Money is extremely important in the areas in which it works, and extremely unimportant in the areas in which it doesn't.

- T. Harv Eker

Most of my clients have issues around money. To be truthful, so do I. (This is not surprising, I suppose, since we teach - or coach - best what we most need to learn.) To some, money is one letter away from being a four-letter word. We have all heard the old saying, “Money is the root of all evil.”

In my practice, I have heard clients say things like, “Money is not spiritual.” “ Wanting money is not an enlightened way of living.” “ Money is not my priority.” “I don’t care about money.” “Money does not buy happiness.” (Ah, but it does pay the rent and it makes a lot of other things possible.)

Would it surprise you, as it did me, to learn that many wise teachers and enlightened spiritual masters disagree with the money-is-the-root-of-all-evil point of view? Money, in and of itself, is just a thing. It’s how we think about it that makes it evil or enlightened or something in-between.

Money may look like paper or metal, but it’s actually a form of energy that we exchange with others. Like any other form of energy, including the air we breathe or the food we eat, the idea is to get it flowing freely into, through, and out of your life in an abundant and circular way.

To get money flowing smoothly through your life, it is necessary to pay attention to two aspects: your attitudes about money and your knowledge about how it works. Attitude adjustment and education are the keys to successfully playing the inner and outer game of money.

The inner game of money has to do with your attitudes towards money. Your attitudes come from your beliefs about money, wealth, and abundance and from your previous experiences with it. If you have any negative attitudes or beliefs about money, these need to be addressed. This is explored further in the next article, Your Money Mind.

The outer game of money involves knowledge, information, and taking carefully considered action. Some of us may have been taught how to attract and manage money at an early age. Many of us were not, and have had to learn about this area of life. Some of us are more adept at money management, or more interested in it, than others. Though I am no expert on this subject, I have listed some basic guidelines on money management, as provided by many experts on wealth-building, in the article, Ten Steps to Building Wealth.

Money is not necessarily synonymous with wealth or abundance. In our last article, we take a look at what constitutes true wealth and abundance in our lives.

Playing and winning the inner game of money begins in the mind. Our thoughts ultimately create our reality. As Henry Ford is quoted as saying, “If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

Spiritual teachers tell us that we attract what we think about, whether it’s what we want or what we don’t want. We need to pay attention to what and how we think about money and wealth. We need to examine the beliefs we hold about money. Some of these beliefs may be buried below the level of our current awareness.

Tuning up your Money Mind involves these steps:

1. Become aware of all your thoughts, beliefs, and statements about money, wealth, abundance, wealthy people, etc. Here’s an exercise to help you do this:

Grab some paper and a pen and go sit someplace quiet where you won’t be disturbed. At the top of the first sheet of paper, write down and say out loud “Money is” and on the next line write down the first thing that comes to you. Repeat “Money is” and write the next thing that comes. Continue repeating this cycle until you start saying and writing the same things over and over and nothing new is coming forth. Once you have exhausted this phrase, do the same thing with each of the following phrases:

Wealth is ___________
Abundance is ________
Rich people are _______

2. Once you are aware and are noticing what you are saying to yourself and to others, the next step is to intentionally affirm the thoughts that are serving you and to intentionally cancel and re-program the thoughts that are not serving you.

3. Continue to consistently and intentionally eliminate negative beliefs and attitudes from your thoughts and conversation. For example, when you hear yourself saying or thinking, "I can't afford this", stop for a moment and say to yourself "Cancel, cancel" and then re-program your thought to something like, "I am a good steward of my money, and I choose not to buy this right now."

4. Deliberately cultivate and reinforce positive beliefs and attitudes in your thoughts and conversation. Some ways to do this are by:

• Meditating
• Creating affirmations (T. Harv Eker suggests this one: I am a money magnet.)
• Creating visual images to support your financial goals. [If you are interested in Feng Shui, consider creating a Wealth Corner in your home and/or office.]
• Expressing gratitude and appreciation for any money that comes your way, even a penny you find on the sidewalk.

5. Read more about it. [See Recommended Reading, below.] Attend classes, seminars, and workshops on the mental and spiritual aspects of attraction, manifestation, and wealth-building. [Check out the Millionaire Mind Intensive, below.]

Here is a no-nonsense, bare bones, list of money management practices for wealth-building.

1. Attend to your Money Mind. Learn to think like a wealthy person.
2. Stop building debt – today (especially credit card debt).
3. Pay off existing debt (especially credit card debt).
4. Begin, or continue, a savings habit.
5. Spend less than you earn. Simplify your life. If necessary, live below your means.
6. Be prudent (but not stingy) with your discretionary funds.
7. Give some away. Share. Contribute. Make a difference. Keep the flow going. (What goes around comes around.)
8. Get some financial education – read books, attend seminars, take courses, work with a financial educator or counselor.
9. Invest some money - wisely. Create passive income from interest and dividends.
10. Be willing to take educated risks with your money.

How many of these practices can you claim as your own? What's the next step in your wealth-building practice? What new action step could you take this week towards creating more wealth and abundance in your life?

Although money is the topic of this newsletter, what we are really talking about is creating a life of wealth and abundance, and these are not necessarily synonymous.

Money, as we said earlier, is a concrete representation of a type of energy exchanged amongst us humans. Money, if handled well - if respected, appreciated, nurtured, protected, cared for, used wisely - can create material wealth and an abundance of a sort, an abundance of security, of material things, of services and experiences, and an abundance of freedom, including freedom from worry - perhaps.

But wealth and abundance are abstract ideas, not concrete things, and our ideas about wealth and abundance are subjective and relative. One person or family or culture, with relatively little money, can experience life as abundant and joyful, while another person, family, or culture (such as our own), with a relatively abundant supply of money, can experience life as "never enough" and worrisome.

Wealth and abundance are expressed and experienced in many other ways besides in terms of money. We can be wealthy in mind, body, and spirit. We can experience abundance in our relationships, our health, in creative expression, in nature, in laughter, in learning, and so much more.

What is interesting about all this is that how we view and handle money is often an expression of how we view and handle other areas of our lives. As Maria Nemeth says, in her book The Energy of Money, "How you do money is how you do life." T. Harv Eker has expressed the same idea in his book, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: "How you do anything is how you do everything."

Wouldn't it be amazing and wonderful, then, to clean up our act around money, only to find wealth and abundance showing up in all areas of our lives?

There are many, many books out there on the subject of money, wealth-building, manifestation, abundance, and the like. Here are a few that I have found helpful in my own life and in my coaching practice.

Books on the inner game of money:

• Chopra, Deepak. Creating Affluence: Wealth Consciousness in the Field of All Possibilities. New World Library, 1993.
• Eker, T. Harv. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth. HarperBusiness, 2005.
• Hicks, Esther and Jerry (The Teachings of Abraham). Ask and It is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires. Hay House, 2004.
• Nemeth, Maria. The Energy of Money: A Spiritual Guide to Financial and Personal Fulfillment. Wellspring/Ballantine, 2000.

Books on the outer game of money:

• Bach, David. Start Late, Finish Rich. Broadway Books, 2005. [And other books by David Bach.]
• Caruso, David and Robert Powell. Decoding Wall Street. McGraw-Hill, 2002.
• Kiyosaki, Robert T., with Sharon L. Lechter. Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Warner Business Books, 2000. [And other books by Robert Kiyosaki. Also, check out his PBS special, currently airing.]
• Orman, Suze. The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom. Three Rivers Press, 2000. [And other books by Suze Orman, including The Courage to Be Rich, Riverhead Trade, 2001.]

My coach first told me about the Millionaire Mind Intensive - a three-day seminar on the inner game of money given by T. Harv Eker and his company, Peak Potentials - and I am passing the word on to you. I have not been to the seminar yet, but I am planning on attending one in May.

[Note: I do not benefit in any way by mentioning this program, or any other resource, in this newsletter.]

Here's the deal: Purchase a copy of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker for $25.00 (or less at Amazon.com) and you are entitlted to 2 complimentary tickets to Eker's three-day Millionaire Mind Intensive Seminar (valued at $2,590). This seminar will be given in several cities around the USA. The venue closest to New England is Secaucus, New Jersey.

There are three catches:

1. Although the seminar is free, you still need to pay for hotel, meals, and transportation.
2. Although this seminar contains amazing and life- changing information and experiences, it is also the platform for marketing their other programs, which are not free.
3. This seminar must be taken before July 1, 2006.