I will forever credit a new friend of mine with introducing me to this concept of “poverty consciousness”. A notion of which I had no previous knowledge. All I needed to do was hear the term and I knew that it somehow explained everything about my old story. The following excerpt – taken from a random website (http://www.cdnbizwomen.com/articles/marshall1.html) absolutely confirms what I instinctively knew from the first moment I heard these words used together. Jeanie Marshall explains this new-to-me term:
“By “poverty consciousness” I mean the set of attitudes and beliefs and feelings and values associated with material lack or fear of material lack. Poverty consciousness equals a belief in limitation, and almost always includes fear. Poverty consciousness is not directly related to the amount of money one has. Rather, it is the relationship to that money or to material possessions. If you worry about not having enough money, you are in poverty consciousness. If you believe there is not enough for everyone in the world, you operate from poverty consciousness. One can live in conditions of poverty without necessarily living in poverty consciousness, which is a state of mind and heart. The amount of money or other material possessions is a matter of fact. One’s relationship to that amount is a matter of thoughts and feelings.”
Well, shit! Prior to reading this I was thinking this belief pattern simply ran strong on both sides of my family, hence my immense burden of it. But, our entire world economic system is operating with this as our underlying assumption. No flippin’ wonder everything is so crazy out there. Every single government, with the exception of perhaps that of Bhutan’s, is operating with the belief of limited EVERYTHING. No country believes there is enough for everyone in the world. If we did, we wouldn’t be fighting wars for resources.
I don’t want to focus on the world’s poverty consciousness, however. I only want to focus on what I have control over – my own. That is what was in part, triggered by my writings discussing the shortcomings of our present paradigm’s economic model. I want to jump in and write about some of my old beliefs about money, wealth, employment, finances, and economics, which are all very closely related.
I also would ask that as you read, pay attention to the behaviors & emotions that became intricately tied to my beliefs about everything having to do with money. At 35, my entire life had become a reflection of my beliefs – i.e my practiced thoughts. Today, I can honestly say that my beliefs about money defined my entire existence more than ALL of my other beliefs put together. And I had practiced my negative thoughts of money – EVERY aspect of money – for 30 years. As you will see with the following story, there was very rarely a positive emotion tied to anything pertaining to money. I had no chance of creating a life anywhere near happy, let alone one of my dreams. No chance because all of my energy – my thoughts, emotions, actions, & words – was focused and directed on the negative.
Follow me here…keep this in your mind as you read all of the entries to follow… there is an extremely important, ALWAYS present relationship going on in the world that affects us ALL! Whether you are ready to see and accept this or not, what I am about to explain is how ALL of our individual realities are created. So take a note here – this is the MOST important relationship in your life. The relationship between your beliefs/thoughts, the emotions you feel as you think these thoughts, and the behaviors you then take as a result of how you feel. These behaviors include actions, words, and more thoughts. And the cycle repeats…all day, every day in every single human being walking this earth.
Generally speaking, actions and words define our entire world. All of us individuals acting and saying things out here – that’s it! That has created our present world & it continues to create our new world. Well, I just laid out logically and factually (according to universal laws) how our actions and words can ALL be traced back to our beliefs/thoughts. This will become more clear when I tell this first of many stories of my belief history pertaining to the topic of money.
So…to answer the question that I’m sure many of you have asked as you’ve read my previous posts and/or my always intense, excited Facebook updates…’How, Alyson, do you believe you are actually going to change the world?’
The answer has two primary components. There are two, main channels of operation. The second, is forthcoming. The first, follows here.
I believe I can teach anyone (who is honestly interested & ready to learn) how to do the same thing I did with respect to their own life. Which is to say – to finally make peace with, appreciate, & embrace my past; to understand what & how much control (a TON!) I have in creating my own reality (via the power of my thoughts); and as such, finally saying the words and taking the actions that result in living the life of my dreams.
I am about to begin to live up to my full potential in this life. I believe THAT is our only responsibility in this world. Not to necessarily ever reach our full potential, for I believe that is an ongoing, beautiful process. However, I do believe that is the aspiration alive & kicking inside each of us. And the further we are from living our potential, the more unhappy we are. In the amazing world of technological advancement in which we live, we have greater opportunities to truly create innovative, amazing, new ways in which we can live. We have more tools than ever to reach our potential! We have minds and hearts with desires like mine to make big changes in this world. We have solutions to very big issues facing our world. But for one thing…the systems in which we are living – the ones that we are trying to hang on to for dear life (mostly because we don’t see any other options) are stiffling us!
We’ve each been born into unique circumstances, into unique bodies, with unique minds, and with unique interests, skills, and desires. There are INFINITE combinations. Yes, we are similar because we all inhabit a human body. And we share many common life experiences & resulting emotions. But all 7 billion of us have a very, special unique gift to contribute to this world. It is time we create an environment that allows those amazing gifts to be developed, honed & created. For when we do this…when we live up to our full potential, which is only to say, following our hearts’ desires in our lives…we are INFINITELY more powerful to everyone & everything around us. The work that is performed and created from this pursuit is world-changing – there is no doubt about it!! That is living in the light and it is time for us all to shine!
MUCH more to come today & this week…
Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by Wordpress