Most of our beliefs about money— our money mindset —started in our childhood.

When the self-help book The Secret was published in 2006, it started an avalanche of inquiry into a universal principle known as the Law of Attraction.

Despite far-reaching criticism, the popularity of this 5,000-year-old mystical teaching has only grown. By 2009, The Secret had been translated into 50 languages and grossed over $300 million in sales.

Whether you subscribe to this ancient practice or not, cultivating a money mindset will help you attract abundance into every area of your life. It can help you grow your business, find inspiring mentors, increase your time freedom and even inspire you to follow your grandest dreams.

Based on the three-step process of Ask, Believe and Receive, acquiring a money mindset starts with some serious introspection.

Most of our beliefs about money—our money mindset—started in our childhood.

Your parents likely had a huge influence on how you learned to manage money as you observed how they spent, saved or even squandered theirs. As you grew older, other people and circumstances shaped your feelings around money.

1. Your New Money Mindset

If you harbor negative or limiting ideas around money, it’s time to change the story. The 12th-century Persian poet Rumi once said, “This world is like a mountain. Your echo depends on you. If you scream good things, the world will give it back. If you scream bad things, the world will give it back.”

In other words, your thoughts, words and deeds create your outer reality. If you don’t change your limiting beliefs about money, you will continue to attract lack.

Instead of saying, “I don’t make enough money … I will never have enough … it’s so hard to make money in this industry,” change your story around money. You can write a new chapter at any time.

Replace the negative thoughts and words with positive ones such as “I share my gifts and receive abundance in return … I have unlimited resources … I am always provided for.”

These simple positive statements, or affirmations, should be repeated daily. It won’t take long for your money story to shift if you regularly shift your focus to positive affirmations.

2. Practice Gratitude

Everything in your world is a reflection of you. When you affirm lack, that message is sent back to you and you receive more lack. Do you suffer from only-ness? This is something we do that limits us. “I only have $200 in the bank … I only have five clients this week … I only have these tools to work with.”

Look around and you’ll see you likely have many things to be thankful for. Spend some time each day in gratitude. Look at your bank balance and say, “Wow, I have $200 to spend. Awesome!” Review your client list and think, “I am so blessed to have clients who trust me to help them heal.”

Imagine having unlimited resources and tools to help your practice grow. Whatever you focus on will expand, so be grateful for what you do have. It won’t take long to see a shift in your abundance.

It’s also important to practice gratitude for the so-called “bad stuff.” While that may seem counter-intuitive, you attracted it into your life for a reason. Extract the lesson and move on. Be grateful for what it has taught you so you won’t be destined to repeat it.

3. Be a Giver

The law of receiving is activated through giving. If you truly want a larger life than the one you are living right now, you need to unblock the “kink in the hose” to allow abundance to flow to you. You do this by giving. Giving of your time, giving of your expertise and giving of your money.

However, most people have conditions on their giving. Can you imagine looking at a wood stove and saying: “If you give me heat, then I’ll give you wood?” No, that would be ridiculous. So why do we bargain with the universe and tell it we will give once we start receiving?

In order to tap into unlimited abundance, we must be givers and not takers.

Takers are people who believe their lives are the sum total of whatever they can get from the world.

On the other hand, givers are convinced that life is a giving process. They are motivated by how they can serve others and are not concerned by what they can get in return. They know good flows from within and life is not something to get, but something to express.

It’s the same with money. So many gurus tell you to give away money with the intention that a certain amount of money will be returned to you. That line of thinking is limiting at best. Giving anything away starts the flow, just like turning on a faucet.

4. Increase Your Sense of Deserving

It’s common to experience feelings of doubt and guilt when receiving abundance. Until you understand and accept your true worth or value, your efforts to change your money mindset will be undermined.

If you feel you don’t deserve something, you will instead attract what you feel deep down inside you truly deserve.

Your history does not have to determine your destiny. Spending time focusing on what you deserve will amplify your ability to attract good things into your life.

Take out a piece of paper and on one side, write down all the things you’ve accomplished so far in your life. Big things, little wins … everything!

Now flip the paper over and write down all your special skills and talents. Keep this list somewhere you can refer to it often, especially when you need a confidence boost. It’s important to remind yourself that you have many unique gifts and you deserve whatever it is you desire.

5. Open Your Mind to Infinite Possibilities

Often, our logical mind is our worst enemy. We tend to limit ourselves to the things we already know to be true. Your mind will be quick to remind you, “You can’t earn more doing what you are doing. It’s impossible.

These types of assumptions will block you from finding other unique and creative ways to attract money into your life.

When learning to increase your money mindset, stretch beyond what you know to be true and consider other possibilities. Ask instead, “What would it take to increase my abundance? What can I do to make more money flow to me?”

Once you open yourself up to new avenues, it won’t take long for incredible ideas to flow and valuable resources to find their way to you.

Having a money mindset is not a tangible thing. It’s a feeling. Think about what having more abundance can mean for you. Would it afford you more time freedom? Will it allow you to be more generous? Could you share your gifts and talents with a much greater audience?

Being clear on what you will do with more money will help you cultivate the feeling of abundance. Visualize yourself enjoying your new lifestyle. Imagine yourself giving of your time and money. Do this every day and before you know it, you will be reaping the rewards of a true abundance mindset.

About the Author

Linda Beach has been inspiring and educating massage therapists for more than 25 years. She recently sold her massage and esthetic school to follow her dream of living in Belize and traveling the world. She now spends her days teaching others how to create more time-and-money freedom through her new company, A Passionate Dream Life. Beach also hosts continuing education retreats in exotic locations. She wrote this article to accompany her article, “Make $10, $20 or $30 More From Every Session,” which ran in the October print issue of MASSAGE Magazine.

 

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