to be who you want to be in the world.

You're not dependent on this soul sucking job, where maybe you make a lot of money but it's at the expense of your sanity.

O you're not claiming this flower-child dream of being responsibility free, but you end up struggling just to get by and your quality of life is so low that you're not able to make an impact that you want.

Money and spirituality, when working hand in hand, allows you to step into your power, listen to your divine calling, make a positive impact on the world, and empower other women.

So think about this: How can you go about creating a life of financial freedom while also leaning into your spiritual practice and cultivating more depth on a daily basis?

I created a program called the Abundance Soul-Aligned Business which is designed specifically for spiritual women entrepreneurs who want to do just that.

In 12 weeks, just 90 days, I take you through a journey of connecting with your divine purpose, setting up your business so that you can scale to six figures with ease, and then teach you the heart centered approach to building a brand identity, reaching your soul mate clients through intention, and then walking them through a sales process that honors both your own and your clients’ higher power.

You really can have a thriving successful 6 figure or beyond business, where you're making a ton of money, you're able to afford the lifestyle that you want and have all of your effort going towards that spiritual meaning.

You can heal your relationship with money. You can start living a life of financial freedom to work from anywhere, and make a powerful impact on the world without sacrificing fun or time.

If you're interested in starting this journey, going deep with exploring and totally transforming your relationship with both money and spirituality, join me today at sarahbirdcoaching.com/asa-biz. This is the Abundant Soul-Aligned Business, and it's for women entrepreneurs who have meaning, who have depth, who care about making an impact in the world and who want to create that financial freedom to start bringing in the wealth that is truly in alignment with your higher power.

Your higher power is not poor. Your higher power is wealthy. We all come from the Divine. We all have this spark of divinity within us. Imagine turning to spirit, turning to the universe, turning to God and saying “no, all of the abundant resources that are available to me and to you, tou're not worthy of it. You only get just barely enough to make ends meet.” Imagine saying that to God.

That's not how it works. So if you can recognize that the divine is abundant, is prosperous, just naturally, we live in abundant universe, then you can start to recognize that spark of divinity within yourself that also is abundant. That also is wildly prosperous and deserving of lots of money.

Join me in the Abundant Soul-Aligned Business, and hopefully this has helped you gain a new understanding of money and spirituality. 

You are a power woman who is meant to impact the world.

Are you ready to do the deep inner work and create a spiritual business in alignment with your soul’s calling? Join me in the Abundant Soul-Aligned Business where I will walk you step by step through creating a business and life that you love.

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Hello Lovely, I’m Sarah Byrd

YOUR NEW BFF SPIRITUAL BUSINESS COACH.

CORE VALUE OBSESSED, ENNEAGRAM 3, INFJ, HUMAN DESIGN PROJECTOR, INTROVERT, BUDDHIST, CLINICAL COUNSELOR IN TRAINING, AND WORLD TRAVELER

I’ll help you dive deep into your spiritual journey to uncover the blocks that have held you back from living your life of desires. We all have a Divine Purpose, and when you unlock this in your own life and business, your path to success unfolds.

You can awaken your Divine Potential, scale your business to a six figure income, tap into your wealth wisdom and manifestation skills to create the life of freedom and impact your really want. All this without sacrificing time, self care, fun, or ease. You get to have it all!

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