I Love to Pay the Plumber (Guest Post)

Today's article is the great gift of a friend who's a true modern mystic, Lesley King. Lesley and I met at a workshop in June. When I first saw her, I instantly felt an intuitive recognition. I even said to her, "You feel so familiar to me. Have we met before?" As we got to know each other virtually, I realized that it was my spirit that recognized hers. I've since had the privilege and honor of witnessing how loving, giving, wise and intelligent Lesley is. Her contribution of wisdom today speaks to a great way of viewing money, prosperity and even love - how they are all meant to flow in and out of our lives, to keep circulation going, as intended by universal laws. To me, it's a more practical and accessible version of the Buddhist concept of "non-attachment." Enjoy this very special Moment of Grace, courtesy of a very special soul, Lesley King.
 
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How to Flow Money in 3 Easy Steps

Many years ago, when I would have a leaky faucet in my house, I would get a heavy feeling in my chest and stomach. How much is this going to cost? I would fret. The larger the problem, the more my anguish. Will I be able to afford this? I would ask myself.

Today, though I’ll sometimes have a moment of anxiety, it is quickly replaced by gratitude. Oh good, I get to outflow to my favorite plumber, Charlie. He is a Master plumber and an especially nice guy, so having this attitude is easy, and when I write the check my joy is sincere.

What’s amazing is that I have that same attitude when I pay my accountant, my mortgage—even my taxes!

The secret is in knowing deeply that I don’t have money. Instead, my job each day is to Flow love, energy and money. If I believe that I am wealthy, that is a fixed notion—it is a concept of the mind, and the mind wants to own everything.

In the “Flow” concept, I own nothing. All in my possession—my house, car, computer and the cash in my bank account—belong to the Divine. I am simply using those things. This is a wonderful attitude because it means that I have nothing to lose, literally, since I own nothing.

The great point about Flowing wealth is that the Divine is infinite, so the money, energy and love, too are infinite. This is a great contrast to believing in wealth. If I have wealth, I pay the plumber, and suddenly I have less wealth. But if I Flow wealth and pay the plumber, I’m actually richer because more must Flow in.

I didn’t just arrive at this belief. It came over a period of time and practice in knowing the truth of it. Here is a step-by-step guide to learning how to Flow:

1.    Gather your attention

2.    Rely on the Divine

3.    Give freely of your love, energy and wealth

How to perform the three steps:

1.    Gather your attention: This step involves implementing a spiritual exercise in your life each day. The exercise focuses the attention, which is the Divine power as represented in the material world. Focusing this power is integral to Flow. I will give more instruction about how to do this in an upcoming blog post. But the heart of it is contemplation rather than meditation. In contemplation you focus your attention by reading valuable spiritual works. The most potent of these are by the great mystics such as Hafiz, Rumi, Lao Tze, and the contemporary Sri Gary Olsen. But the best writing for any individual is what he/she gravitates to most right now. Before I became a mystic, I read what came into my hands, what I was drawn to. This included the work of Thomas Moore and Deepak Chopra, among others who address soul’s journey. Today, during my spiritual exercise, as I read, I’ll notice my mind will want to wander, but I keep bringing it back to the text. This practice of taking charge of the attention is integral to Flow.

After the contemplation, my mood is always heightened, which is a great starting place for a day of Flow. Throughout the day, I constantly bring my attention back to this feeling of expansiveness.

2.    Rely on the Divine: In this step, you stop calculating and relying upon money for safety and desire fulfillment. Years ago, before I knew about Flow, I used to keep a running tally of my bank balance in my head. Whenever I felt unsafe, I would calculate in hopes of feeling better. Sometimes the total would ease my fears, but often it would only aggravate them because, to the mind, there is never enough love, energy or money.

Today, whenever I feel fearful about money, I know it is only a cue from the Divine to re-center my attention on the love right here, right now. All Flow is created in the present moment, all wealth manifests here and now as well.

I do know people who don’t pay any attention to their finances, who spend wildly and have no money. Their practice requires taking more responsibility for their finances, though the same focus on the Divine applies. We’re looking for that middle point between too much focus on money and too little. It is not that I forget completely about my finances. I balance my checkbook and pay my bills on time. I simply don’t rely on money for safety. Any time I feel unsafe, I think of the Divine and feel the ease of that connection.

3.    Give freely of your love, energy and wealth: This is where the gathered attention moves into physical action. Whenever called upon to pay anything, do so with love. I used to be so afraid about money that I would have anxiety attacks at the grocery store. I needed to buy food, but the expense of it filled me with uncontrollable fear. I sat through that fear, recognizing it as simply an emotion—not reality. Then I began to recast my thinking while buying and paying for anything.

First I acknowledged how the things I was buying would enhance my spiritual walk—nourishing food, clothing that makes me feel pretty and expansive, and house repairs that keep me sheltered and comfortable. Over time, I relaxed with this, and now I just see it all as Flow. Each day I am blessed to give. I expand the concept to helping my loved ones and friends. Really, love, energy and money are just different forms of the great Divine Flow, so generosity with any of them will return the same to me.

Practice Steps:

1.    Do a spiritual practice for 5 to 30 minutes each morning, noting how your mind will want to run out, but lovingly bringing it back to the text before you. Practice this re-centering on the now as you go through your day.

2.    Each time during the day that your mind tries to rely on money for safety, gently draw the attention back to the state of love established in the morning practice and focus on the task before you.

3.    Whatever you are asked to give, whether love to your spouse, energy to work, or money to the plumber, do so with gratitude and a sense of the Flow, knowing that you have infinite wealth at your disposal and you must Flow it into your creation.

Lesley S. King is the author of many travel books and articles. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Audubon Magazine and Frommer’s Travel Guides. Her newest project, The Inner Adventure, helps readers discover the treasure in every experience. Check it out at www.lesleysking.blogspot.com.

Love is a Choice

Dr. Wayne Dyer often humorously says that friends are God’s way of apologizing for our family. That’s because, while we can choose whom to befriend, we were born into our family. For many of us, our family members challenge us the most, whether in disapproving of how we live our lives or acting in such a way that repeatedly tries our ability to love them. You know what I’m talking about, right? 

As mentioned in my recent articles, I was with my entire family earlier this month. I’m so excited to report that it was a beautiful love fest! The first time I was with my parents and 3 brothers, we were standing outside the temple where the shrines of my paternal ancestors were installed—it likens visiting a cemetery. At that moment, it hit me that I was actually with everyone in my immediate family for the first time in 16 years! I got emotional, even though cognitively I knew I was going to see everyone. Despite (still) not knowing how to react to their crying sister, my brothers were touched. A few days later, my mom remarked to me that the bond among us 4 kids was really evident to her and it really warmed her heart.

The brief family sketch above may not seem like a big deal to you, but it is *huge* to me. You see, for a long time, love was not a word I’d associate with my family. I was born into a family in a culture at a time when being a girl was a rotten deal. My mom didn’t find her own mother until after all of us kids were born. At our first meeting with our late grandmother, my mom asked her what she thought of the 4 children. To that, my grandmother said that the 3 boys were great but not the girl – me. I was sitting right there! When I was 9, I came home excitedly with my glowing report card from school. My late paternal grandmother, who was living with us at the time, promptly picked up my younger brother and put him on her lap. With arms around him, she consoled him, “Don’t worry, next time you’ll beat your sister.” Up until I was in college, I was repeatedly told that I was not as worthy or as smart as my brothers, that I’d need a college education to compete with a high school graduate for a job. Well into my twenties, I’d frequently wake up in the middle of the night crying from nightmares involving my family.

For many years, the cumulative pain haunted me and weighed me down. Not having the tools to identify and release it properly, I stumbled through life looking outside of myself to try to fill that big gash in my heart. I also threw myself into working really hard to find a place in this life where I could belong. In the process, to my great surprise, I started to discover that, contrary to the messages drilled into me for 2 decades, I’m actually quite smart. It took many more years, but I eventually learned that I’m deserving, too – and not because I’ve earned it, but because I inherently am deserving.

Earlier this month, I was in a place to embrace with pure love the family I had associated with great pain for many years when I didn’t know any better. Thanks to continued spiritual study and practice, my perspective has changed. Those with whom I associated great pain have had their own unhealed wounds; they have been doing the best they know how to do. By electing to look at them through the eyes of love, I freed myself from the prison of my own internal suffering. 

Love in its purest form isn’t conditioned upon anything. It has been there within me all along waiting for me to harvest, become and express it. I’ve been consciously following my guiding principles for this year – part of what I got when I meditated on New Year’s Eve to set intentions for 2011: Become the best version of you. Love awaits harvesting in your heart. I cannot adequately describe in words how free and full I feel from allowing love to flow from within, to be love in motion and action, and to see my family through love-filtered glasses.

In closing, I hope my sharing here inspires you to heal any wounds you may have from your own family life. Love is a choice always. Whatever you give, it returns to you multiplied exponentially!

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If you like my articles, you’ll love my book, REACH Your Dreams: Five Steps to be a Conscious Creator in Your Life. Find out more here.

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