Increase Your Financial Abundance

Everyone is dealing with this crazy economy, and I don't think it's getting any better for a good, long time.  However, that DOES NOT mean you have to suffer through it.   More people became millionaires during the Great Depression than during any other time in the 20th century.  WOW!  Think about that for a minute.  Colonel Sanders started Kentucky Fried Chicken during this period.  Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard began their company in 1939. And statistics show that 10 million millionaires will be created in the next ten years.

So, don't buy into the hype of this economic downturn.  What happens in the stock market when the economy tanks?  People sell their stocks. They panic and hold on to every last dime.  And then what happens?  We really start to tank.  Everything freezes.  Europe is reconsidering their whole economic structure, Greece is in real trouble, and America's bond rating was downgraded for the first time ever.

The reason why I am fascinated by history is because we can learn from it.  When we hold on to money, when we panic and freeze, everything stops and stagnates.  How many of you remember gas lines in the 70's?  Or buying a house at an interest rate of 18%?  No one wants that again.  So what can we do?

Spend money? Act as though nothing is awry?

No, of course not.

Here's what you can do:

1) Limit frivolous spending if you need to.  You just might not need to spend $5 at Starbucks everyday.

2) Start saving some money to appease your worries.  Even if you only put $5 away each week, you'll at least feel as though you're doing something to help your situation.  Then you won't beat yourself up.  Guilt is a huge stagnating force when trying to manifest money.

3) Practice spiritual tithing. Wonderful, amazing, miraculous things happen when we give back to the universe.  Tithing does not mean you have to give to your church, although that is where the tradition began.  Tithing is the practice of giving away 10% of your income each week.  The goal is to tithe 10% of your weekly income to wherever or whomever spiritually uplifted you that week.  If your friend really help you out of a bind, purchase a gift certificate for him/her.  If you felt moved by a story of a family who lost their home in a fire, contact the news station and find out where you can send a donation.  When my husband was in the hospital that summer, I can't tell you how many people gave to us.  It was such a relief to not have to worry about money during that time, but the cards and letters and thoughtful gifts that poured in were literally life savers to me.  Here's just a brief sampling of what we received: a gift basket including hospital necessities like Chapstick, moisturizes, pen and paper, and a guest book so people could leave messages for my husband.  The ladies at the Lancome department send me a basket filled with all types of makeup.  We received a lot of gifts for our children which were so very thoughtful.  People sent mass cards, books, DVDs, magazines and lots of food.  One woman mailed me a check for $100 every month for over six months.  I never met her, but I keep her in my prayers always.  She'd attach a note that would read, "Buy something special for yourself. Take care of yourself. Go get your nails done and remember to breathe." She always included a thoughtful and appropriate Bible verse.

Be creative with your tithing and have fun with it.  Years ago, I interviewed a woman for our newspaper who drove over to a local orphanage once a week to cook them a homemade meal.  I met a retired man who spent his free time making and giving away birdhouses.  I have a friend who hand sewed blankets for every patrol car in our city to be handed out to children being taken to protective services.  A good friend of mine spends her Fridays at the woman's jail teaching them inspiring ways to live their life.

Tithing will change your life.

I read a story once about a woman in the 1950's who worked all week as a maid.  She kept trying to tithe 10% but she could never make the numbers add up.  So, she decided to start selling boxed lunches at a local factory on her Saturdays off.  All the money she made, she promised to God.  Soon, she was so successful that she was making well more than the 10% needed.  After two years, she quit her job cleaning houses and opened up a very successful restaurant.

4) Visualize yourself with more money.  What would your life look like if you never had to worry about money?  What if you had enough money each month to pay all your bills, deposit some in savings, invest a bit, tithe your 10% and still had money left over?  What would that look like?  Remember, if you can't picture it, you can't create it.

5) Remember Suze Orman's words of wisdom: If you need more money, go out and make it.  I am probably the Queen of finding and creating jobs.  As a teacher for more than a dozen years, I never once took a summer off.  I always scrambled to find a job, something to bring in income.  Usually, I would pick up extra classes at the community college.  Sometimes, I would tutor kids.  I worked for a real estate company, I taught workshops, I wrote freelance articles, and for two summers I was the Cookie Lady selling cookies to five area coffee shops.  Whenever I couldn't find a job, I would create one.

And finally, some metaphysical tips for creating and bringing in more money:

1) Tie Red Ribbons around all the pipes in your house.  This is an old Feng Shui cure.  Good chi gets drawn out of our house through the pipes, but with the energy of the color red which vibrates to the number 4 (balance, stability, strength), it stops the good energy from flowing OUT of your home.

2) Keep toilet lids, washing machine lids and bathroom doors closed at all times for the same reason listed above.

3) Find out where your money corner is in your home.  There are nine areas in our home which draw in certain energies.  Your money corner is located in the opposite left hand corner from your front door.  Stand at your front door with your back to the inside of the front door.  The farthest left hand corner of your home from that position is your money corner.  Place images of money in that corner such as your jewelry box.  I have a crystal tree in my money corner to remind me that money can grow on trees :)  I also have a lot of green crystals here to draw in the abundant energy.  Green aventurine and green jade are especially good choices.  Bamboo and jade plants are considered lucky money plants.  Make sure you do not have anything in this area of your house that reminds you of financial stressors.  This should not be where you pay your bills.  This area should also be meticulously clean and cleared of all clutter.

4) Write yourself a check.  On New Year's Day every year, I write myself a check.  I write down how much I want to make that year.  I sign it from the Universe, and I tape it to my bathroom mirror.  And guess what?  I always come either very close or right on that number.  I never surpass it, though, which is a good reminder to never limit yourself. It's tricky because you want to choose a number that's more than you're making now but not so high that you'll look at it  every day and mutter, "Yeah, right."  It needs to be believable, so you can envision yourself creating that abundance. You'll be amazed at the way the universe responds to this.

5) Practice being happy for other's successes.  Maybe you already are, and that is great.  But sometimes you'll find yourself at that place in your life where nothing is going your way.  And you will almost always have a friend for whom life is going amazingly well.  And while you're happy for him/her, inside you might be thinking, "Why not me? Life is so unfair."  Practice saying to yourself, "That's for me too and maybe something better."  We are all connected.  We are all one.  When something good happens to one us; it really does have a good effect on all of us.

6) Write down the number eight and place it in your wallet.  The number 8 attracts money to us infinitely.  If you turn the number 8 on its side, it's the infinity symbol.  Once a woman wrote to me and said, "I really want to take your workshop, but I can't afford it now."  I told her to write down the number 8 and put it in her wallet.  She did and that evening she went with a friend to one of those lottery places and one the exact amount of the workshop!

7) One more feng shui cure -- besides the money corner, the kitchen is symbol of our wealth since food always equated wealth.  So it's imperative that your kitchen is always clean.  If you can place a small mirror above your stove, that is said to double your prosperity.

Don't let money -- and all the fears and worry that come with it -- control you.  Remember -- you are always in control of your money and of how much you make and spend.  If you want more money, go out there and manifest it.  In the legendary words of Ru Paul, "You better work."  Just kidding.  Work smarter, not harder.  Don't give into the fear.  Don't allow worry to rule your life.  Surrender your fears, tithe each week to wherever you were uplifted, and know that you are an infinite child of God.  You were not created to spend your days surrounded by guilt, worry and fear.  You were created to light up your corner of the world.  Manifest your abundance and shine on.