The 4 words that will bring you success, no matter where you are in your journey | 30-Day Challenge: Daily Practice [Day 28]

Start where you are.I received a very honest response to Day 26's daily practice, where this person realized they need to start where they are.I thought you could benefit from hearing this person's struggles and my responses. The rest of this email dives into this AND gets real about money. You’re going to be in a relationship with money for you entire life anyways, so why not heal that relationship now and enjoy the ride?I have, with permission, put this person's email into italics in quotes. Then my response follows each section. Let me know if this brings up stuff for you!Here it goes:"I've been feeling badly that I haven't been able to focus my energy on fantasizing about my dream because I am too busy trying to get enough work/money together to survive. I have been having days that are meant to be filled with writing and inspiration but have ended up with applying to jobs. I often wish I could push these things away and usually convince myself I am creative enough to not need money but lately it has been draining me."Thank you for this. This is a perfect example of some of the many myths about manifesting and money. While many magic things can happen when you are involved in the manifesting process, the process itself is not meant to be an overnight fix for your entire life. What you’re doing here is tuning in to your truth and your true heart’s desires, represented by your dream vision stories and values, and trusting what shows up in your life to lead you to the unfolding of your dream vision as it becomes your present reality. And I've been here, too, so know that this is not an uncommon thing to experience!So the trick here is trusting what shows up. In the Day 26 daily practice I talked about how sometimes the next step is to take care of business, to tackle the things on your to do list that you’ve been resisting. For you, it happens to be taking care of your basic needs by generating income.There are a few hidden beliefs at the core of the bad feeling that shows up because you haven’t been able to focus your energy on your dream vision. I’m going to share them here, and they may not all apply to you. Simply notice which ones are playing out in your life.The first one is that if you could only get enough clarity, enough detail and enough alignment with your dream vision, it will suddenly show up and everything will be right. This is a biggie, and I think a lot of folks fall into this trap in the beginning of their journeys. To this I say, you must start where you are. Your dream vision is probably very different than the jobs and opportunities that are showing up for you right now. What’s hidden in all this is that your higher self is guiding you to situations where you can take care of some core concepts around self worth, self care and self love.By writing your dream vision story and identifying what you value, you’ve set the direction of the course of events to lead you to the unfolding of your dream vision. Your higher self is like, “Ok, now I offer you the opportunity to believe that you can be in relationship with source in a way that allows you to take care of your basic needs AND grow your dream vision at the same time.” This might look like some random job that has nothing to do with your dream vision, but what’s happening here is at a foundational level, you are learning to say YES to loving yourself enough to take care of your needs AND continue to align with your dream vision. When you are willing to take care of your needs, you plant the seed of having deep trust in your ability to work with source to express your true self in the world.As you move more and more into living your dream as your present reality, you will do so with the seedling of trust that you can work with source through whatever opportunities show up along the way. You can trust yourself to take the steps that need to be taken to manifest your dream into reality. But only with that deep trust will you be able to do this in a sustainable way. So, as you learn to trust your ability to generate income and meet your needs through the job opportunities that show up, you trust yourself to work in connection with source to manifest your dreams as higher-stake situations show up. These higher-stake situations are ones that represent and embody more and more of your dream vision. If you engaged in those higher-stake opportunities without that basic seed of trust in your connection and ability to take care of yourself with source’s help, then you would always feel a deep seed of fear that these high-stake opportunities would disappear.Another thing at play in this is the belief that there isn’t enough time to do anything but what you think is aligned with your dream vision. There’s not enough time to take care of your needs AND manifest your dream vision. There’s not enough time to slow down and start where you are. To that I say: everything creating these beliefs, all the reasons why these beliefs persist in your reality, and all the reasons why you can’t clear these beliefs, delete all those. Delete and destroy and clear all the reasons why you can’t do what you have to do AND manifest your dream vision. Start practicing your abundance mentality by trusting that there is more than enough time to do what you have to do AND manifest your dream vision. Let go of that lack mentality that’s saying there’s not enough time. There’s more time than you could ever imagine, and it’s not time that we’re working with anyways. When you dive into where you are right now and move that energy around, you shift time. You allow the portals to open that let your dream vision show up. Go ahead and re-read the statement above a few times, and let it rework your neurons! Powerful stuff there.No matter where you are right now, trusting what’s showing up for you is the first step to strengthening the deep trusting relationship with yourself and with source that creates a dynamic, sustainable foundation in your journey to manifesting your dream vision. Everything that shows up along the way is allowing you to transform your blocks and beliefs AND to strengthen your KNOWING of your power to create in relationship with your higher self and source.The second hidden belief that I see here is that you are trying to convince yourself that you are creative enough to not need money. I’m seeing lots of need for shifting everyone’s relationship to money, so know that you are not alone here! I began the conversation about money in Day 19’s daily practice, so if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend you do so. The gist of the post is that I challenge you to examine your core beliefs about whether money is more powerful than source or not.It is not my intention to lead you to believe that receiving and using money is bad or will somehow block your connection with source and receiving from source. Rather the opposite. I intend to open doors to you noticing how, while you may have a job and a boss who pays you, it is really source that is your boss and source that is showing up in money form for you to meet your basic needs. True, you can live your entire life without ever using money. If that’s your dream, then there will be a time when you will be able to spend your last dollar and step fully into that lifestyle.But that’s not the point. What I’m getting at here is that money is one form of source in material form. Yes, it’s a weird concept and there’s lots of abuse around money, but for you, right now, the opportunity exists to reframe your entire relationship with money. Money has been abused, money has been put on a pedestal and also cursed and hated. How would you feel if you were simply an expression of source, yet so many people were treating you like you treat money with fear and disgust and hatred? It’s ok to LOVE money. I even encourage you to get to a place where you can legitimately say, “I LOVE MONEY!"People might look at you crazy, but you know in your heart of hearts that your love of money is your love of yourself, your love of source, and your willingness to receive and express source energy though the use and exchange of money. You KNOW that money isn’t the power. The power is in YOU and is in SOURCE and in your trust and ability to maintain a clear vision and connection about the truth of your relationship with money.Another place where you might get tripped up about money is that you are afraid that by loving and welcoming money, you will lose sight of your dream vision, and you will get stuck in a job or relationship or situation that provides you that money. You will become a sad, greedy, ugly person. You will become all those people with money that you are hating right now. You will put money higher than your dreams and higher than source, and you will get stuck in a whirlwind of meaninglessness chasing money.Tied in with this is the fear that by loving money you will miss out on the true beauty of life, of the abundance that the earth provides, on the beauty and magic of living in divine connection with all creation.What I ask you is what would it take to both HAVE and LOVE and play with money AND to have clear vision about what your truth is, about what really matters and about what your dream vision and purpose in life is. Is that possible for you? What would it take for you to have such deep trust in yourself and in source and such a clear knowing of the truth about money that you can receive, save, use, and give money absolutely free of hang ups? That’s a big question there! When you can stand in your truth, stand for your dream vision AND allow yourself to feel love for money and to let it flow through your life with ease and grace, you have redefined your relationship with money. This is an interpretation of the saying, “Be in this world, but not of it.”

Be in beautiful relationship with money. You’re going to be in a relationship with money for you entire life anyways, so why not heal it now and enjoy the ride?

There’s a lot of stuff about money inside of you. I know I didn’t hit all the fears or beliefs, but I have opened a door for you to examine your relationship with money. If another fear or block is showing up for you, let me know, and I’ll do my best to help you move through it and reframe your perspective.And, as always, remember gratitude.Be thankful for how source is showing up for you as job opportunities. Be thankful for how, through learning to meet your basic needs, you are strengthening and clarifying your connection to source and your knowing of your power to co-create with source. Be thankful that you are being shown where it hurts, so you can heal this relationship with money and welcome money as a friend and buddy who wants to play with you and help you achieve your dreams. And be thankful that through all of this, you KNOW that it’s all an expression of source and you’ll never, ever get that confused with thinking that it was money that made your dreams come true. Money is an expression of source and is the playmate and the friend who wants to help you thrive. Source wants you to thrive. You want you to thrive. Be grateful that this is all showing up for you to work with and work though, so you can truly be FREE of these limiting beliefs around money. As you progress along your life’s journey, your fears about money might show up once in a while, especially as you get close to your edges. The good news is you will have this foundation of trust and truth about source and money to guide you through whatever shows up. There’s always more to learn, and it gets more and more fun along the way.  ?When you get that paycheck, thank your boss (at least silently in your head and heart), thank yourself for being willing to take care of yourself, and thank source for guiding you to this moment."I can feel my self worth diminish when I feel I can't afford the food that I need or to be able to be generous with my housemates. The self worth is also diminished by being employed by people who are not valuing me holistically. This daily practice makes me realize that getting myself to a situation where I am stable is part of the path to manifesting, even though it can feel like a stagnation. Because after my job search yesterday, where I thought I was being crazy responding to craigslist ads, I got a gig that will let me make my months expenses in 5 days! (And its safe and legitimate :) ) It is hard for me to take jobs that seem not to relate to my dream but I think I need to build myself a foundation so that my free time is not tarnished with financial stress."Yes. You've got this. You are being challenged to accept whether you believe it’s true that you are not worth being able to afford the food you need to live. The good news is, once you get to a place where you can REALLY say that you don’t believe that you’re not worth it, and you can feel that you ARE worth being able to afford your basic needs, you’ll have turned that belief into a strength. With your willingness to start where you are, go on Craigslist and look for jobs, and then accept the job that showed up, it looks like you’re well on your way to shifting this whole belief! That job, in itself, is the magic of manifesting showing up for you. And you are being magical by starting where you are, accepting this opportunity, and allowing yourself to move through this and set the stage for being rooted in knowing your true self worth. By taking these necessary steps, you’re setting the stage for moving forward with a strong foundation in trusting the process."Themes around money have been one of the greatest challenges of this manifesting challenge. Whenever you have presented thoughts on money- like the bathing ritual or the idea that you will turn this course into a money-trade, I have felt turned off / also aware of my difficult relationship with it. It seems I've manifested a situation over the last few years where I am always able to get my needs, but with no surplus. Always living in the poverty line because I thought that would feel more free. I think I've learned a lot of incredible lessons through this but on the negative side it's made me feel a powerlessness and resentment towards everyone with money. There is a lot for me to work on in this area…"You’re not alone in your challenges surrounding money. I hope what I’ve written here today will help you to shift through what’s keeping you stuck. I hope you can see a glimpse of how to be free AND have your needs met AND have more than enough money AND manifest your dream vision. I’m happy to help unpack this even further, should this not be helpful. Just let me know!I’ve been where you are. I’ve been in that place of feeling stuck because I didn’t want to give up my dream in exchange for having some shitty job that isn’t satisfying. It was only in 2006 that I came across manifesting and law of attraction, and I was so sad and broke and stuck that I didn’t believe it could ever change for me. As the years passed, my manifesting practice ebbed and flowed. I had boatloads of beliefs about money, about my self worth, about freedom and about what was possible for me. I resisted starting where I was, and I struggled a lot. I fell out of having a regular manifesting practice for several years, but when I finally GOT IT about starting where I was, I was able to move through my blocks and make what felt like quantum leaps. The good news for you is that you’re already moving past the resistance about accepting and starting where you are.Through the years I’ve been using  been the same process of:1. Having a clear vision and becoming very attuned to how that dream vision feels2. Moving through my blocks through acceptance, forgiveness, clearing statements and rituals3. Surrendering the HOW - letting go of expectations of how it should look, and trusting what shows up - doing whatever shows up that is saying on a gut level, “Pay attention to me now," and also trusting the signs that show up and feel similar to the dream vision4. Taking action - this ties in with step 3 - taking action on the signs and on what’s showing up - and taking action despite fear (and noticing when you're acting from a place of lack mentality and shifting that)5. Receiving - allowing yourself to receive - clearing beliefs about self worth that keep you from accepting the abundance and opportunities and gifts that show up - trusting that they are source showing up for you in the guise of the 3D world that we live in6. Revising the vision - the feeling of your dream vision will probably remain pretty much the same (it will change sometimes as you learn more information), but the way you envision your dream vision will change as you move through the process. Every step you take brings you new information and that changes things. Check in and notice when it’s changed. That’s part of the process!7. Celebrating - success! Things are showing up - even things like this job opportunity for you to earn some cash and embrace a new sense of self worth - celebrate them! Be grateful! Honor and acknowledge your process and notice that it’s working. This is it!Then repeat. Always. Forever. It is the same, yet it is different every time. The effects of the process are cumulative, meaning that they build on one another. It’s like the snowball effect. What becomes clear through one iteration of the process feeds the next iteration of the process. Through starting where you are, through allowing that foundation of trust and love to form, and through staying present with what shows up for you to transmute and to act on and to add to your dream vision, you are shifting your entire reality to reflect your dream vision. And like with any skill, it really does get easier as you get further along in your journey.So today I invite you to do two things:1. Start where you are. If you need to take care of business, then take care of business. If you need to let go and relax for a while, let go and relax. Be honest with yourself and start where you are.2. Be real with yourself about how you feel about money. Can you forgive money? Can you accept how you're really feeling about money and then use your clearing tools to move through your blocks with money? There are literally thousands of things you could do with money right now to improve your relationship.In yesterday's daily practice (Day 27) I invited you to get started on this by doing an exercise to clear your fears about having money. You can do that, if you haven't already.Or you can simply take a moment to do a forgiveness exercise with money. Can you see how it's not money's fault that all these things happened? Money was just the tool that people used to do these things. Money is the scapegoat. Money wants to have as much fun as you want to have. Can you see how money is a form of source's abundance coming through into the 3D world? Can you forgive money? Forgive yourself for how you've treated and viewed money? What would it take for you to be in beautiful relationship with money?Another exercise you can do is to imagine you have more than enough money to quit your job and do whatever the fuck you want to do. What would you do? I mean, literally, hour to hour, day to day, month to month, what would you do? Play in that world where you are free to do anything you want. Anything at all. You know what I want? Someone to do our laundry. Hahaha. When you do this exercise, you get to play around a little bit and be real about what you'd like to do in your life. And then you also get to realize that some of your dreams are closer to reality than you thought they were. And finally, you realize that if you really want to create a unique dream life, you have to get clear about what you're doing in that life. This exercise can help you tune in. Then start where you are.   :)How is your relationship with money shifting? Are you having epiphanies? Let me know. Are you stuck? Struggling? Having a hard time getting this? Let me know.xoxoNataliePS - You need not spend all day fantasizing about your dream vision. All that's needed is a few minutes once a day or every few days to read your story, review your values, and get as aligned as you can with the feeling embodied in your dream vision. That's it. It could take 30 seconds, 5 minutes or an hour, depending on how long you've got and on how willing you are to just feel how it feels. You're training yourself to know how it feels. When it's time to give your dream visions more attention and get deeper with your visualizing, you'll know it, and it will feel good. Trust what shows up for you.  :)Image via the art of Brenda Erickson at Society 6