What do you thing about when you think about money? Did you know that money is neither good nor evil? Did you know that your thoughts about money could create scarcity? What if you could change your thoughts about money?

The way you think about money is traditionally formed at an early age. It was formed by the messages that you heard around the house by your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings. Even our schoolmates, teachers, and the media (TV, radio) tell us about money, and we begin to take on these messages as our own.

These messages we hear may all be consistent and reinforce our understanding and relationship money or they may conflict with one another. If they conflict, we may feel confused or unsure about money.

Whatever the messages running around our head, our feelings and interpretations are often unconscious to us because haven't thought about them. That is the exercise for this Lunar Reflections Abundance Tip: get in touch with the messages about money that you have in your head and change them if necessary. How?

Over the next month, think about money and write down what you believe to be true or what you might be conflicted about with respect to money. It's not important what the message is (at this point), but rather to get in touch with what those unconscious messages are. Once you know them, you can decide if you still want to subscribe to them.

For example, consider the following sample messages. As you read them ask yourself to what degree to you agree or disagree with it.

Rate yourself from 1 to 10 where 1 = Strongly disagree; 5 = NEUTRAL (neither agree or disagree); 10 = Strongly agree.

• If I have a lot of money, I may lose it all.
• I cannot be more successful than my parents.
• I wish I didn’t have to deal with money at all.
• I am not smart enough to be a good money manager.
• I don’t deserve to be rich.
• For me to succeed, others must fail.
• I’m too old (too young) to be successful.
• Striving for wealth can cause health problems.
• Attaining money and power is a big responsibility.
• As a woman, it is more difficult to be successful.

For each of these messages, if you rated it above 6, then you agreed with it to some extent. Therefore, because all of these are limiting messages, by agreeing with it, even a little, that message is probably keeping you from tapping into financial abundance in your life. For example, if you agree with the statement: “For me to succeed, others must fail” and if you don’t want others to fail -- especially on your account -- then you may subconsciously work to make sure that you don’t succeed too much. Each of these money messages has a similar unconscious self-sabotage at work to the degree that you agree with the statement.

How to do you begin to change your thinking? As you go about your daily life, think about what you’re thinking or the beliefs or assumptions that you operate from. Ask yourself, “Who made that rule? Does it limit me? Does it still serve me?” Then dialog with yourself to change your thinking. This process may seem like recognizing that you live in water if you’re a fish, but the rewards of changing limited thinking allows you to tap into a limitless life and the abundance nature of the universe.

Next Month: The Abundance Record