Remember that battery light that came on a few days ago? It was the alternator. I really, really, really tried to be positive and in many ways I mostly was, but I could not avoid having a serious, epic, money meltdown about another $400. So I allowed myself to meltdown – Mama Gena calls this “swamping.” I posted a meltdown swamp on the Mama Gena boards, I took a nice hot bath and I went to bed early. And the next day I figured out a way to pay for it – not a perfect way, but it works. So now that I’m a few days past the meltdown phase, I’m back to feeling grateful, back to feeling like “Wow. I must really be shifting some inner beliefs and moving out some really old stuff to have created this much money drama in one week.” I’m still not sure what direction I’m supposed to go in, but I have total faith that it will work out.

On the same day that my car has another $400 in repairs, I also hear I may get a promotion at work. Interesting that these two events happen on the same day. And by the way, I actually super duper LOVE my job. I am very blessed to have gotten to a point in my life where I love the work that I do and the people I work with - and the hours are very reasonable. That’s why I think working on something outside of my job that creates passive income might be the perfect solution. I just don’t know what that is yet…

Anyone have any ideas???

I recently got an email about a beginner’s improv class that sounded really interesting. I felt a little intuitive nudge about this class, but then my logical brain chimed in: “What in God’s name does improv have to do you with your goals?” I had to agree, but acknowledged the nudge.

A couple days later I was walking by the backside of a glass bulletin board– and someone had used a flyer for this same improv class to write their posting for a room they were renting – so when I walked by the backside of the bulletin board – I inadvertently saw this flyer peaking at me. And I swear it winked at me.

Just a few hours later I’m listening to a conversation at the grocery store where this woman is telling a law student how important it is that he take acting class and how it will help him as a lawyer. And then, she’s still taking to him, but she looks directly at me as she says “You should take an improv class.”

Ok, ok, ok. I get the message! I’m taking improv!!! I’m intrigued by why the Universe wants me to take this class. Can’t wait to see where it leads!

Have you ever gotten strange intuitive nudges and acted on them? What happened?

I think one of the big things I’ve come up against moving towards my goal is this so-called conflict between spirituality and money. Whenever I read self-help books by my favorite authors – Wayne Dyer, Tony Robbins, Rhonda, Byrne, Jerry and Esther Hicks – they all say that you can create anything you want. Simply see it, believe it and allow it to happen.

But, really? You can just ask for anything? What if what my deepest desire is a hot new pair of Christian Louboutin heels? Am I really allowed to ask for those? It doesn’t seem very spiritual to me. What about world peace and ending world hunger? I would think that’s an ok thing to wish for. What if my goal to earn $250K isn’t actually such a great idea, but I don’t know that? Is there a difference between someone who wants to earn $250K to work on world peace and someone who wants to earn the same amount to do drugs?

I want to earn $250K so I can go to self-improvement seminars (God would approve of that), pay of my bills (Yep, still got his approval!), and get my own place (Um, I think a yes?). Next on my list is “buy cute clothes.” Really? Does God even care about my wardrobe?

Certainly God/Spirit/the Universe doesn’t give a rip about the hot new pair of Christian Louboutin heels that I seriously lust for, right? But what if that is what I want? Jesus said “ask and it shall be given.” Who decides what Spirit wants for me or what God would approve of? What if I buy those shoes, I feel SO fabulous that I rock an interview that leads me to a job where I have a HUGE positive impact on the world? Really. I know a lot of you reading this know the power of a hot pair of shoes.

Maybe desire is the real road map? Maybe true desire is the fuel for life? All I know is that right now I’m feeling pretty confused by all this, but one thing I’m not confused about is the fabulousness of these shoes…so in the meantime, check them out!

]]> http://sarahgranby.com/2010/08/23/spirituality-and-money/feed/ http://sarahgranby.com/2010/08/22/expansion-and-contraction/ http://sarahgranby.com/2010/08/22/expansion-and-contraction/#comments Mon, 23 Aug 2010 03:21:25 +0000 Sarah http://sarahgranby.com/?p=566

I’ve talked a bit about expanding and contracting energy in previous posts. I’m sure it’s been written about before, but this was kind of a new aha moment for me that has come since making this commitment to earning $250K per year. I think of “expansion” as anything positive: joy, laughter, open-mindedness, positivity, excitement, childlike enchantment with life, dancing, breathing. I think of “contraction” as: feeling like a victim, powerlessness, depression, despair, anger, lethargy, etc.

When I choose to “expand”  it’s like I’m making my energy field or my aura bigger, brighter and happier, or when I contract, I’m making my energy field smaller and darker. If that sounds kind of weird or unclear, imagine the feeling in your body when you see a good friend that you adore who you haven’t seen in a long time: your head lifts up, your spirits lift, there is a bounce in your step. To me, this is expansion. Imagine how you feel when you hear bad news: your shoulders slump, your head goes down, your heart sinks. That is my definition of contraction.

I’ve found just saying to myself “expand, expand, expand” when I’m tempted to sink into unhelpful negativity, (and using a fair amount of will power at times), I can shift to or stay in a positive space. So even if you’re in a neutral or somewhat positive space right now, tell yourself to “expand.” How does that feel? Tell yourself to contract. How does that feel?

Would love to hear how this felt for you! Please post your results!

I’ve been so excited that I have more clarity on what this blog is about. Yay! But that inevitably leads to the thought “Holy s**t, Granby! How do you plan to pull this off?” That’s the great thing about experiments and quantum leap goals. Since I’ve never done it and I have no idea, I get to play and figure it out.

Let’s start with what I believe at the moment and go from there:

I believe it will not be through a regular job (obviously!) – I have no idea what that could be right now – so I have to move forward in faith, believing I will be shown everything I need to know.

I believe when you make a commitment to a goal as big as this, magic happens.

I believe that taking wrong action just to take action is not the way to go. I believe that when I get my intuitive nudges then action will be “inspired action,” or “right action” and will lead me towards my goal.

I believe in visualizing and imagination. I believe for this process to work, I’ve got to get my logical brain out of the way. I believe I’ve got to let my imagination and childlike joy run wild and free and see where it takes me.

Today, I’m making sure to take time to work on my blog and continuing to think positively, think really big,  let my imagination flow and play, and dream as big as the child in me wants to.

When I got my car fixed on Friday my mechanic, who has helped me out of a jam numerous times, said “You’re good for another 100,000 miles.” I don’t know if this is a good or bad quality about me, but I have this gullible streak and sometimes when people tell me things, I completely believe them hook, line and sinker. This was one of those cases. Maybe it’s just because I so want what he said to be true. Either way, I was thrilled to hear this about my car and had not a doubt in the world that it was true.

So when I get into my car today – just one week later – and the battery light went on, I’m not sure what to think. (“But he told me 100,000 more miles!” my little gullible streak says.) As I’m driving back to the mechanic, all the expenses from this past week go flashing through my head. Cell phone ticket. Timing belt. Registration. Late fee. F@#k. So I start thinking, “Wow, Universe, I’m really earning my PhD in money. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Stay positive, Sarah. This is a really good thing. It is. Thank you.”

Once I get there he says, “Could be the alternator. Mucho dinero.” I have to fight my energy from wanting to shrink into whiny “victimhood.” So as I stand at the counter, I keep pumping positive thoughts and feelings into my brain. “Thank you for this lesson. This must mean I’m doing a really good job at processing my feelings about money. Thank you. Thank you.” I kept telling myself to expand my energy (the way your energy feels when you hear good news or something really great happens) and not to contract (imagine the feeling when you hear bad news – your shoulders slump, your head goes down, everything gets smaller.) As they are looking at my car, a guy sitting next to me says “How’s your day going?” In the past, I would definitely have let him know how good this was not looking, how much I had spent on my car last week, etc. Instead I simply said, “Good.” And since I believe what people say so easily, I believed myself. In fact, I could feel that scared part of me relax like “Oh yeah, it’s all good. We’re having a good day.”

A couple minutes later, the mechanic comes in says everything is fine. The battery light had gone off as I was driving over and the mechanic couldn’t find any evidence of a problem.

“Thank you, Universe. I must really be doing well. Thank you.”

And while I was there, I got a good tip on where I should get my car smogged.

Thank you, Universe. Thank you again.

I love chocolate, I love French fries, I love many so-called “bad” foods. If I have no reason not to eat them, I simply can’t control myself when I am around them. But if I have a reason, like I’ve made a promise to myself and Life/God/the Universe to give up sugar for a year (which I did), it becomes weirdly easy. One of the most important parts to achieving any goal is the “why.” Why do you want to achieve this goal? Why is this goal so important? What reason will help keep you going when the going gets tough?

So this year, committing to my goal of quantum leaping to $250K, sure I have plenty of reasons:

I want to be able to attend Mama Gena’s Mastery in 2011. (Maybe better to say I fiercely desire instead of want)
I want to be able to attend Mama Gena’s Inner Circle in 2011.
I want to have my own place.
I want to pay off all my bills. (Sigh…)
I want to be able to buy super cute clothes!
I want to be easily able to buy all the super healthy food that I want to eat.

But this new identity for my blog…achieving a crazy-ass goal and sharing with everyone how I did it along the way, now that becomes a big, huge, fantastic “why” for me. I LOVE to share good stuff! I LOVE to help people! What if I could crack this money code and through my blog people could also crack theirs and then they could have all their lists of desires fulfilled too!!! Oh my Goddess! Nothing could make me happier!!!!

Oh my gosh! I’m so excited! My blog finally has a purpose and an identity. The new, unofficial working title of this blog is…drum roll please…. “How I went from $25K to $250K in one year.” But first, let me back up for just a moment…

In March, I saw the movie Julie and Julia. I loved the power and simplicity in Julie’s goal to cook every recipe in Julia Child’s cookbook in one year and blog about it. When I saw the movie, I had already made my commitment to earning $250K per year, so I was on the look-out for those intuitive nudges that would guide me towards my goal. When I saw the movie, I knew I had just received a powerful nudge that I had to follow. So I started my blog and continued focusing on my goal. And then other things in my life started to shift. I got two promotions very quickly. My relationship ended. My schedule went from teaching Monday through Thursday 8:45am – 8:45pm, spending Fri afternoon – Sunday evening with my ex-boyfriend, which left me with maybe a Sunday evening to myself or a few hour break during the week to working Monday through Thursday 8:45pm – 4:30pm. Evenings free. Weekends free. O.M.G.

Just a few weeks ago, I started getting really fired up again about my goal. I’d been visualizing every morning and every night the feeeeeling of making $20,000+ per month. As I was ironing one night, the movie Julie and Julia popped into my head again. Hmmm….Then I went online and the first thing I saw was an article about another woman who was also inspired by Julie and Julia. “OK, Universe, I get the message. I’m supposed to get back to my blog. I don’t know what to write about, but I will.”

And today, it hits me. I’m going to achieve this goal. And I’m going to blog about it. And the purpose is to help people improve their financial health too. And I’m SO excited I could scream.

And I need a new name for the blog. Any ideas???

Normally when I’m driving down the street I am thinking “I’m a great driver. Cops never give me the time of day since I’m such a good driver. I’m not who they’re looking for.” Well, with my registration expired, all of a sudden I shifted into “Shit!!! A cop!!!” And I could literally feel myself sending out this super strong fear vibration – and you know the Universe doesn’t care if it’s fear or love, Law of Attraction just feels the pull. So today I get pulled over for talking on the phone. Ugh. A real life cell phone ticket. $100-150 bucks. And a fix-it-ticket for my expired tags. I know what is at work here – the Universe just testing me about my commitment to making $20K per month, and showing me how powerful my pull is - so I say “This is so good this is happening. Thank you, Universe. I am so grateful.  Thank you.”

I go to the DMV to pay my $135 registration. $100 late fee. And on top of it, the car needs to be smogged, too. “Thank you Universe. I am so grateful. I am getting this money lesson really well. Thank you.” And did I mention that I paid $535 for car repairs on Friday? Deep breath. “Thank you Universe. Thank you. This is quite a lesson. I’m must be getting a PhD in Money. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” More deep breathing. Lots more.

I didn’t contract into feeling like a victim. I didn’t succumb to the temptation of having a pity party – and oh, this could’ve been a huge one. Instead I stayed expanded, grateful, knowing that I had drawn this experience in for myself and my well-being.

Deep breath. Thank you, Universe.

No, no, no. Not that kind. I’m back on my super healthy eating kick. Again. I gave myself a little talking to last night. It went something like this:

Self: “You say you will do anything to be successful in the way you want to be, but the way you eat is not good for your health, makes you tired and is not part of living your best life. If you really are serious about your goals, eat the way you need to and stop making excuses.”

Me: “Damn. You’re totally right.

It was a short conversation because I was right!