When was the last time you felt having a grip on your finances?
When was the last time that you felt in control of money? Many of us feel like being lived on a day-to-day basis.
As if you don’t have control over your life. Bills come on unwanted moments, the washing machine breaks and you don’t have money for repairs.
There is always something going on and you are chasing issue after issue.
What if I tell you that you have control over your life when you understand a concept that dictates how you experience the world…
What are money beliefs?
A belief is a statement that holds true for you, but is not necessarily true for someone else. They cover topics such as money, relationships and health.
You hold a belief because you think that it serves you. It might sound strange especially some beliefs don’t seem to serve you rationally. How a belief serves you is unique.
An example is ‘I must work hard to become wealthy.’ It is a phrase often heard in a capitalist society.
The phrase sounds rather negative and limiting, right? After all, you want to make money without working yourself to death.
Why would such a belief serve you? In other words how does it benefit you to only have wealth when you work hard?
The underlying benefit serves you when you think people will appreciate you (or your wealth) only when you got it by putting in a lot of effort. Or, maybe you associate it as the honest way to have wealth.
The ‘must work hard to receive wealth’ example is limiting. When you think for yourself which beliefs you have, you likely come up with more negative ones. Don’t worry if you can’t name any. Later in the article, I share how to discover your own money beliefs.
While most of us naturally gravitate to limiting beliefs, there are also positive beliefs that empower you. Actually, for every negative belief, there is a positive one. An example is ‘money makes my life easier.’
Since a belief is a statement that holds true for you, both examples might not resonate with you. Those are beliefs after all.
But, maybe you identify with one of the following limiting beliefs:
- I am unworthy of riches/wealth
- I am not good with money
- Money is the root of all evil
Now you see where I am getting at. There are many different forms of money beliefs. They all have one thing in common. And that is how it drags you down in life. It is like trying to move around with an anchor.
How money beliefs shape your reality
Now you know that there are positive and negative beliefs, but to what end. What is the point of differentiating between the 2?
Science has shown that beliefs impact how you experience the world. In other words, limiting beliefs have an negative impact on your life. While positive beliefs have a positive effect.
But how?
I would rather not go to deep into that right here as it becomes distracting to undestanding and overcoming your limiting money beliefs.
But, in short, quantum mechanics tells us that everything is made up of energy. Every object you see around you vibrates on its own frequency. And not only objects, but you and your thoughts too.
Your thoughts are beliefs as well. The energy of your beliefs crystalize in visible objects or situations.
Therefore, the limiting belief ‘I must work hard to be wealthy’ will become a reality for you. The universe of energy will make sure that it becomes true for you. So you won’t receive money by just chilling on the couch.
So don’t even try to buy a lottery ticket. You won’t win, because you don’t belief to receive wealth that way.
Now, lets assume you hold the opposite belief ‘wealth comes easily to me.’ You deserve to have plenty of money and that you receive it rather easily. You allow yourself to receive money not only from working, but also from inheritance, winnings, gifts, etc.
It is important to note that the postive belief doesn’t state what you have to do in order to get what you want. There is no condition. The statement is designed to let the universe of energy care about how you get the money.
On the other hand, the limiting belief states the how to receive money. Never think about how you are going to receive it. You are simply not creative enough to think of ways to receive. Let the universe decide!
Life is much easier when you don’t limit yourself to one outcome.
Where do money beliefs come from?
Beliefs come generally from your parents. Other ways to obtain beliefs through projection come from family, friends, and society.
A belief that your parents project on you often is handed down the family tree like a heirloom. For example your granddad saw a couple in his hometown getting married for love. Shortly after, the husband started to make serious money through his business.
Years later, your granddad observed the couple argue and the marriage ultimately ended in divorce. Due to his own fears and doubts, his subconscious made a connection where love and being wealthy isn’t possible. Maybe he read another similar story in the newspaper, reinforcing his belief.
Then he gets children himself and wants to protect them from marriage failure. He tells his children that being in a loving relationship and having wealth doesn’t work well together. After all, he observed it himself.
His only son, who happens to be your dad, takes over the belief. Since beliefs shape reality, your dad frequently saw couples either being in love or having wealth, but never both.
So, when you grew up, he tells you what he knows. Marry for love or money, you can’t have both.
And now you are stuck with a belief that isn’t yours, but it shapes how you treat your relationships and money in relationships. It limits your relationship with your partner, what is a trade-off between money and love just because of what your granddad encountered.
This isn’t a unique situation, but happens to all of us. Such beliefs may go many generations back.
As you may have picked up on, your granddad gained his belief through experience (of someone else). You create a belief through experience and obtain them from others like family heirlooms.
Why do others teach you their beliefs?
Your parents raised you to the best of their ability and prepared you for the world that is out there.
They teached you all kind of things and most of them are beliefs. However, they aren’t aware that these are beliefs. Your parents merely shared their teachings with you out of love.
If you look at the previous example of ‘’marrying for love or money. The granddad wanted to make sure his children are not chasing something that isn’t ‘possible’. Due to his belief, it isn’t possible for him and never experienced wealth and love in a relationship.
To protect you from disappointment, he shared a ‘valuable’ life lesson that went from parent to child through the family tree. Without his knowing, he did harm to how you perceive the world.
The emotions they want to protect you from
Many money beliefs evoke emotions of fear and doubt. When you pay attention to your thoughts and body reactions, you notice how much it occurs. During many events throughout the day, you are guided by your fears resulting from beliefs.
No one likes to experience fear. It is however, an emotion that protects you from getting in harms way.
Your parents tell you how to avoid pain by telling beliefs that based on fear they or others experienced.
The paradox is that when they imprint the belief on you, you will experience over and over the exact thing they don’t want you to experience.
How limiting beliefs impact your life
Negative beliefs are always of limiting capacity. Take the previous example where your granddad made you choose between wealth and love in a relationship.
The obvious impact is being in a loving relationship where money doesn’t flow abundantly. Or, you can buy everything you want but you are arguing most of the time.
Another example is the earlier mentioned belief ‘I must work hard to be wealthy.’ How does this impact your life?
Quite literally, you ‘programmed‘ yourself that only when you work hard, you will become wealthy. While this seems logical from if earning an hourly wage is the only solution. But, you block yourself from all other ways you can get wealthy.
Think about an inheritance, gifts, tax breaks, investments and more.
Now, i hear you think, but HOW?
How you gain the wealth is not the point here. The belief you hold limits you from other forms of receiving wealth. The Universe/God supports you and will find a way to give what you want.
How positive beliefs improve your life
On a positive note, the opposite of limiting beliefs is how great your life turns out when you hold positive beliefs.
Imagine, you live paycheck to paycheck. You likely hold a belief that you don’t have enough money. Every month, the belief gets reinforced. Maybe you have enough, but it feels like you don’t have enough.
Let’s change the belief to ‘I have enough money each month.’ When you believe this strongly, you are more grateful towards the money you have. You trust the Universe that you’ll be given enough. You know that no matter what, you’ll have enough at the end of the month.
It doesn’t mean that you now are flush with cash. But, the effect is that you don’t fear every bill that comes in. You don’t have worries about the end of the month.
Since, you have enough, you open up to other possibilities and have more energy for other things.
Now, lets say you also have hold the belief of more money makes life easier. Since you experience having more money, you experience an easier life. May it be marginal, but this becomes a snowball effect. Your life improves, you become healthier resulting in less doctor visits. No sudden repairs, etc.
Unexpected costs become a thing of the past. You have more money left over to save up, making your life again easier. This pattern happens month after month always making your life easier.
How do you know which beliefs you have?
The fears and doubt that you experience daily are a great indicator of limiting beliefs you have. To understand what the belief exactly is you have to identify your thoughts.
In the beginning, this may be difficult for you, what will become easier with practice.
A friend of mine played for years with the idea to start giving art workshops. Opening your own business is a big step (another belief). He contemplated and went back and forth on his dream.
At the time, I asked him what he is afraid off. The first thing he mentioned was if he will have enough customers, a fear of many business owners. This fear was a great starting point to understand the underlying belief he had.
So, I asked him some followup questions:
- Why do you think customers won’t show up?
- Why do you think customers aren’t interested in what you have to offer?
As you see, I asked why questions. The follow-up questions are based on the previous answer to dig deeper.
As a result, my friend’s belief came down to believing not being worthy enough to be valuable. While this might sound strange and has nothing directly to do with money, often core beliefs have nothing to do with money.
Money is energy and flows freely between the ones who deem themselves worthy. Others who believe not to deserve attention, feel not seen, etc. have more trouble accepting money.
How to change or remove a belief?
As for my friend, from the last example, and many others, most limiting money beliefs boil down to ‘I am unworthy (of money).’
But you can’t just jump to that conclusion when a fear of doubt creeps up in you. Beliefs around a fear are like an onion. You peel layer for layer removing one belief after the other till you get to the core belief evoking the fear.
Many methods exist to peel the union of beliefs. Which you want to use is just a matter of preference. Some might work for you others don’t. Experiment and a preferred method will surface.
Online, people like to argue how a method should be done. I found that a method is more like a template, a guideline if you will. If you want to make changes to it, that is fine. The goal is to remove a belief, not following a manual to the letter.
As for myself, I use every method, but the right choice depends on how deep the belief is rooted in me. Every method cost energy, so I prefer not to use an very intensive method on a surface-level belief.
Treat it lightly and what comes out of it is nice, but don’t fret over unfruitful sessions.
Meditation
A common method is meditation. People around the world use it to seek stillness and turn to themselves.
I think there is a general misconception around meditating. I used to think that one had to sit in the lotus position and wait till the chatter in the mind died out. Then one has to wait in silence till the times up.
It is nothing like that. Before you start, you state an intent. For example, when you want to resolve the belief ‘I am not good with money,’ you state in your mind or out loud that you want to resolve the belief I am not good with money.
You prime your mind, what you want to achieve during the meditation.
Put on some music or a guided meditation. Then, you sit down and get into a comfortable position. Close your eyes and let your thoughts flow. Maybe thoughts related to work or chores might not be what you should be thinking about. Try to silence the mind when they arise.
Naturally, the mind drifts off to other thoughts, conversations, memories etc. This is normal as your brain processes information for the intent you set.
During the mediation, a revelation may come to mind. Don’t stress when it doesn’t happen right away. Take time after the meditation to capture or process your thoughts.
When a revelation of a belief comes, you realize how silly it is to do X, Y or Z. That isn’t you, your natural self. When that happens to you, in that instance the belief isn’t yours anymore. And you automatically let it go.
Asking yourself Why
Many people journal frequently, but what do you write in your journal? You can uncover your beliefs and figure out why you have them in the first place.
It all starts with writing down what belief you want to work on. Just like with a meditation you state your intent, but in the written form.
Write down the belief and write down a why-question based on the belief. Now you write down your answer. You follow-up with a why-question based on the answer. Again you answer and the cycle repeats itself.
You basically play to roles of therapist and you, the client.
During your answers you write whatever comes up. Don’t filter the information or leave thoughts unwritten. The why-questions are meant to dive deeper into the subconscious to understand why you behave/react the way you do.
The questions and answering continues till you have an aha-moment or run in circles. The aha-moment is instance where you realize that the belief doesn’t make any sense.
[Add photo example from my notebooks]
Family Constellations
A family constellation is an energy-consuming process where you lay out the dynamic of different people and objects related to the belief you want to clarify. Most beliefs come from generations ago.
With the family constellation method, you can identify why and with who this belief came to be. While this information isn’t necessary to break down a belief, some people prefer to know these aspects.
With a family constellation, you tap into the energy of everyone who is related to the belief.
I find it an interesting method, but it is very draining because you connect to people who are not physically in the same room.
You take the role of yourself and ask questions to the ones who gave you the belief. Then you connect to those people and answers will flow into your head.
So you go back and forth between yourself and other people to understand what happens, why it happened.
In the days or weeks after, the subconscious continues to process what happened during the constellation. In that time, the belief breaks down.
Others
Above I mentioned 3 methods to find your beliefs and how to remove them. However, there are many more methods and variants to them.
- Neurographics: with this method you draw following an algorithm. Often you draw inconceivable lines that represent your neuron network in your brain. Next, you round intersections and color drawing. During the process, your brain resolves issues on the subconscious level.
- Art therapy: the therapist asks you a question, like draw your family. How you draw your family is very telling how you view them and what your position is within the family. The therapist analyzes all your drawings and creates a deeper understanding of you from there.
- Behavioral experiments: test the belief. Does the event always have the outcome your belief dictates? With this method, you essentially gather evidence against the belief by experimenting. As a result you you slowly stop believing your belief.
How do you know you don’t have the belief anymore?
Holding a belief and breaking it down is for everyone a different process. Some of you will remove a belief instantly while it is gradual for others. You may experience an aha-moment, or slowly gather evidence agains the belief and reach the turning point slowly.
However, you will notice a difference in behavior and how you handle situations/events related to the belief you held. Before, you had a strong emotional reaction. While now, you approach it calmly. You have a thick skin and let it slide.
Your attitude has changed towards the issue.
It might sound strange, but the very thing that you believed might not occur anymore.
Based on the teaching that everyone is the creator of their own reality, beliefs create a reality. Following that logic, when you don’t hold the belief, it won’t happen in your life anymore.
Wrap up
Money beliefs are constructs you got from others, like your parents, or through experience. These statements hold ‘true’ for you.
Many people think they are stuck with them. But you have the power to change them for the better.
Your beliefs create your reality. So why choose limiting beliefs over empowering ones?
There are various methods like meditation, journaling and family constellations, to release limiting beliefs.
I wish you all the fun in creating your own reality!