All people have some kind of examination in their lives.
We don’t experience any problems in some parts of life, but in others, we find ourselves in endless loops. These loops continue until we recognize and learn the necessary lesson. In my own life, the only concept that I haven’t seriously examined (or even felt the need to) is money. I have wanted to examine my consciousness of money, however, so I have the sort of consciousness that means I do not encounter any problems with money.
I was born the daughter of civil servant parents, so when I say I never faced any problems with money, please don’t get the impression that I grew up in material abundance. We had plenty of financial issues as a family, yet they never presented a problem for me, neither did they cause me to create a consciousness of scarcity. Since childhood, I’ve known how to save money and how to spend it. My reason for saving money is always to buy something I can’t immediately afford. I have never saved out of fear of running out of money in future or to shield myself against future disasters, because I believe money is merely a tool. Money is energy, must like the electricity that powers the computer I’m writing this article on, or a utensil, like the table the computer is on. There is no difference between them. Humans created money like they created computers and tables.
Before money was invented, people bartered by exchanging excess goods for needed goods. This involved many difficulties of course, because it was difficult to satisfy both parties’ expectations. Let’s say I grew tomatoes, but I needed new shoes. The shoemaker must both like tomatoes and have a need for them before I can buy a pair of shoes from him. Otherwise, I need to find out what he really needs and go and swap my tomatoes for that item before returning to the shoemaker and buying a pair of shoes from him. The primary function of money is to provide a convenient tool for exchange. I can now sell my tomatoes for cash and use this to buy what I need. The secondary function is to enable the saving of resources. This means I no longer need to exchange or consume all my tomatoes before they rot. I can sell them all and save some of the cash for the future. Finally, money is a common accounting unit. When I say $10, everyone understands the same value. If you consider money with just these three functions, you see how money changes a lot. Money is a commodity, like all the other commodities people produce.
Now, imagine you found a banknote from a country you’ve never heard of. You’d forget about its value, because you can’t even be sure it’s real money. Even if it’s real, no shops would accept it. Now, imagine you found a $100 bill. What’s the difference between these two cases? You know that a $100 bill has a value that is accepted by everyone around you. Yet what if the US government fell into anarchy? Suddenly that $100 bill would be worthless, like the other currency you found.
Okay, we now have the situation where money is pieces of paper, but we also know that we need it to satisfy our needs. So, what do we do to get it? We sell our time, and in return we are paid. Remember how the main function of money is to act as a commonly accepted medium for exchange? I go and work for a set portion of my time, and I receive a salary in return. Time is such a thing that even the richest person in the world only has 24 hours of it in a day. Even if you want 30 hours in a day, you can’t buy it with money. Lifetimes can be different, however, and the “now” is very much within itself.
So, why do I sell my time in return for money? It’s to increase my quality of life in the free time I am left with. This is the most important thing we need to keep in mind. The problems start when we forget that money is just a tool and we give it purpose instead. Money is related with our feeling of trust. We feel confident when we have money. Imagine two cases when you take a journey. In the first case, you have plenty of money, so you feel relaxed. You can have thoughts like “It doesn’t matter if I forget something, I can buy a new one there” or “If I miss the bus, I can just take a taxi.” In the other case, your money is very limited, so you think about everything in so much more detail. You would probably pack more stuff, such as taking food and toiletries because they may be more expensive there. Your load will therefore be greater.
Isn’t life such a journey? Just on the off chance that we don’t have enough money in future, we increase the burden on our shoulders. We don’t trust in life, and this causes heaviness that prevents us from moving on. Then, when we don’t move on, new doors don’t open to us, so we can’t reach new sources of money. If we instead cultivate our feeling of trust with money, if we really trust in ourselves and the fact that whatever should happen will happen, that we will have whatever we need, our journeys will be much more comfortable.
This is exactly what I realized in myself about money. I can’t claim that I succeed in every aspect, but I was always like this with money. I remember how once during my university years it was the last day of the month and I realized I had no money to travel to class. I said “Okay, it’s not a problem. I’ll just get the notes from my friend later.” Once I accepted this, I found some loose change in the pocket of my jeans. I have so many memories like this.
Let’s trust life. (Here you can substitute creator, universe, God, destiny, or other term that suits your belief system.) Put yourself in the shoes of life. How can you help someone who doesn’t trust you? You want to help, but this person is too arrogant and thinks it’s not worth it. Or maybe this person always demands something from you, but whenever you help, he or she is suspicious and doesn’t see the opportunities. How can you help such a person? When we search for trust in ourselves rather from than outside, when we leave ourselves to the flow, the problems resolve themselves. This applies not just to money but to everything. We all know it, yet we sometimes have problems perceiving and applying this knowledge.
Wishing you days where you feel the trust in your heart…
