It's Not Your Money

by Tosha Silver

  When I shared this idea with a friend, she bristled. “Well, I won’t censor myself. I like to be authentic.”

  “But you’re not censoring.” I giggled. “You’re leaving room for a new, more abundant existence. That’s harder if you’re constantly feeding yourself poison.”

  You may have no idea how much constant statements like “I’m always broke” or “I’m always strapped” can impact life. Even the words themselves are dark and heavy. Broke. Strapped. This is the part of the Law of Attraction that’s true. In Sanskrit, it’s called the Matrika Shakti, the magical attracting power of language.

  So for the duration of this course, take a break from scarcity language, even if you still believe it. This can feel like the cessation of a mental sledgehammer. You may not realize how deafening it was until you take a break.

  Now, I’m not saying deny reality. At the moment, there may well be things that you can’t afford. Nonetheless, for now, just stop insisting that you can’t. Whenever you feel tempted, perhaps say, “Whatever I need always comes.”

  For example, you hear about a course you’re drawn to take. While you might have once said, “Oh, I shouldn’t have that. I can’t afford that,” for now, give it to the Divine for the highest outcome. You can say, “All my finances are offered to Love, and miraculously, whatever I need always comes. The Divine is my Source for all.”

  Okay, one more thing. Please don’t check your bank balance every two seconds during this process, wondering, Is it going up? Is this working? For now, just offer, offer, offer. You’re in the midst of making a serious invocation to Source. Just focus on that. The rest is God’s.

  You can tell the Flow will constantly bring what’s needed, even if you don’t have a clue yet how this will occur. When you need to know, you will know.

  Once a guy named James wrote on my Facebook page that he was thrilled I posted so much stuff for free since he was not only broke, but proudly cheap too.

  I couldn’t help responding, “I’m glad you like being here, dear James. But if you keep insisting that you’re both those things, you’ll continue to attract scarcity and constriction as night follows day. So while you’re proud you’ve never spent a penny here, honestly, it’s nothin’ to be proud of.”

  Here’s why. There’s this funny thing my mom always used to say when I was little—“Don’t be a shnorer.” In Yiddish, it’s someone who wants only to take and never give. Shnorers live outside the circle of abundance, hoping that if they grab enough, they might feel safe. It never works.

  But it’s not hard to learn to become a conduit. Then the Universe can bring what you yourself need and also let you give. Then you long to support others who have been helpful to you. You enter the Flow by giving back.

  Besides, while we’re at it, broke and cheap are actually two different problems. Broke can be fixed by saying that you’re “temporarily financially challenged.” There’s no shame in that. It’s happened to the best of us!

  However, cheap is a different story. Cheap is like saying, “I simply won’t be a conduit for abundance. I won’t spend, and I won’t give.”

  You have to want to let God use you to give. You have to want to be part of the Flow, not only financially, but in every way.

  To quote Outrageous Openness:

  So give some things away.

  Pay for some friends’ meals.

  Do whatever it takes to feel prosperous

  despite current appearances.

  And never, ever say you’re broke.

  If you dwell in the vibration of fear, doubt,

  and constriction

  that you will undoubtedly continue to attract.

  If you continue to insist you never

  have enough,

  the world will heartily agree.

  But if you let yourself be

  what you think you need,

  one way or another,

  it will come.

  STEP 4:

  MAKE A STATEMENT OF GRATITUDE

  Each day, simply find one thing you’re grateful for rather than fixating on what you wish was happening instead. I’m sure many of you may have worked with this idea before, but it’s especially powerful with the other steps.

  You don’t have to make a big list; you don’t have to journal about gratitude for 20 hours. You don’t have to pretend to be glad for something that you’re not. You can keep it real. Just one thing each day, even if it’s your hot coffee or your old, comfortable slippers. Maybe it’ll be different each day. Let the feeling permeate you. This practice changes neurotransmitters in your brain so that the ones that say thank you become more active and the ones that complain are diminished.

  STEP 5:

  SAY “IT’S EASY FOR ME TO RECEIVE.”

  Every day.

  Some of you may be thinking, Oh man, it’s the hardest thing in the world for me to receive! I feel overwhelming guilt when people give to me or I spend money on myself.

  If that’s true for you, maybe start by saying, “Amazingly, somehow, through the miraculous intervention of Love Itself, it’s suddenly easy for me to receive.”

  As an experiment, drop the resistance. Say it however you need to say it. You can even get playful:

  Every day, God makes me more open to receive.

  What a miracle, that I, of all people, am finally open to receive!

  How the heck did this happen? I’m suddenly open!

  I am ready. Receiving gets easier every day.

  I am one with this expansive Source of all.

  Everything I need always comes, and I gratefully receive.

  I am so, so damn excited to receive.

  We’re focusing on ease, receptivity, and openness—the opposite of stress, struggle, and jealousy.

  Most of us have been indoctrinated into this crazy cultural paradigm of incessant competition, where we’re pitted against each other for even a tiny scrap of abundance. This is founded in total scarcity thinking. But as soon as you return to Source, it honestly doesn’t matter what anyone else has. No one can commandeer your good.

  Today at work, my boss asked what I was up to. I told her the truth: “I’m investigating how on earth I could take my elderly dad on a dream safari.” To my amazement, she walked into her office and returned with an envelope.

  She’d spontaneously given me the full amount! I exclaimed, “Oh no, I can’t take this!”

  But she insisted. “I want to give it to you, and you can. But you can only use it for the safari, and nothing else.” We both laughed and hugged.

  It was so hard to accept! Would I regret this later? Was it a bribe? Then a friend said, “This gift isn’t for what you’ll have to do, it’s for what you’ve already done.”

  That’s when I knew to just say, “Thank you.” I’m still in shock.

  I laughed, wondering, Did I make space for this by cleaning out my home for a month like an absolute crazy person? I think so!

  Many people feel challenged opening to Spirit’s generosity and largesse. In fact, occasionally you’re offered something, and you really do have to intuit: Does this have strings?

  You could pray, “If for some reason I’m not meant to take this, if there’s a catch, please show me! Send me a sign and stop me.”

  (This is actually a great prayer anytime you need a Divine double-check.)

  If you’re not stopped, then perhaps God is using that person to give to you, and you know, She can use anyone. I’m not ignoring that there are psychic vampires who will give to hook you. But if you offer it over, you’ll be shown—those will feel sticky, so you’ll say no. But if it feels “clean,” without an agenda, you’re getting yet another chance to receive God’s bounty. The cleaning—along with all the rest of these practices—can indeed help open the way!

  Just engrave “It’s easy for me to receive” in your heart.

  You. Will. Be. Changed.

  A Meditation to Begin Your Journey

  I’ve found that Love really communicate
s through the instincts, and especially through the body. It feels welcomed through meditation and prayer.

  Have someone else read this out loud for you, or perhaps record your own voice and play it back so you can enter it fully. (In addition, if you’d like a recording of my voice reading the prayer, go to “Resources” at the back of book.)

  Focusing on your breath, feel yourself sinking into the earth, your body heavy and relaxed.

  However you envision it, imagine your own finances, your money, even if you feel as if you have little.

  Get a clear symbolic picture of your finances in your mind’s eye.

  Now, imagine that you’re taking this symbol to Love itself, however you envision it.

  Feel that you’re now offering this burden to the Divine and that you’re saying, “Make me ready.”

  I’m ready to be shown.

  I’m ready to open to this, and I’m ready to have this belong to you.

  I’m ready to allow old restrictions, constraints, limits, and baggage to go.

  Take me over and begin to do what my own ego never could.

  Take me over and begin to allow this change!

  Let me be uplifted and transformed.

  Imagine yourself offering the entire burden of your finances to that Force of Love.

  You may see a word; you may hear something; you may just feel it. Know that whatever torture you’ve felt over money can finally be offered to God. What a relief.

  You’re finally really offering it, and you’re asking to be shown the right actions, from today onward. Those right actions will be shown, step-by-step, from the inside, all in right timing.

  And then, as you’re ready, slowly come back out. Jot down anything that may have happened. Even the smallest message may turn out to be important.

  YOU CAN BE REAL

  If you systematically go through these steps over these weeks, a certain terror—that I myself knew every single blessed day growing up—will lessen. It may not be fully dissolved by the end of this process, but it will decrease, possibly sooner than you expect.

  It may even be diminished simply from reading this far. Actually, you may even have felt a shift just from reading the book’s title alone.

  I was working one day in an Oakland café when the guy next to me saw a mock-up of the cover on my desktop. Glancing at the title, he exclaimed, “Dude, are you kidding? I need that! Money is my biggest burden.”

  When you cast off that burden of your, you lay down the world’s hugest weight.

  Okay, one last thing. You don’t have to put a happy face on all this. Later in this book, we’ll deal with emotions like anger, shame, sadness, and fear that may need to be felt. Don’t worry, we’ll get there. We’ll work with them, even by breaking, smashing, or burning things for release, if needed. It can be critical to feel . . . and let go.

  But for now, especially if you have anger or shame about financial issues, just let it be. Today is the day, once and for all, that you start to hand your finances to the Divine.

  At this juncture, you’re preparing for just one thing: to become a vehicle for abundance. As you keep doing the steps, you’ll notice synchronicities increase. You’ll start to be in the right place at the right time to freely give and receive and to help others when you’re guided. All may spontaneously start to happen without much thought.

  You’ll move into a grace-filled, expansive reality where you remember that you’re an unlimited Being guided by Love and a vehicle for Divine Source.

  No matter who you are.

  Now that you’ve completed the second week, how do you feel? Have you received boons like the return of a lost object or the sudden repayment of a debt? Or is the main shift a palpable feeling of relief? Or maybe have old feelings arisen, causing you to feel sad or nostalgic? That can happen too. Wherever you are, let it be. Just keep going. More will be revealed!

  In Week Three, we’ll be deepening into the five steps. And let me tell you, here’s one of the most delicious parts of this process. While initially you have to stay focused and use the tools, the more you practice, they begin to use you. They gain a life of their own.

  Sometimes I think becoming abundance means unblocking the hose that the Divine flows through. It’s easy to get all twisted about a topic like money, but God knows exactly how to open you. To be used as a conduit for abundance, many things often have to be released. A feeling of unworthiness may be the block, or perhaps resentment, fear, or anger. Or attachments to people who only bring self-doubt and negativity. We’ll be working with all of that.

  If you diligently continue this process over time, the hose will start to open and the water that’s waiting to come through indeed will. With abandon. That’s when the fun really begins.

  ENGAGE FULLY

  When I was teaching the course, many people dove into this process like a river on a hot day, while others were more passive observers. While that was okay, this truly is meant to be a program of participation. Far less happened for those only hearing the calls while they sunned on the riverbanks. If someone wanted deep and lasting change, they had to dive in and use the tools.

  So I encourage you to engage fully and let the steps carry you. Because, really, why not? Although, some of you may need to read the whole book through once and then return to start all the actions, and that’s fine too.

  But think about it. If you were drawn here, money has probably brought you its fair share of grief and suffering, one way or another. Perhaps some hidden part of you has been longing forever for a new solution to this ancient burden.

  So what do you have to lose?

  OLD SOUL ABUNDANCE

  During our weeks together, be open to inviting a Divine plan—one that Love Itself may have chosen expressly for you. Stop reading everything that fills this world like New Age crabgrass about getting more, having more, or being more. For now, just drop it.

  Because if you’ve tried and tried to get more money and found this hasn’t worked, I want you to know you’re in no way a “failure.” Instead, you might just be an old soul. If you are, chasing after abundance can be fruitless and exhausting because you were born to align with Love’s will, follow the Tao, and serve something beyond the ego.

  As you shift from demanding and chasing to offering and opening, abundance will start to come through you as you’re hollowed out to receive. (The connection between “hollow” and “hallow” has often struck me. Perhaps the very act of being emptied and opened makes you holy.)

  Besides, if you’re an old soul, nothing is gained from thinking, Wow, I’m so powerful, I can manifest anything! Love Itself may respond: Are you kidding? You’re actually here to learn to open and stop blocking the Flow.

  In fact, your ego may even be prevented by the Divine from manifesting anything! I know mine sure was.

  And though an array of coaches may line up from here to Uzbekistan to say you need more sessions, they may be dead wrong. Many old souls aren’t weak, wrong, or blocking anything. The Holy One Herself may be emptying you of fear and attachments and preparing you to receive Her luminous Plan.

  Letting go can be an important part of the hollowing-out process that the Divine uses. As the hands stop grasping in a clenched fist, they often can relax into an open palm to receive more than you ever imagined.

  In other words, while you’re busy feeling neglected, God may actually be knee-deep in Her own blessed project: your freedom. Perhaps after thousands of lifetimes!

  Now don’t get me wrong. This offering route is not just sunshine and lollipops. Sometimes learning to surrender is so intense you can feel as if you’re dying. The ego is learning what might be the hardest thing: how to stop trying to control the whole Universe.

  Yet bit by bit, it occurs. And as the Divine plan begins to sprout like a wild, lush garden after years in a desert, you may think, I never could have imagined this, yet it feels so right. It’s as if everything has prepared me for . . . right now.

  As this unfolds, you no
longer force or shame yourself in the old ways. You become more and more spacious, present, and open. You start to move with the Flow Itself. In fact, “failure at manifesting” might have been the Divine plan all along—the perfect route to make you leap, once and for all, straight into Love’s waiting arms.

  DESIRES BECOME PREFERENCES

  So how does this happen? It’s not that all desires simply die through this process of offering (although some do). And you sure don’t blame yourself for having them in the first place, because they’re part of being human! But desires themselves are never really the problem, and never have been. Attachment is. Through this work we’ll be doing together, they’ll stop holding you prisoner.

  You can even say, “Dear God, I give this raging desire to You. Open me to Your will, release me from my fixations and attachments. Surprise and delight me with Your plan. You know what’s needed, and I am open to receive!”

  Eventually, one sublime desire takes precedence over all the others: to follow the Tao, the Divine Flow, at all costs.

  STEP 1: REVISITING THE ABUNDANCE PRAYER

  I don’t know what Force brought this prayer through me, but I do know to the bottom of my purple-pedicured toes that it works.

  If you haven’t made a recording in your own voice yet, please do. I hate my voice! you might say, but try it anyway. What if you imagined God Herself was speaking through you?

  Hearing yourself can dissolve the illusion that prosperity is something external to be chased. You can read it with intensity and focus, as if you yourself are a sacred vessel for it.

  Let this enter your Being, releasing any old ideas of constriction or limitation and returning you to your true essence as expansive, radiant light. Maybe because it’s the opposite of my own thoughts as a struggling, lonely kid, this prayer can still make me cry. I’m thrilled when people tell me their own children already know it.

  STEP 2: CLEANING YOUR SPACE