Money is an uncomfortable subject

The Energy of Money: A Spiritual Guide to Financial and Personal Fulfillment
by Maria Nemeth, Ph.D.

Thousands of people worldwide have learned how to build a powerful new relationship with their money and bring their dreams to fruition through Dr. Maria Nemeth's dynamic workshops. Now you can, too. In The Energy of Money, Dr. Nemeth - who received an Audio Publishers Award for her Sounds True series on which this book is based - draws upon her more than twenty years' experience in synthesizing spiritual and practical techniques for managing yourself and your work to create a revolutionary program that can free your financial energy and use it to achieve personal life goals and financial wealth. Combining a complete self-help and self-discovery regimen with proven methods of money management, this powerhouse guide to prosperity presents twelve principles that will help you to

• Uncover the hidden landscape of beliefs, patterns, and habits that underlie and sometimes subvert your everyday use of money and personal resources
• Tame the dragons of driven behavior and busyholism
• Defuse fears of deprivation and scarcity
• Embrace and work through paradox and confusion
• Consciously focus your money energy
• Clear yourself to receive the energy and support of others and the universe
• Develop and stay on your personal path to abundance

Through easy-to-follow exercises and meditations, effective worksheets, and other interactive processes, Dr. Nemeth will guide you to financial success and help you manifest your special contribution to the world.

Money is an uncomfortable subject for most of us. Many people would rather talk about their sex lives than about their bank balance. We love money, and we hate it. We can't live with it, and we can't live without it. Money can be a source of great joy and creativity, or it can bring frustration and misery, depending on our relationship with it. And we bring all these doubts and fears, hopes and expectations with us every time we deal with money - not just when we visit a financial planner or a loan officer, but in every area of our lives.

Money touches almost every aspect of living: work, leisure time, creative activities, home, family, and spiritual pursuits. Everything we do and dream of is affected by our relationship with this powerful form of energy. Whether your dream is to travel around the world, pay for a house, establish a food bank, buy a Corvette, get out from under a mountain of debt, or take a year off to write a novel, that vision is intertwined with the possibilities and pitfalls bound up in the energy of money.

This very discomfort is what makes our relationship with money such fertile ground. Whatever is potent for us, whatever elicits strong emotions, whatever seems to "hold on to us" in life has the power to bring forth our greatest strengths and most remarkable qualities. Our relationship with money calls on us to wake up, to see how we are handling all kinds of energy - not only money but time, physical vitality, enjoyment, creativity, and the support of friends - and to use those lessons to enrich every aspect of our lives.

The Hero's Journey

In my twenty-five years as a clinical psychologist and seventeen years of leading the You and Money Course, I have been inspired by how willing people are to learn and apply these lessons in ways that enrich their own lives and contribute to others. In fact, I have come to see our relationship with money as a hero's journey. It is a path fraught with trials and triumphs, tribulations and treasure.

The hero's journey is often thought of as a classic "coming of age" story. We all undergo such a journey, consciously or unconsciously, in our individual lives. And we all go through the same basic stages of this journey as we undertake new pursuits and goals throughout our lives: we depart from our familiar routines, lives, or families; we enter into unknown territory where we encounter fears, mysteries, dragons, and mentors; we are initiated into new understandings, pursuits, or skills; and, finally, we gain mastery over our newfound skills, ourselves, and our particular part of the world.

The hero's journey calls on us to bring forth the power of "being," which Webster defines as "the complex of spiritual qualities that constitutes an individual." In working with the energy of money, we think of our being as that ineffable, indescribable part of us that remains constant and courageous, regardless of what is happening around us. The power of being emerges in moments of extraordinary insight or heroism. It is our authentic self, the essence of who we are, apart from our personality traits or the drama that sometimes surrounds our lives. The hero strives to bring the qualities of being to whatever he does, including his relationship with money. Working with money from the source of your true being will give you power and ease and a sense of interconnectedness.

The main goal of the hero's journey is to make your dreams a physical reality - and to learn from all the challenges along the way. In doing this, we see and appreciate our own true nature more clearly - which is where our dreams come from - and we share ourselves and our accomplishments as a contribution to others. I believe that this is the purpose of being human.

In this book, you will discover that you are a hero - and you will start bringing those natural strengths and virtues to your relationship with money. You'll be able to do the things you've always wanted to do, and bring forth and refine - or redefine - your purpose in life.

We will lay out the exact route to a powerful relationship with money. You will see how to bring your goals and dreams into physical reality, and how to ground them in the Life's Intentions and Standards of Integrity that reflect who you really are. Ultimately, this book is about the richness and fulfillment of living life as a hero's journey.

In the You and Money Course, I've coached more than 4,500 people toward breakthroughs in their relationship with money. One by one, I've held each person's hand as he or she stood in front of a group, took a deep breath, and began talking about his or her money life and monthly take-home pay. This was desperately uncomfortable for some, but these people had a vision for themselves. They realized that they had achieved certain goals, and some had come a long way from where they began, but they also sensed that something was keeping them from going further. They all had intentions and dreams, and the desire to know that they had made a difference. They had inner Standards of Integrity, even if they had temporarily lost sight of them, and they were willing to experience the momentary discomfort of revealing themselves and their concerns to the group if it might help them experience miracles.

I have worked with people in every walk of life, wealthy men and women and those on welfare, as they grappled with their relationship with money. I saw them look at how they had been "shooting themselves in the foot," at where they had stopped themselves in the past, and at what they could do to keep moving forward toward their goals and dreams despite great discomfort.

I saw these people succeed at bringing their dreams into reality with ease and joy - building a business that contributed to the community, getting their pilot's license, having an art exhibit or publishing the book they'd always wanted to write, taking their children on a vacation, being a successful entrepreneur. Finally, I watched them see themselves clearly, sometimes for the first time, and experience themselves as courageous, wise, loving, powerful, and compassionate individuals who had learned to release and use the energy of money.

This journey always began with being willing to look within, and then to bring forth into physical reality that which had heart and meaning. These people have inspired me, and shown me what was important in my own life. They have also pointed me to certain questions, and one of these is: Why is it that we don't use all the information and resources available to us to achieve what we want in life?

© 2000 by Maria Nemeth, Ph.D.

About the Author

Maria Nemeth, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with more than twenty-eight years' experience, a former clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California-Davis School of Medicine, and former columnist for the Sacramento Business Journal. Her popular Sounds True six-tape series, The Energy of Money, and her "You and Money" seminars have helped thousands of people to create ongoing affluence and financial ease.