part0013

In the previous exercise where you defined your own standards of financial well-being, you would also have felt the profound feelings of joy and fulfilment associated with living your dream life. That was the asking stage, and in fact, it is all you ever need to do to put your intention out to the Universe. As I frequently teach, there is no need for someone to repeat their desires over-and-over again, hoping to “send it out” accurately to the Universe. If your desires (monetary or otherwise) are not yet manifest, it is not because you are doing the “asking” steps wrong. It is not because you do not want it badly enough, or have not asked enough. Rather, it is because you have not cleared the blocks that stand between you and your desired reality.

Common blocks that stand between you and your manifested reality include negative feelings of worry, fear, guilt and distrust. I talk about how to breakthrough these four major blocks to manifestation in my book “It Is Done!” and offer methods for doing so. Therefore, I will not repeat those instructions here. Instead, I would like to talk about how to apply these techniques specifically to the manifestation of money.

One of the most common reasons why fears about money crop up for us is because we are often highly influenced by other people’s views about money. As I wrote in the opening of this book, everyone seems to have their own opinions about money and what you should do with it, ranging from that expert on the TV to Uncle John. Most of them are probably well-meaning, but the problem is this: Even they do not know is right for you. No one (except yourself) can tell you what’s right or best for you. There is no “best” way to spend and invest your money, because everyone is unique. Everyone is a unique expression of God, as we have seen in the previous chapter. Even without reading what you have written down about your own ideal financial life, I know that all my readers will probably come up with different pictures about what their ideal financial situation is like. Therefore, never set your standards based on someone else’s standards.

This leads us to the topic of protecting your inner sanctuary. Deep within yourself is an inner sanctuary, an inner temple of sorts. This is the place you go to when you close your eyes and meditate, or visualize what you want. This is your inner state. If you want to be effective at manifesting money, you must be zealous at protecting your inner temple and in ensuring that it is not “invaded” by unwanted thoughts and observations.

To understand what I really mean, ask yourself how you feel when you see someone buying something expensive, or driving a really nice car. In fact, take the time to go out on the streets for a walk… until you see someone driving past in a nice car. What are the thoughts that spontaneously well up for you? Do you feel positive or negative feelings? For most people, it will be nasty thoughts and negative feelings of disgust, irritation and unhappiness. It will be thoughts like, “He must be running some illegal business!” or “Must be one of those crooks on Wall Street!” Don’t judge the thoughts that spontaneously well up for you, but rather, observe them as they arise spontaneously for you. Understand that these thoughts are all about you and nothing about the person you are making a judgment on. Remember that it is our own inner state that we are trying to manage here, and not someone else’s.

In my early days of trying these exercises, I frequently had feelings of envy or disgust whenever I saw someone drive past me in a nice car, or having more money that I did! One judgment I would always spontaneously pass was, “I wonder what shady business they are doing!” In fact, it seemed so natural for me to pass that judgment, because based on my level of consciousness at that time… I had not yet allowed for the possibility that it was both possible to run a legitimate business, and yet still be prosperous from doing it. Therefore, the thoughts that arise for you spontaneously often reflect your current levels of consciousness. Do not judge them, for they offer valuable guidance along the way.

In fact, I did not notice I was in the habit of passing these remarks until a business partner (whom I spent a considerable amount of time with each day) alerted me to it! This goes to show how pervasive and unconscious some of our hidden beliefs are, even though we may be repeating them over-and-over every single day! For this same reason, I encourage you to find a trusted partner who is willing to support you in the practice of these Universal principles. If you have a spouse who is on the same page as you, both of you can take the chance to practice and apply these principles together. But remember that it is important to be non-judgmental, and simply be an unbiased observer. One day, my business partner finally said to me, “Why is it that each time we see people doing well, you would say that they are running some shady businesses?” That question was like the proverbial light bulb going off in my head! It was all I needed to awaken and enlighten me, and almost instantly brought me to a higher level of understanding.

First, I sat down and examined what hidden beliefs motivated me to make that statement repeatedly, every single time without even noticing it! I realized that I had a strong hidden belief that it was not possible to make large sums of money ethically, and therefore anyone who made large sums of money had to do so through unethical means. Since I always saw myself as someone who was very ethical, my beliefs did not allow me to make large sums of money. Do you see how we unconsciously impose these very powerful boundaries for ourselves, through our unconscious thought patterns? When you shine a light on these unconscious thought patterns and bring them to your conscious awareness, they instantly drop and fade away.

Next, I thought about all the rich and wealthy people that I knew and all the businesses they were running. I realized that a part of me was suspicious about their wealth, and I was convinced that they were running some parts of their business illegally! Of course, none of this may be true, but my strong beliefs in them made it so. I have often said that it does not matter whether what you believe in is true or not. What matters is whether your beliefs are resourceful or unresourceful. In other words, do your beliefs serve you? My beliefs clearly did not serve me back then. By choosing to believe that wealth could only come to us through illegal means, I was distancing myself from money because I did not want to participate in any of those illegal ways of making money!

Finally, I decided to drop my unresourceful beliefs. I sought out examples of individuals who were making good money, and doing it through positive, ethical and uplifting means. I read stories of individuals who were making massive changes in the world, and creating a positive impact in their community. As I was exposed to the new information that ran contrary to my old beliefs, my old beliefs slowly collapsed and I allowed myself to move into a new reality.

The litmus test is how I finally reacted when I saw someone driving a nice car on the streets. After doing much work on myself, I have changed my spontaneous thoughts from, “He must be running a shady business!” to “Wow! I wonder how much value he must be generating for the world!” As you can see, the shift from the first to the second belief did not involve any huge change in my outer-directed actions, but they made all the difference in the world for me. I am no longer “blocking” my own wealth and manifestations from coming to me. When I associated money with creating huge value for the world and making a positive change, I too, saw that I could create massive value for the world and therefore living a rich life was possible for me too! My businesses started shortly after I made this realization reflected my new level of belief.

We come into contact with symbols of wealth every single day. Nice cars, nice houses, luxury items and so on. In the beginning of this book, I talked about how we should not judge others by their outer appearances, for you can never easily discern their inner state, just as Jesus wisely said, “Judge not by appearances, but by right judgment”. When we see these symbols of wealth as we interact with the world around us, we are often tempted to pass judgment. These judgments reflect our prevailing beliefs about the world around us. Therefore, I urge you to take a close look at these judgments you are passing (if any), and sit down to examine why you are making them. There are valuable gems for all of us here. If you really take the time to confront your innermost beliefs on this matter, the rewards will be immense.

Because I have spent such a long time improving my relationship with money, I no longer feel negative feelings of guilt, worry, or resentment each time I see these external symbols of wealth. I know very well that if one is worried about money, seeing someone else have money can bring up strong feelings of injustice and discomfort. But always understand that these feelings that are welling up inside of you are never about the person or object you are observing. These feelings are always about yourself, your own beliefs and inner state. Therefore, don’t shoot the messenger! I would be thankful that these other people are giving us a chance to shine the light on our own beliefs.

In my early days of running my business, I would often receive emails from some unhappy customers about the prices of our products. They would blame us for pricing our products too high! This was absurd, since for every email we received from this small group of customers, we also received emails from other happy customers on how much they have benefited from our products. What do you suppose is the difference between the two groups of customers? Applying what we have learnt in this chapter, the first group blamed us because their observation of our prices brought up certain feelings about money for them. Instead of working on their own feelings, they blamed us for not being able to afford those items. This is an extremely pervasive and self-sabotaging mentality to be in, and one that can never serve you. We can never depend on something outside of ourselves to change our own inner feelings.

My intention for you as you read and practice the techniques in this book is to become impervious to whatever you see and observe about money, or things related to money in the outside world. Once you are able to reach that state of indifference, you would be able to maintain your own sense of inner alignment no matter what others around you do or say. If necessary, disassociate yourself from friends and family who are constantly expressing their views about money. Don’t even attempt to correct their views on this matter, for it rarely does us any good. As I have shown over and over again, we are all limited by our levels of consciousness and driven by deep hidden beliefs. Therefore, what we observe for many people is only the tip of the iceberg, and we never know what we are pitting ourselves against if we attempt to change their beliefs from the outside in.

I’ll now share two innocuous examples of how this may play out in our daily lives. Chances are you’ll be familiar with these two scenarios by observing this behavior in those around you. Unless we bring our unconscious beliefs to light, many of us tend to live out these unconscious thought patterns without even knowing it.

Cultivating the feelings of money effectively is an extremely delicate and sensitive act. By now, you should know that the Universe responds to the sum total of your innermost thoughts and feelings. Therefore, in order to manifest money quickly and easily, seek to cultivate the feelings of money not in a forceful way, but in a gentle and light way as what I have shown throughout this book.

Part of the reason why people find it so difficult to maintain a feeling of inner richness is because we are often affected by the words and actions of others, even if they are not directed at us. In other words, we tend to be affected by what we see and hear around us most than we care to admit.

There are two kinds of individuals you should stay away from if you are serious about manifesting money. The first kind is obvious. Stay away from people who are always complaining about money or hard times. Stay away from individuals who can’t stop telling you about their money problems, especially if you are just starting out in your manifestation journey. If we hang around these individuals, we tend to start believing what they say after a while, even though we may try hard to control our own beliefs on the surface. Even if you try to keep quiet around these people, my experience has been that they will not be satisfied with a cursory nod or acknowledgment. Instead, they want you to be active participants in the conversation, and chip in with your own experience of how hard times are, or how difficult money is to come by. Even just by nodding your head and agreeing with them (even if you do not mean it), you are affect your money vibrations. Therefore, be very careful about hanging out with individuals who constantly talk about how hard it is to get money.

It may seem a bit cruel and insensitive to distance yourself from these individuals especially if they have been your long-time family and friends. I am not asking you to cut off all contact with them (which may not be possible with family), but instead advising that you start hanging out with them less. Eventually, as you reduce the time spent with these toxic individuals, you’ll feel less need to meet up with them as often.

In my early days of studying this material, I actually had to frequently turn down invitations to hang out or meet up with friends whom I knew were not on the same page as me. I spent my free time reading and cultivating my own inner world. You can do the same too. In the beginning, it may seem difficult to pull yourself away from the draw of the outer world. After all, that is where all of the “action” and “fun” seems to be. But gradually, as you allow yourself to spend more quiet time with yourself, you’ll realize how fun it can be to savor the richness of your own inner world. As your own inner consciousness changes, individuals who do not match your new understanding will gently fade away with no hard feelings. Very often, those I share this with are afraid of offending their friends by turning them down. Of course, you have to put it in a subtle way. Instead of saying “I’m not hanging out with you anymore because we are no longer vibrating at the same frequency” (your friends may then really think you’re nuts!), you can say, “Sorry, I’m not free to hang out tonight.” It is alright if you have no other appointments, because you do have a date with yourself studying these spiritual laws! I spent much of my early days studying these spiritual laws in solitude, on my own, and the effort has paid off greatly.

The second type of individuals are those who do not seem to be outwardly negative. In fact, they may even seem quite positive when you first start speaking to them! These are individuals who are constantly trying to show you how much money they have, by telling you about their latest investments or purchases. Sounds good, doesn’t it? These individuals seem to have a rich and deserving mindset. But there is one huge caveat.

Remember - Always use the hidden rich I talk about in this book as a reference point. Suppose you took some time and hung out with Warren Buffett, do you think he would go on and on for hours on end about his wealth, or the latest investments he has made through Berkshire-Hathaway? Do you think he will tell you about his latest acquisitions? Or would he invite you to sit down and play a game of bridge, as he has often done with Bill Gates? I can tell you from reading books about him that it would be the latter. Similarly, I have spent many afternoons in the company of the hidden rich, and not once has the subject of wealth cropped up. Not a single time! Each time the conversation invariably led to topics surrounding wealth, they have been very modest about it. Instead, I spent countless hours with the hidden rich, talking about our dreams, passions, and what excites us most.

I make special mention of this fact because we all have (as I do) friends who cannot wait to tell us how much money they have made (in one afternoon by whatever means), or their latest luxury purchases. Again, it is important to separate the outer-directed actions from someone’s inner state. What do you think is the inner state of an individual who repeatedly tells you he has lots of money to invest, has lots of savings, or that he is rich? Would he be a secure or insecure person? The answer is that many of these individuals actually feel a deep sense of insecurity, and constantly see a need to inform others about their wealth. So don’t inadvertently fall into their “trap”! By entertaining their stories, you would be affecting your own inner feelings about money. Once again, I’ve had to minimize contact with a few friends who couldn’t wait to regale me with tales of their money.

The hidden rich see wealth and prosperity as possible not only for themselves, but also for everyone else . They hope to enrich and prosper the world while prospering themselves. However, those who see the need to show off their wealth often secretly feel superior about themselves for achieving these results and see them as unattainable for others. Perhaps this is where their arrogance and a sense of superiority comes from.

Another reason why it is important to take a hard-line stance against these instances is because hearing someone else talk about money may inadvertently stir up certain negative feelings inside of ourselves. When we hear someone speak of hard times, we usually sympathize with them and hence affect our own vibrations about money. After all, external evidence seems to be more true in the beginning. Similarly, when we hear someone speak of money, their conversations will often stir up feelings of inadequacy, even though we may feel genuinely happy for them. Therefore, especially at the beginning of your journey, it is very important to deliberately control who and what you come into contact with. Until and unless you reach a good feeling state about money, it is often more productive to steer clear of the subject entirely in actual conversations.