Money is one of the primary forces in our lives.

Much of our life is moved and shaped by money. The food we eat, the places we live, the hobbies we engage in, education, the way we raise our children, the vacations we can or cannot go on—it’s all driven by money. For the majority of us, a huge portion of our lives is taken up by the dynamic of money.

We work to get the money to live.

It’s quite weird, really.

Naturally, I question the way we do things. I’m that kid who says “why?” and when you give an answer all I do is say “why?” again.

As I stated in my last article criticising the ideas of success and financial abundance, money isn’t some benign energy.

Money is the thing we use to convert resources, time and effort into a currency that we can then exchange for different resources, time and effort. Over and over, yet always drawing it’s energy from somewhere else, mostly stuff from the ground.

Below is a great video where philosopher Charles Eisenstein and Professor Margrit Kennedy speak about the possibility of changing the money system. Well worth the watch.

One of my key takeaways is when Charles states that money tends to drive a wedge between us. Think about it, from the micro to the macro level, money creates distance between us. Money can be an issue on a first date about who pays the bill. Then, like what happened in my mothers life, there are the intense disputes that happen within family over inheritance.

This kind of distancing goes all the way up to the way corporations as an entity can ceaselessly destroy entire ecosystems in the name of profit.

Charles compares this against gifts which tend to bring us closer. When we unconditionally give gifts to others or receive such gifts, we form bonds and create intimacy and connection.

I wonder, as we continue to explore the possibilities of transforming our current monetary system, could I view it as a gift?

Can I view and imbue my monetary exchanges as gifts? Can I give the gift of money and allow it to be a gift and receive the gift of products and services and allow them, in my own heart, to be gifts? Can I move away from, in my own mentality, the idea of exchange and into the idea of gift?

This is an idea and something I am excited to continue playing with. I’m all for a world that consciously and continuously creates more intimacy, more connection and more love.

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Author: Damien Bohler

Editor: Ashleigh Hitchcock

Photo: flickr, flickr