How to Change Your Money Beliefs

We all have money beliefs.  Some are good and some are bad – but we all have them.  These beliefs have a big impact on our ability to succeed with money.

If we have a negative belief about our worthiness to have money we will sabotage our ability to receive money.  Sadly most of the time we have no idea that we are actually doing this, because most of these beliefs are hiding at our subconscious level.

So what exactly are some examples of beliefs so that we can begin to recognize them?

Examples of Good Beliefs:

• Money is a tool to help
• I create my own life
• Money is easy to earn
• I can be wealthy
• Money is abundant
• Money is evil
• Rich people are unethical
• I can’t be wealthy I don’t make enough
• Money is scarce
• I don’t deserve money
• Debt is a part of life, you cannot do without

Examples of Bad Beliefs:

So how do we go about trying to change these beliefs?  The process is very similar to what a college student goes through when picking a major.  Most enter college with no idea what they want to do.  So over the first year or two, they begin to identify their likes and dislikes, and then start to learn about what it will take to be in a major or field.  They may need to repeat the process until they identify exactly what they want to do and begin to learn about that new area.

Step One: Identify Your Beliefs

A college student must first identify their likes and interests.  To change your money beliefs you must first identify them.   This might seem like an easy first step but as we talked about many times these are in our subconscious mind.  We act on them without knowing that they are even impacting us.

Here are some ways that I have and do use to understand my beliefs:

• Reading Books – one of the best ones that I used was The Energy of Money. This book leads you through discovering what impacts your money with easy to do writing exercises.
• Working with a coach or therapist – both are great at uncovering your beliefs and helping you to understand how that is impacting your life.  I used many coaches and each one was good at uncovering different beliefs and helping to adjust them.
• Journaling – just start writing about your beliefs or your childhood and you will be amazed at what comes out.  If you don’t know what to journal about or how to start, check out the book from above – it has lots of great exercises to get you started.
• Guided meditations – these are great as they help you focus and explore hidden meanings.  With the added benefits of relaxation.  There are many to choose from, of all the ones that I tried I like the meditations from Brain Sync the best.  I have also bought guided meditation books and recorded them in my own voice, which is easy to do with a smart phone.
• Prayer – take the time to pray for answers.  Prayer when done on a regular basis is a rewarding in insightful practice and it is amazing what you can uncover.
• Retreat Days – spend a quiet day pondering what you have been discovering.  It can very difficult to uncover and absorb what you are finding while trying to live your daily life.  By taking a day (or even half if that is all you have time for) you begin to understand your beliefs on a deeper level.   The most important part of this is no phone, internet, just silence and relaxation.  Taking long walks in nature was one of my favorite things to do on these days.
• Look at other areas of your life to find beliefs. Often our beliefs are similar from area to area.  So a belief in health and fitness might be that I am not worthy of being healthy and that would translate to I am not worthy of having money.
• Look for repeated problems. If you are continually dealing with the same issues over and over again, stop and evaluate what is driving that problem.

Step Two: Change Your Beliefs

The next step for a college student is for them begin to work towards that degree or career.  Likewise when you know what your beliefs are you need to begin to change the negative ones so that you can have a positive relationship with money.

This is how I work on changing my beliefs; you may find that these are very similar to how to discover them.  The biggest difference being how you are using them.  For example when using guided meditations for discovering beliefs they may be more focused on walking you through a journey to uncover beliefs.  Whereas when you are trying to change a belief you may look for a specific meditation that works on self confidence.

• Guided Meditations – not only can the right one uncover your beliefs, but the right on can also change your beliefs.  There are many guided meditations available for your use so find the right one for you and for your needs.
• Books – a great one to help alter your beliefs is Excuses Begone not only is this book good for money but also health and relationships.  Anything that you need to work on removing excuses.
• Hire a Coach– having a guide on your journey can be empowering.  Sometimes you don’t look at yourself as others do, sometimes you need help finding the path and sometimes you just need accountability.  The right coach for you can be very helpful.
• Journaling – writing out your feelings and thoughts is a great way to talk through your beliefs.  Allow yourself the freedom to play with different ideas in a safe space.
• Rework your Positive and Negative Thoughts – be very aware of what you say to yourself and others.  You believe what you say, so be on the lookout for negative comments that are related to your money beliefs then change them to positive thoughts.
• NLP – (Neuro-Linguistic programming) this technique is similar to hypnosis and meditation in that you use relaxation and words to alter your subconscious beliefs.  I am not an expert in this, but did have success with it in altering my food cravings.

Step Three: Continually Repeat

This is not a onetime project.  Our beliefs were formed over a life time, and can take more than one attempt to change them.  As you clear up one issue you typically find more that were below the surface.  Plus as we live our daily lives we create and enforce our beliefs.  Thus creating the need to keep looking at what we believe.

This process does get easier as we begin to understand why we do things.  Even better though is that as we eliminate those negative beliefs we begin to have an even better life.  Our process of self sabotage ends.  The benefits are worth the time we spend to uncover and change our beliefs, so enjoy the process and keep going!