Money and Spirituality – A Common Dilemma

All too often incredibility smart, caring people with amazing ideas and talents for transforming the planet hold themselves back from earning money because of a belief, conscious or unconscious, that it isn't spiritual to earn money or that if they earned a lot of money that they somehow would be corrupted or bad in some way.

They often times also believe that you can't be wealthy and be a good person, that you somehow have to do something bad to become wealthy.  And unfortunately in this day and age it's all too easy to turn on the news and hear about corrupt businessmen and politicians who have done something unethical to earn money.  Sadly, there is not enough news on all of the amazing wealthy people that are changing the world in powerfully positive ways.

When I wrote in 2010 on this topic, I was speaking on the issue that so many Tapping practitioners were facing and still face around not feeling that they should be charging for what they do, even though they are helping so many. This limiting belief that earning money is not spiritual has not only held back healers like Tapping practitioners and coaches but so many others in a wide range of industries.

Let me start off with a simple statement of fact that is important to note...

There are examples of both people doing unethical things to earn money in the world as well as people doing amazing, completely ethical things that are serving the world to earn money.  Money itself is not the determining factor in whether a person is good or bad.

If you disagree with that statement in any way, I think it's worth taking a look at where your beliefs on money have come from and how they're effecting you.

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Take a moment to think about your beliefs around money and spirituality.

Do you think you'd still be a good person if you had a lot of money?

Do you worry that you would somehow be corrupted?

What do you think others would think of you if you had a lot of money?

Do you think it's right or fair to earn a lot of money for helping people?

Or should you not be paid if you're working on helping people or other spiritual endeavors?

These are all important questions.

Let’s look at two scenarios that address this issue.  These are the two examples I used when I originally wrote on this topic:

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Case Study #1: Excited Potential Tapping Practitioner

Mary works for a financial services company, as an administrative assistant. She makes $45,000 per year, has good health benefits, and feels generally secure in her job. She doesn’t enjoy it one bit, but every other Friday she has her paycheck direct deposited into her bank account, and along with her husband’s salary, it makes ends meet.

She never has to ask for this money, every year or two she gets a small raise and she continues onwards. The subject of “money”, rarely comes up for her with regards to receiving it from her employer. She doesn’t question the work they do, the profits they are earning but is content to get her paycheck.

Mary discovers Meridian Tapping, and is thrilled with the results she gets for herself and her family members. She does more training, gets her hands on all the free resources she can, and begins to become quite proficient at tapping. She dreams of helping other people, but she just keeps doing “free” sessions.

People offer to pay her, they are delighted with the results, but she just “doesn’t feel right taking the money”. She believes the work was so much fun, so rewarding, that money shouldn’t be involved. More and more people start coming to her, and she says quietly to herself, “How I would love to do this full time!”

But when she sits down with her husband to discuss the subject of her leaving her job, the math just doesn’t add up. Her husband says, “If you charged $75 per hour and had three clients per day, for 50 weeks out of the year, we would be around your current salary, including benefits, and other perks”

“$75 per hour???” Mary says, “There is no way I could charge that, that’s not right at all. I would feel completely uncomfortable”

Her husband replies, “Do you think what you’re providing is worth $75 per hour?”

Mary, “Well, people do get amazing results faster than anything else they do. I worked with someone the other day who had spent 5 years in therapy, and over $10,000, and we collapsed her issue in one session! But.... It still wouldn’t “feel” right, I just can’t charge for this...”

So there, sadly, the story ends. Mary’s limiting belief about receiving, about charging money for her healing work leaves her at her unfulfilling job.

The consequences of this belief are profound.

And not just for Mary, but for the hundreds of people she could have helped... If only she had been able to accept the fact that money, that the energy of money, is a reality of this earthly experience, and that learning to ask for it and accept it when providing healing services can change the world.

Are you a “Mary”? How many “Marys” could be out in the world right now, changing lives on a daily basis?

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Case Study #2: A dream, a vision, and “money”....

The first case study was hypothetical, though I’ve seen real life examples over and over again. This story is as real as it gets, because it’s my story! Just over four years ago now, I had the dream, the inspiration, to make a documentary film about Tapping. I had seen the results in my life and the lives of my friends and family over and over again, and felt that the world needed to know more about this!

Mind you, I had NO experience in film-making, NO equipment, NO staff, just the dream... But I set off to make the film anyway. I was committed to the vision and the dream but I was ALSO practical about the financial side of it. You see, to make the movie, I had to invest $150,000 of money I didn’t have! I put it all on credit cards and credit lines, maxed to the hilt. I went to friends and family to borrow money. I recruited friends and family to work on the film. Jessica Ortner, my sister and one of the producers, and Nick Polizzi, my close friend, director and editor worked for nothing for over two years.

They too were committed to the vision, the dream, the experience, but they also knew at some point that the film would have to be financially feasible, that they would be rewarded for their efforts, so they could pay back the credit card debt they had accrued and be able to continue in this work.

I WISH that when I came up with this idea, I could have called the mortgage company, the credit card companies, the local grocery store, the insurance company, the car company, the phone company, the electric company, the heating company...

And said to them, nicely, “Dear Sirs, I’ve just come up with a fantastic idea that I truly believe is going to change the lives of millions of people around the world. I want to share the knowledge about an incredible technique and do it in a documentary format, so people could see real results that they could use to change their lives. It will truly be for the betterment of humanity and I’ll even give you copies of the film when it’s done!”

Then they could have said to me, “Great idea Nick! We’ll stop charging you for everything you need to live, so you can put this plan into action!”

Unfortunately....

The game doesn’t really work that way!

So if I was to make it work, to pay back the $150,000+ (the final budget of the film), to be able to sustain myself and my family, I simply had to make it financially feasible. Which meant I had to do everything I could to not only create a superior product (and fortunately the reviews on our website and Amazon.com show that the end product is powerful and changing lives), but I also had to do everything I could to SELL it.

Oh! Another dirty word! SELL!

Ugh... Icky.....Dangerous....

No, it’s not. It’s reality.

If I wanted to make this whole dream work, I simply had to be able to sell the film, and sell other things. Otherwise, I’d have to be like Mary, and go back to a “job”.

Because of all of the work I've done helping others I've been able to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to organizations I really believe in, like Project Light which is using EFT with genocide survivors in Rwanda, the Veterans Stress Project using EFT with war veterans, the Unstoppable Foundation, building schools in Africa and the You Can Thrive Foundation helping women in NYC who are dealing with cancer.

I wouldn't have been able to do any of these things if I had thought that it wasn't right for me to make money or that it wasn't spiritual.  The truth is that I think I'm a more spiritually ground and honest person now then I've ever been.  And I think that I've done more to help people around the world in the last couple years then I did in the 10 years before that and all while making more money then I've ever made before.

Whether you have a business or a job, every day you have little decisions where you can choose to do the right thing to earn money, or you can choose to do the wrong thing.  For example in my business, in a mostly "online" world, I have the choice to sell products and courses in a way where I'm educating people on what I'm offering and then giving them the choice as to whether it's right for them or not, or I can choose to use techniques that are manipulating to convince them to buy.

I'm literally faced with that choice every day.  And if you're in business or within your job, you have similar choices every day.  You can choose to do things in a way where your goal is to help people and serve them while making money, or you can do things in a way where you're focus is on making money first.

But ultimately, how much money you charge or earn is not the issue.  If you're doing things in a way that is serving the world and helping others then you deserve to have as much money as you want!

So you see, it all “works” when everyone gets in alignment with the energy of money. When we stop bickering about someone “selling” healing, or how it should all be free. :)

I’ve been saying recently that the BEST thing that can happen in any industry is for people to figure out how to make BILLIONS of dollars doing things that serve humanity.

If you have ideas and a passion for something that helps others and helps yourself, then don't let anything stop you.  Don't hold back your unique gifts from the world.  You deserve to have everything you've ever wanted.  :)

So, your blog question for today is...

What limiting beliefs might you have about money or selling?

Are you ready to tap those away?

Is it OK for people to make a lot of money?

Are you finally ready to unplug from what the rest of society tells you and blaze your own trail?

Comment below!

Until next time...

Keep tapping!

Much love,

Nick

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The following post Money and Spirituality – A Common Dilemma was first published to: The Tapping Solution's Blog