The Abundance of Feeling series:
True Happiness isn’t a Reaction — It is the Feeling you Hold for Yourself. < You Are Here.
True Happiness isn’t a Reaction — It is the Feeling you Hold for Yourself.
Using the past to experience abundance in the present.
In the last article we looked at how our spirit’s dream for this life is the dream of a feeling rather than any specific definition. This led to the realization that if you are dreaming of having lots of money (which can feel like a thing), you are in fact dreaming of the feeling of abundance.
This can be expressed as:
Your dream is of a feeling — not a thing.
Money is a feeling — not a thing.
Through this recognition we are able to let go of the specific, limited “thing” we want, and instead hold a more expansive and inclusive dream by recognizing our dream as any potential that brings the feeling we want. In this there is a feeling of becoming more conscious (more aware) of who we are, by becoming clearer about what it is we want.
SIDE NOTE: It is significant to notice how we are becoming clearer through the recognition that we are looking for a feeling rather than a “thing”. This is generally not seen as becoming clearer because it is seen as less specific (in terms of definition). We would generally say that knowing exactly what model of sports car you want is clearer than simply knowing you want to feel the freedom of owning a car you love and feel passionate about driving. And yet, in terms of the spiritual core teaching of KNOW THYSELF, to know you want the feeling of freedom, more than you want a specific car, is to be clearer.
Spirituality isn’t about refining clearer and clearer ideas (although that can be fun). It is about being clearer and clearer as to your own state of feeling.
What a person wants will tell you more about them than what they have.
So, for all of us who may dream of “having more money”, the question we have arrived at is : What is the feeling you are really wanting? And the answer is an expression of feeling rather than just the idea of what money is. So, if you are someone who dreams of money, the question is:
What is the feeling you want in your life that you are calling money?
With this move from money as a mental idea to money as a feeling, what I want to do in this article is look at this “idea of money” (which we are collectively mesmerized by) such that we can better understand, recognize, and not be mentally dominated by it. When this happens, we can lose our personal sense of identity in the pursuit of it.
In the next article we will be looking at the emotional wounds we carry around money. In order to best approach those memories, I want to start by exploring the positive experiences you have had around money, as these can feed your idea of what money is just as much as your negative experiences.
So let’s start with the good feeling. Take a deep breath, feel your heart and mind open, and allow yourself to remember.
When was a time when you felt particularly good about money? When was the last time you felt abundant or had a windfall? See if you can locate a time that is not just of a single amount of money arriving in your life, but a period where there was a flow of abundance. Remember when money just kept flowing in — almost no matter what you did — the money flowed.
TIP: Don’t worry if you have difficulty coming up with some big abundant experience. Because all experiences are relative, it is only important to come up with your best feeling experience. Even though other people may have grander stories of wealth, everyone’s “most abundant” feelings are very similar. This is the realization that our feelings are relative rather than absolute. For example, the day you won a raffle as a child can be just as big a feeling of abundance, wonderment, and “all is well”, as winning the lottery as an adult.
As you bring back these memories, remember to open your heart and FEEL. Remembering all the details of what happened may help you evoke the feelings from that time — so use that to help you — but the specific details are not what is important here.
Remember the feeling — not through the definitions of words — but by opening yourself to FEEL IT.
TIP: If you are doing this as well as is possible, then you are seeking to have what will feel like a cross-time experience. This is where not just memories come back, but the actual feeling you carried within your body at that time. Because emotions are immediate—instead of conceptual — to truly evoke a past feeling is to feel it in the present. This means it is no longer “in the past” which is what gives the feeling of crossing time, where you experience your past self directly, instead of through the memory of it.
To help you in this, ask yourself:
What is the feeling you had in your body when you were most abundant?
What is the best feeling you hold in your body around money?
How did you feel at that time of abundance?
What did it open up for you? What did it allow?
How did being abundant change you at that time?
How were you different in the flow of abundance from how you are now? For example: Did you feel celebratory? Did you blow some money by having a celebration? Then compare. Do you feel celebratory now?
Is this the feeling you are wanting now, or has it evolved? Use this feeling to become clearer in your knowing of the feeling you are wanting today — the feeling that most people call “money”.
As you focus your most potent experiences of abundance and allow the feelings around them to be evoked, what I want you to most recognize is your ability to create these feelings in your life today.
Your mind may tell you that those feelings were the result of money arriving in your life — and that may well be true — but is it true you can only ever feel that way as a result of money arriving in your life? What do you really believe in your gut (as opposed to what do you think is the “right” answer)?
You have the power to feel the good feelings you once felt when receiving money. You can do this even at times when you are not receiving money.
To stand in this realization is to meet any resistance still operating within you to the idea that money is a feeling rather than a thing. Do not blind yourself to what your feeling response is. The “correct” answer to the question, “Is your mind saying it doesn’t most want the feeling — no matter how good it is — because the cash would be better?” is for you to be honest and transparent with yourself. This is because we cannot transform the resistance within us that we refuse to recognize.
The reason I highlight this is I believe that many people carry the subconscious idea that they would rather be rich and unhappy than poor and happy. Subconscious meaning: they are not fully conscious they believe this (so they do not go around saying it). If you think this may be true of you, then I encourage you to mentally explore it, as any idea that you would rather be unhappy than happy can only come from powerful, unprocessed wounds.
Every human innately wants to be happy — yet it must be recognized that we each have unique perspectives and experiences of what makes us happy. This is because whatever you want to feel in any particular moment is your current personal definition of what happiness is. What makes one person happy may make another person miserable, so it isn’t that we each want the same kind of happiness, but that we all want to feel good.
Once you have cleared out any resistant thoughts to feeling good not being enough, what I want you to recognize is that this very day — regardless of anything external happening in relation to money — you can choose to focus on evoking the feelings you had at the most abundant time of your life.
You may not have a magic wand that can manifest money and luxury items, but you can always focus on feeling good.
You choose the focus of your feeling. No one can stop you singing and dancing in your heart.
Nothing can stop you getting money because money is not a thing. Physical things can be controlled, but money is not a physical thing — it is a feeling. Only you can stop yourself feeling. You are the force in this universe that determines your feeling. You can feel whatever you chose to feel.
Whatever you seek to feel, you have the ability to feel.
All feeling-based dreams can come true.
When you will feel your dream — instead of think it — you open yourself to experience the journey of its realization and manifestation. When you allow the feeling of your dream — because you are no longer placing your mental limits and controls on it — then you will start to manifest outward definitions that express that feeling.
This is what some people call the “Catch 22” of manifestation. If you want to be happy, you can’t wait for your bank balance to get big in order to allow yourself to feel good. You must feel good without money in order to manifest the money you believe will make you feel good. All that appears outwardly, not just as money but any physicalized abundance, is the expression into physical matter of the feeling of abundance.
This is expressed in the powerful spiritual analogy of sitting in front of a mirror and waiting for your reflection to smile at you through an idea of “I will smile when something good happens” (AKA “I will be happy when I have money”). In this state you are effectively sat there waiting for your reflection to smile at you in order to give yourself permission to smile. The realization finally comes that you are waiting for yourself to smile — which is to realize that the only person you are ever waiting for is yourself.
This is to understand that what we can mentally call some devious “Catch 22” is in fact no more than the realization that the thing you are waiting for is a reflection of yourself. If you want something to change in reality — like having some money appear — then you must change your feeling for reality.
You must smile at reality for reality to smile at you.
True happiness isn’t a reaction — it is the feeling you hold for yourself.
If you wish to have money in your life, then let go of the things, the pictures, the definitions, and go with the feeling instead. Nothing can stop you feeling. Feel into existence what you want.
Come to know yourself as a master of feeling.