Ooooh… abundance Money and how to create it. Does it seem a hot topic lately? Or does it always seem like that to you? <grin>

Come take a walk with me through the vast annals of money… or, uh… something.

Abundance and money are two different words for a reason, they are not the same thing or same idea. They’re related, certainly, and the relationship is that one is part of the other. Today, I’m going to look at an aspect of abundance/money which I feel will be most helpful to my readers, and I’m calling it ebb and flow. You may know it under another title, or not feel familiar with it at all. Most of the great money-masters of the world understand this concept and are comfortable with it. It has much to do with a way of looking at money, which can change for many people throughout their lives. I intend to offer a point of view possibly not often considered.

When we’re children, our understanding of ‘money’ is more in line with the concept of abundance. We see things come into our lives easily and magically. Food is generally provided, as is shelter, anything we need to enjoy life. We completely and utterly believe that every day is fine, there are no worries, and somehow, someway things will be provided to us. Whether its parents, or govt. or orphanages, or foster parents or god… children generally don’t care, they simply trust, innocently, that they’ll have whatever they need/want. If not, expressing the desire through crying or some other means until they are given it seems to work

As we grow, many begin to feel/understand that innocently trusting is no good anymore, that it ‘puts too much burden’ on our parents or the system, or they’d prefer to ‘earn their own way’ or ’stand on their own two feet.’ This makes sense and is natural… life is about change and the majority of people are not motivated to leave the standard, by rote safety involved in being provided for/dependent on others without such strong feelings — so it’s natural to have them. They motivate powerfully. If you look at most great figures throughout history, they are able to share a time when they felt uncomfortable being provided for by others and felt they needed to ‘do something’ with their life and make it on their own. They’d never have reached their status of greatness if they stuck with the status quo. Though it can be scary and feel like a big risk wanting to strike out on one’s own and not wanting to burden society is often key in developing our own individual greatness and future goals. Upon the unexpected death of Henry Ford’s mother, Henry was asked by his dad to run the farm, which was not his passion. Instead, he left home and started his career as an apprentice in an electric company and made his way, becoming an engineer. This was achieved through years of on job training and without any formal education. Despite this, he went on to become one of the earliest people to attain the status of ‘billionaire.’

Following that, there comes a period of growth where we learn to trust our own abilities, earning potential, and the miracles and goodness of the world around us. We begin to realize that we *can* make it on our own, despite it being new and never having done it before. We learn we can land a job of some kind, or start a business of some kind, or win a lottery, or steal, or whatever — but we learn we can change the pattern we’ve been following for most of our early years. We learn that a fall or a failure doesn’t really matter in the big picture and only makes us stronger. Walt Disney is one example: he was fired by a newspaper editor because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” He even went bankrupt multiple times before he ended up with a functioning Disneyland.

All this growth can certainly occur faster or slower for each person, and this is only a general run-down of a common path.

Next is a stage where, out on ‘our own,’ we learn about life’s ‘ups and downs’ (ebb and flow.) We get lame jobs, ok jobs, and awesome jobs. We start businesses that flop, businesses that do ok, and businesses that shine. There are months with high expenses and low income, and months which are high income low expenses. There are months where we get lots of gifts; new technology, items, toys, tools, and some where we provide these things to others. Mastering abundance allows one to either control these periods, or embrace them and be completely comfortable with them, or to use them beautifully as a springboard for growth.

It can help to look at money as a river, which ebbs and flows. When the river is flowing fast and high, its easy to gather water, or store it, or let the river carry you to interesting new destinations. When the river is low and drying and the tide ebbing and there seems to be little flow, we can share the water we’ve stored with others who may need it, we can watch our own watertanks a bit closer, and we can allow the situation to wait for rain or spring floods or move closer to an ocean or a lake.

The key thing is that the river always flows, its natural, even when it seems meager and almost dried up, it will always flow again.

Masters of abundance know this, most self-employed business owners can see this, people who make their money investing in the stock exchange are often extremely comfortable with this. As the market changes, traders see opoortunities to buy and sell, depending on the ebb and flow, and they are at home with either. During the ebb or flow, there is the chance to choose to panic and worry about things, or to trust in abundance and realize that the flow will come back, and it is only necessary to focus on handling the ebb well.

Another aspect of flow which is important, is that it makes the world go ’round. This is kind of where the phrase ‘money makes the world go round’ comes from. When we spend money, give money, allow money to EBB out of our lives, we encourage, value, appreciate and help everyone else involved with whatever we spend it on or give it to. Whether we buy an item or service, donate it somewhere, or even drop it on the ground, we are benefitting someone else and possibly enabling them to reach their goals, create something better, or invest in a tool to help them in life. In the same way, when other people spend on us or things we’re involved in, they are directing the flow back to us. Perhaps they make a donation to a store or website we enjoy, and it becomes better and more usable for us. Then we are acquiring money, getting money, allowing it to FLOW into our lives. We love it. We don’t always stop to understand or appreciate the people who made it possible with their funds, time, and energy, but we certainly enjoy the improved experience. Or if someone buys us a meal or a present or pays us for a service or product, we love it, and that money enriches our lives, enabling us again to spend on more things/experiences for ourselves and by doing so, place the funds back again in another person’s hands. Many people look at money as a competition, and look only at how much a person has stored or generates in a year. "How much do you have in the bank?", "How much do you make?" — That kind of thing.

It’s all a beautiful cycle, both the spending and receiving helps both the spender and the receiver so much, and realizing that opens the door for even more flow and abundance, because it means you LOVE spending AND receiving. As with anything in life we LOVE, we truly excel at it. You can look at anything, sports, science, martial arts, dance, sex, talking, meditating, rock-climbing, breathing, massage, whatever — and if a person really truly passionately loves it, embraces it, and understands it… then that person excels at it. If a person doesn’t love something, they tend to half-ass it, not really understand it, and certainly not spend much time or energy bringing that experience into their life or investing in it — they’d much rather invest in OTHER things they love.

Rich people love, embrace, and understand spending and acquiring, giving and receiving. They really really do. They understand that whatever they invest in or spend on, helps the world. They understand that every dollar they make/earn helps the world. They love that, they love being abundant.

Take a moment and think about your attitudes towards the subject. Do you become panicky, upset, worried, frustrated or ‘negative’ in any way when you ‘have to spend’ or ’spend too much’ or ’spend at all?’ — or are you grateful, proud, happy, pleased, ecstatic to be able to spend on a new experience, tool, or simply helping someone else? When you receive even a tiny amount, how do you feel about that receiving? Do you grumble its only a penny or a dime? Do you grudingly think ‘its a start, but i want more’ ? Do you feel like its a drop in the bucket and you’ll never get out of this hole you’re in? Or are you blissful that you got it and see it as a sign of more to come? Do you happily talk about this one monetary find and eagerly think about other ways you can earn or create it? Are you grateful, and do you value the money, looking forward to again spending it to help yourself and the world?

These questions can help you figure out if deep down, you truly understand and love money and abundance, and understand why its wonderful to have. If somehow, you don’t love it, you’ll get the bare minimum, if you do love it, your abundance and money will soar and grow – just like everything else you love.

All of this ties very closely into acknowledging one’s own value, as people, society, and the world loves an individual who lovingly and givingly provides value, and people who do so are pretty much guaranteed to at least ‘be alright,‘ and not need to worry. People who close up in fear, choose not to bother helping people or providing value, are usually holding the mindset that "I’ll wait until I get money (see flow) and THEN I’ll start being awesome and helping people." In my experience, and the experience of many, many other active value-providers it is highly recommended to take the step, use as many of your skills/gifts/passions as often/much as you can to give value to others, and THEN watch the flow roll in because of it. Young youtube fame-ers such as Alyssa Bernal or Marie Digby took time and energy and invested in tools necessary to put out whatever songs and videos and entertainment they could, with or without fans, or any idea of how they’d get money or what would happen, and by doing so, they opened up possibilities for people to see the value they’re providing and appreciate it and be grateful for it. Whether someone just appreciated it by linking it or emailing it to a friend, or whether they donated money or offered some other helping hand, Alyssa and Marie have ended up famous and each with record deals and big media appearances. The value providing came FIRST, then the flow of abundance. Now of course, debuting on youtube is an acceptable ‘business model’, but it wasn’t really at the time, and its not what I’d like to focus on.

Love money, understand money, give money a great big hug, both the giving and receiving of it.

An example of something I love, is teaching/guiding/reminding/coaching/opening up others to wonderful things in life; I love it. Love it. I also love abundance and all the success I enjoy from this site and in the rest of my life. I could go on forever about the miraculous ways abundance has touched me. I love bringing the two together through this post, and fully intend for this to touch people in a profound way. I know it already is.

If you’d like to share about this post feel free to comment, or share some more interactive communication through the debut of the new SpiritSentient forums!