“Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God—the rest will be given.” ~ Mother Teresa

Each of us holds different beliefs about what constitutes true wealth and true success in life.

However, anyone who has chased after money, material wealth, or worldly success as a top priority at the expense of their health, their relationships, or their inner states of peace, happiness, or fulfillment deeply knows that true wealth and true success are not measured by the amount of money we have in the bank or by the material possessions we own.

In today’s world, many of us have been raised to think of success primarily in terms of attaining financial wealth and material abundance, but again, these achievements mean nothing if we do not have love for ourselves, love for our lives, and love for the people in our lives.

If we’re not completely happy and at peace within ourselves, our relationships and our careers, even if we have both fame and fortune, just how wealthy and successful are we, really?

Inevitably, there always comes a time when we realize that true wealth and true success come in the forms of unconditional love, inner peace, health, happiness, connection and deep fulfillment.

When we have love in our lives each day, love in our heart, love in our relationships and love in our work, then and only then are we living a truly wealthy and successful life. When we’re at peace, healthy, happy, and fulfilled, we’ve cultivated a type of inner success and wealth that nothing and no one can ever take away from us—a form of lived prosperity that nothing could ever truly compare to.

Deep down we all want to live each day feeling that our lives express our innermost truths, values and dreams, because we know this is what demonstrates a genuinely successful and wealthy life.

We all want to wake up each morning with clarity about who we are and passion for why we are here, because we know that finding this ever-present source of inner wealth unlocks a type of courage, confidence and integrity that no amount of money could ever create or buy.

“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”  ~ Matthew 16:26

For those of us who struggle to create financial freedom it is crucial to understand that it is the depth of our inner wealth and success that determines the degree to which we create lasting wealth and success in the outer world.

As much as we’ve all been led to believe otherwise, accumulating material wealth or security before we attend to our inner wealth will only result in unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Even though we tend to think that money and worldly success are the key ingredients in living a healthy, happy and fulfilling life, on a deeper level, we all know that these things will never satisfy our inner hunger for clarity of purpose, heart-to-heart connection and true self-respect.

Thus, as odd as it may seem at first, loving ourselves unconditionally is not only the key to transforming our suffering and fulfilling our life’s purpose, but it is also a very effective way to create sustainable external wealth, success and financial freedom as well.

For those of us who have already created financial freedom, but who are now looking for true love, peace, health, happiness, fulfillment or deeper meaning in life, the previous chapters in this book offer you the keys to creating a type of wealth that no amount of money or external achievement could ever purchase. Considering this, if you’ve already created financial wealth in your life, it is important to ask yourself: why?  

Where did your motivations come from? Were you conditioned to make money by your family and society? Were you seeking love, approval, attention, or praise? Were you afraid for your survival or the survival of your family? Did you accumulate material wealth out of what you believed was necessity? Did you believe that money and material wealth would make you more lovable attractive, emotionally secure or happy? Did you believe money would give you power, influence or control?

Regardless of your answers to these questions, the fact remains that loving ourselves unconditionally, while also finding deep purpose and connection in our lives, is the key to discovering the inner wealth that (1) we all desire and (2) is ultimately already ours.

***

On the healing and spiritual journey, it’s easy to become trapped in the idea that one must renounce or reject money or the material world in order to find lasting peace, health, happiness or fulfillment.

But when we stop to consider that everything in the universe is unquestionably a part of God, it becomes clear that there’s no true separation between what is “spiritual” and what is “material.” Thus, when we reject the material world, for any reason, we’re merely denying a very large part of ourselves that we must eventually embrace.

Likewise, however, if we do not honor our soul’s deeper inner calling, we’re just abandoning both who we are and why we are here—until of course the universe forces us to our knees in surrender.

If we truly want freedom from our suffering, we eventually have to value and respect both the inner and the outer aspects of our lives. At the same time, we must also remember that money and material possessions will never make us more loveable, more worthy, more deserving, more happy, more connected or more emotionally secure.

Intuitively, we already know that our inner truths must take priority over any form of external wealth, achievement, gain or recognition. Even though we temporarily forget this, deep in our soul we all know we must master loving ourselves unconditionally so we can (1) fulfill our life’s purpose and (2) bring genuine peace, love, and happiness into this world.

Although many of us have closed our heart and mind to making money or creating material wealth, money itself is not bad in any way.

It is our relationship to money that is either healthy or not.

In fact, money is just another form of energy or love. If our happiness and sense of self-worth are based on how much money or material wealth we have, then our relationship to money is both unhealthy and limiting.

However, if we know that money cannot buy happiness or love, and that we must love ourselves and answer our inner calling as a top priority, then our relationship to money can be both healthy and liberating.

The same logic also applies to the material world of “things” or “possessions.” Things and possessions are not bad in and of themselves. There is nothing wrong or sinful about enjoying beautiful clothing, homes, cars, or other material possessions.

Just like money, it is our inner relationship to material objects (or lack there of) that is either healthy or unhealthy.

If we believe that material possessions will make us more lovable, worthy, deserving, happy or less insecure, then our relationship to the “things” we either have or desire is definitely unhealthy. Likewise, if we identify with our material possessions and thus believe they (1) somehow define us or (2) make us superior or inferior to others in any way, then again our relationship to these material objects will always cause us to suffer.

Conversely, when we prioritize our inner wealth—our inner peace, health, happiness, fulfillment and love for ourselves—we can enjoy the physical world without being attached to anything. If we know that “things” will never bring us happiness, deep meaning or true love, we can create and experience all forms of material wealth without losing ourselves or deluding ourselves into thinking we will ever find what we’re looking for outside ourselves.

“To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with an open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is my symphony.”

~ William Ellery Channing

Whether we’d like to create greater financial freedom or, we’d simply like to find a more fulfilling approach to making money, we’re all being called to open our minds and accept a new way of thinking about money and, in particular, its direct relationship to love.

Practically speaking, it is crucial that we come to understand the intimate relationship between (1) how much we love ourselves, (2) how much love we give to others, (3) how open and vulnerable our hearts are, and (4) how wealthy and successful we are externally. In other words, if we truly want to thrive in today’s evolving world, we actually have no choice but to master the intimate dynamic that’s always unfolding between money, love and the energetic structure of our universe.

At this point in human evolution it’s critical we all realize that everything in the universe is made of one fundamental energetic substance, which permeates all life and also drives the function and movement of all life in its various forms.

Practically speaking, both love and money can be viewed simply as different manifestations of the same basic energy that makes up everything that exists.

Thus, beneath the apparent differences between our body, our thoughts, money, material objects and the state of being that we call love, there is one underlying, uniting force or tapestry—which is the intelligent, logical, aware and energetic universe.

You might be wondering, Why is this important to understand in terms of living a wealthy, successful and financially liberated life?

The reason why these insights are so important and so empowering is that while there are many ways to make money and create material wealth in the short term, there is only one way to manifest sustainable, long-term financial abundance and live a successful, fulfilling life that is aligned with the universe, with our life’s purpose, and with who we truly are.

This one way is always through following our heart’s inner guidance and through living with our heart completely open and vulnerable, because when we live open-heartedly we allow the infinite source of love and energy that’s both within us and all around us to pour into, from and through our being.

Even though you might be skeptical at first, the truth remains that it’s only through continuously expanding our heart’s capacity to give and receive love that we can open ourselves to the unlimited stream of universal wealth-love-energy that is always available to us.

Here in the present moment, the only obstacles that block us from unlimited internal and external wealth are (1) our limiting beliefs around needing to be more, do more, or have more to finally be loveable or happy and (2) our unhealed emotional pain. Beyond these limiting beliefs and unhealed emotions, our true nature is, has been, and always will be an infinite source of all that we could ever want or need to live wealthy, successful and abundant lives.

Even though we’ve never learned how wealthy we all naturally are, it doesn’t change the fact that each of us is united with the infinite, abundant and limitless consciousness that is God, the universe or the source of all that is.

Thus, our beliefs and feelings around being lacking or inadequate in any way only exist to (1) help us remember the universe’s higher logic, or rationale, and (2) master the science of creating wealth, success and freedom both internally and externally.

***

We all create our lives as we experience them in the outer world based upon the subtle energies of our beliefs, thoughts, emotions, actions and spoken words.

If we explore this process of creation on an even deeper level, we’ll naturally see that our beliefs, thoughts and emotions ultimately drive the actions that we take and the words that we speak. From this perspective, it becomes quite clear that the more consistently our beliefs, thoughts and emotions come from a place of inner wealth, success and abundance—in other words, from a place of unconditional self-love—then the more our actions and spoken words will come from an energy of wealth, success and abundance as well.

It logically follows that the more often our beliefs, thoughts, emotions, actions and spoken words all come from an energy and consciousness of inner wealth, success and abundance, or once again from a place of unconditional self-love, then the more our lives in the outer world will reflect back to us this inner, soul-based prosperity.

When we truly love, honor, value and respect ourselves, we organically create wealthy, successful and abundant situations, both personally and professionally, because wealth, success and abundance are merely the natural byproducts of a healthy relationship with ourselves.

The more love we give to and have for ourselves, the more we fill ourselves up with loving, positive energy—with health, happiness, peace, passion and fulfillment—and this process always translates into natural feelings of inner wealth, success and abundance.

Thus, the more we feel wealthy, successful, and abundant internally, the more energy and love we have to give to every person and situation in our lives.

On top of this, when we make conscious choices each day to honor both ourselves and our life’s purpose, we’re living in a way that’s constantly fulfilling our reserves, which always results in natural and consistent forms of generosity.

When we create our days from a place of deep love and respect for ourselves, we literally fill our body, heart and mind to the point where we’re overflowing with positive, loving energy and, in the same way a rose cannot help but give out its fragrance, we cannot help but effortlessly give out what is bursting forth from within.

It doesn’t matter what form the passionate, purposeful sharing of our inner wealth takes, because we always receive back the energy we give out in the forms we need most at any particular point in our lives.

It might be money, food, shelter, work, companionship, external recognition or some other form of external fulfillment. Regardless of what comes back to us, we always receive exactly what we need when we’re committed to bringing forth our inner wealth fully into the world.

This is the case because the more we love ourselves, the more we’re able to love other people as well; and the more we’re able to love ourselves and others, the more open and vulnerable our hearts become; and the more open and vulnerable our hearts become, the more we’re able to give and receive love in its various forms (i.e. money, compassion, presence, energy).

So, as mind-boggling as it may seem, the amount of money, material wealth and worldly success that we experience or in other words, the amount of energy and love that we receive back from life, is directly proportional to (1) how open our hearts are and (2) the amount of love we’re willing to give to ourselves and to the world. Even though our relationships to money tend to be quite complicated, confusing and stressful, living prosperously really is quite simple once we view it in this light.

“For true love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have. And if you go to draw at the true fountainhead, the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exuper

Although you may not hear this often enough, you are undoubtedly capable of creating the financial freedom you desire in life. Whether or not you end up experiencing this freedom all depends on how much responsibility you’re willing to take for the amount of love, acceptance, value, and respect you cultivate for yourself, your life, and your life’s purpose.

Our individual capacities to create financial freedom and material wealth are unlimited. However, most of us don’t actually need that much money to be happy. We just need enough to take care of our responsibilities while we fulfill our life’s purpose and enjoy our lives as much as possible each day. Deep down we all know that money can’t buy the most valuable things in life. So even if we had all the money in the world, we could not purchase the heart-to-heart connections, peace, happiness, or love that we all want and need.

If your relationship to money currently causes you to suffer, your soul is asking you to accept that you can only create external wealth to the degree that you love, honor, respect, and value both yourself and your destined work in the world. Thus, you are being called to define what personally represents “the good life,” or a liberated life, so you can intentionally focus on creating it with awareness and personal responsibility.

Fortunately, when we follow our heart and go after what we sincerely desire, we’ll always create exactly what we need to support our lifestyle and way of being in the world.

When we’re focused on fulfilling our soul’s purpose, the universe and God always provide us with everything we need to (1) enjoy our lives to the fullest and (2) be at peace. For one person this could be twenty thousand dollars per year, and for another person it may be one hundred thousand or even one million dollars per year.

Regardless, it’s ultimately a waste of time and energy to judge another person based on how much money they make or what they have. All we can do is focus on valuing, honoring, and loving ourselves enough to create what we personally desire, dream of, and deserve.

Thankfully, we live in an infinite universe, so there’s always enough to go around.

The mere fact that one person has a large amount of happiness, love, money, or success, does not mean there’s not enough for us to fulfill our own unique potential and live each day to the fullest. Life merely asks each of us to find enough patience to cultivate the inner wealth and success that always precede the sustainable external wealth and long-term success that we were all born to experience.

Since we’re not only one hundred percent responsible for what we create, but also one hundred percent capable of creating anything we truly want, it’s entirely up to us to persist in breaking through the inner blocks that are stopping us from (1) loving ourselves unconditionally, (2) opening our hearts completely, (3) accepting our life’s inherent worth, and (4) finding the inner peace, health, happiness, and fulfillment that always lead to unlimited wealth and success in all forms.

In the end, there are no words to describe the high quality prosperity and aliveness that are born from loving ourselves unconditionally and fulfilling our life’s destined purpose.

Blake D. Bauer‘s essay is an excerpt from his book, You Were Not Born To Suffer.

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Assistant Ed: Jes Wright/Ed: Sara Crolick