The Woo Woo of Money

By Megan Walrod

Would you rather be codependent with money or create with money?

Funny question, yeah?

But you know, I used to be really codependent with money. (Just like I used to be in my other relationships.)

I thought my very survival depended on money.

I also felt like money had power over me. I mean, just take a look at my student loan debt… it was so big I coulda swore it had teeth and was going to be the death of me.

I joke about it now but at the time, I really struggled. I was ashamed of the debt, felt overwhelmed by it and powerless to change it.

HITTING ROCK BOTTOM

It took hitting one of those rock bottom moments… post-break-up from a relationship, feeling completely vulnerable, on my own, with very little money in the bank, not sure where I was going to live or how I was going to pay rent… to choose something different…

I stopped judging myself.

I watched myself choosing victim mode and didn’t make myself wrong.

And then, no longer judging myself, I could make another different choice: I asked to borrow money from a dear woman.

And then I made another different choice: I received the money she loaned me without feeling guilty or ashamed.

The codependent pattern didn’t change overnight. The rock bottom moment didn’t change in an instant with me yelling ENOUGH.

BEING VULNERABLE WITH MYSELF

The rock bottom moment invited me to be vulnerable with me. To be present with me. To receive me: how I was being, how I’d been being, and the glimmer of another possibility that guided me forward…

A possibility for how to be in relationship with myself, with money, with others.

I came to see how I was using money and my story of lack and codependence as a smokescreen, hiding my own potency from myself.

Cute, not bright.

Yet a story I sense might sound familiar to you, too.

MAKING DIFFERENT CHOICES

The journey out of codependence with money and into creating with money has required me to make different choices every day; to BE more of the potency I be every day; to RECEIVE more of the gift of me every day.

To me, this is some of the “Woo Woo” of money: undoing the stories we’ve learned and told ourselves about money, the relationship patterns we play out with money, so that we can stop using money as a smokescreen and receive the true wealth of who we really are. When and as we choose this… the money flows.

‘Cause it’s not really about the money. But it is about how much we’re willing to receive ourselves.

CREATING WITH MONEY

So let me ask you that earlier question in a different way: how much are you being codependent with money? A little? A lot? A mega ton-a-latte? How much are you creating with money? A little? A lot? A mega ton-a-latte?

What would it be like for you to acknowledge this without judgment?

And then recognize you can always make a different choice!

“How do I create with money?” you might ask.

Consider this: “Money follows joy. Joy does not follow money.” (Simone Milasas, author of “Getting Out of Debt Joyfully” and “The Joy of Business”)

What’s one thing that brings you joy?

What are a hundred things that bring you joy?

How might your life be different if every day, starting today, you prioritized things from your “Joy List”? 

Oh yeah! This is one way you can begin to CREATE with money.

What else is possible when instead of being codependent with money we create with money? 

I wonder what new realities and futures we’ll actualize?