Monday Meditations: Making Peace with Money

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Money - making it, having it, wanting it - is central to most people's lives as well as a source of great anxiety for many. It is the main medium of exchange between people. Money determines the value of our time, the value of our possessions, and the value of our work. Collectively, as a culture we have bought into this tendency to measure every aspect of life in terms of money. But there is more to our interactions and in our being than money. 

This simple meditation can help free you from a limited and materialistic view of life, and help you make peace with money. It will help to write down what money means to you and what role it plays in your life.

Let's Meditate!

1. Begin by sitting on a cushion or chair in your meditation space. Make sure your space is private and quiet. Breath deeply for a few minutes to clear your mind and relax your body.
2. Review what you wrote down in preparation and put it aside. Explore how you feel when you have money. Do you feel more real or substantial? Do you feel you exist more solidly than when you don't have money?
3. Now imagine how you feel when you are broke. Do you feel diminished, deflated and less valuable as a person? Notice you don't become more solid or less substantial when you have or don't have money. Contemplate how money functions as an idea, causing you to feel more or less valuable.
4. Think of ten things that are not measured in monetary terms. your list might include the loving gaze of your partner, a wonderful conversation with a friend, the laughter of your child, or the playfulness of your pet.
5. End your meditation by affirming that you are valuable with or without money. Repeat this meditation when you feel the cultural message of materialism is negatively affecting you. Seek out and value those precious experiences money can't buy.

This meditation was adapted from The Meditation Bible by Madonna Gauding.