The Root & Money

I frequently notice when my money flow is slow or bills and requests for money are coming in at a faster rate than cash – and I wonder, why is this happening? Is there something I can do to improve my finances and cash flow? After all my horoscope has good money house aspects, I’ve got it within me to be financially successful – and mostly I am. I’ve noticed though that when I get a large expense that nearly exhausts my available cash – one of my friends or my son will also ask for a loan at the same time – it’s happened this way many times. Rather than say no to them – I tend to dig deeper into my resources and find a way to help them out, usually by taking cash out of savings or putting an expense on a credit card. So what is this really about, I wonder?

I know everything is energy. I know all well being is related to the chakra system but it wasn’t until recently that I started to put it all together regarding money. I was thinking of money as something outside myself – something I needed to figure out that was separate from but related to me. Then I remembered the words of Rudolf Steiner’s work on Social Finance. He says, ‘Money is intrinsically tied to the individual.”

This is a lesson I have already learned. When I first read Steiner’s writing on finances I pondered this notion until the Universe demonstrated the answer to me. I was at a place in my life where I was chronically over extended in my finances. Always running on credit between paychecks and borrowing from here and there until I could catch up again. It was my daughters birthday party weekend, I had stayed up all the night before hand-making party favors to rival the stay-at-home-Waldorf-mom I fantasized about being. I made a cake that looked like a sand castle and I threw an elaborate mermaid themed party at the playground of our church for at least 30 six year olds. After the party my husband took our girls home and I stayed at church to fulfill a volunteer child care obligation for a church event that I had signed myself up for. After the event I waited until late into the night to meet the bouncy castle vendor to take away the last remnant from the party earlier that day. I was driving home from this day – fully exhausted and looking forward to being in my cozy bed for a solid nights sleep when all of a sudden my car stopped on the freeway without warning. I was about a mile from my home, in the middle lane of the freeway late at night. There was no traffic but I was stuck. My gas gauge said I had 80 miles until empty tank but the car acted like I was out of gas. As I sat there in the car – taking stock of the situation – I realized that i was also personally out of gas – exhausted. I called a tow truck and waited. Those 20 minutes were the most powerful 20 minutes of my life. I took the time to be present (of course if your stuck in the middle lane of a Los Angeles Freeway in the dark – you’re going to be fully present) and I checked in with myself like I do in meditation. As I scanned how I felt, the word that popped into my fully present and open mind was over-extended. I had over-extended myself that day. I was over-extended. And then it hit me – that’s what Steiner meant when he said finances are intrinsically tied to the individual. I was over-extended in my personal life and I was over-extended in my finances. Voila! Breakthrough. From that day forward I stopped my behavior of over-extended. I stopped over committing, stopped volunteering on days when I already had a full plate. I stopped loaning money when I didn’t have the resources readily available and my life changed. I stopped being over-extended in my finances. I started to experience cash flow.

So now, fast forward several years later. I’m noticing this trend of my cash flow increasing at times and decreasing at others. I’m also noticing that money is going out of my savings account faster than it’s coming in. So I wonder – how do I increase my cash flow? I’m doing all the right things but it’s been a steady drip of income and not really a healthy flow. I’ve followed all the advise of social media entrepreneurs and set up all the right funnels but still – I’m not quit covering all my expenses without dipping into savings. I’m also spending a lot more than I’m making on everyday things. The kids ask for expensive clothes and I just say, “OK” without really contemplating if it is necessary – what is that about? Recently, I spent a lot of money investing in a booth at the Conscious Life Expo and I didn’t really see the exposure or return on investment that I expected and to make matters worse, I had my mobile phone stolen while I was there and I scraped my car on a parking post. That is the third car scrape I’ve experienced in the past two months – what is that about?

In the days before and after the Expo my husband had a procedure and heart surgery which required anesthesia, I had to report my work phone lost and I was preparing to travel with the whole family to our retreat space on Maui – through airports at a time when the whole world is on high alert about the Corona Virus. I could tell that I was un-grounded. in hindsight all of these factors are root chakra challenges. When our well being, survival or fear of death is invoked it is an affront to the root chakra. A healthy root chakra helps us feel secure and well. When life happens it can throw our chakras out of balance. In this case it’s was my root chakra that was affected. When a chakra is out of balance too long, it can manifest as disease or injury. I have a friend with chronic tailbone issues – he’s had multiple surgeries. He’s narcissistic and completely disconnected from Mother Earth. His life has turned upside down, he lost his wife, home and son. He went from on top of the world with a fantastic career to homeless. His root chakra is completely blocked and I believe his chronic drug use (some prescribed and some recreational) is to blame.

As my week was unfolding, I was getting stuff done but I felt scatter brained and floaty. Disorganized in a way but still powering through the tasks that needed to be done. I missed a conference call with a colleague on Friday and didn’t even realize I had missed it until Monday – that is not normal for me. When I checked in with my psychic advisor right before my trip, she commented on how crazy my energy felt. When I asked her what the car scrapes represented energetically she said it was related to being un-grounded. That made sense to me. Like I’m floating through life, I don’t really have good footing or a gauge of where I am in relation to the hard surfaces around me. It reminded me of a friend who I’m always helping out who gets in frequent car scrapes. I’ve done a lot of work with her to help her figure out her finances and it comes down to that she is always drowning. The drowning is intrinsically tied to her – we’ve learned it may be energetically related to a past life where she was drowned as a horrific and cruel method of torture.

So coming to our retreat space in Hawaii fully aware that I am un-grounded, I made plans to get grounded. And what better place than Maui to root into the earth. Walking barefoot on the beach, walking on the 150 year old pine floors at Hale O Kauka Healing Garden and sweeping the large lanais was just the medicine I needed. I couldn’t find my wooden/straw broom at first but I knew I couldn’t go to the plastic one (although that might have worked too). I intuitively knew that I needed to sweep and it needed to be with the broom of natural fibers to achieve the most grounding. I swept, I walked, I ate protein – and I started feeling better. More connected.

Low and behold after an afternoon of sweeping and two days of walking barefoot – the cash has started to flow again. An invoice gets paid, a retreat host re-schedules her meeting with me to arrive a day earlier to pay her deposit, two new inquiries for our retreat in June land in my inbox and my son pays me back $50 through Zelle without my asking.

I’m reminded of all the ways that successful people keep themselves grounded. Some consciously and some un-consciously. My psychic advisor who frequently has to to access higher vibrations for her work, eats red meat at almost every meal and no sugar to keep herself tethered to the here and now. My friend who is always drowning by the way – is a vegetarian. I am also mostly vegetarian and so I consider how to add more protein, root vegetables and perhaps also some meat to my diet. The root chakra also likes the color red – I wear a red bracelet on my receiving (left) wrist. I recently painted my toe nails red and as I consider purchasing a pair of red shoes – I remember that one of the Catholic Popes is known for wearing red shoes – maybe that’s an unconscious root chakra salve. I’ve long known that red crystals and stones are great for root chakra balancing. I remember being drawn to and wearing a red turquoise bracelet as a child and into my teens that I received as a gift from a Native American shop near the Grand Canyon. I did love that braclet – I’ll be on the hunt for some red turquoise again. Frankincense is also a strong root chakra balancing essential oil as well as sandalwood and cedarwood. I used to always keep sandalwood soap in the bathrooms. This week it’s on my list for Hale O Kauka guest bathroom toiletries. The elephant is also associated with the root chakra – maybe I’ll find a totem or Ganesha to place in my car – and more importantly in the new van we just received at Hale O Kauka Healing Garden this week. We don’t want any scrapes on the new van!

Realizing that my financial health is intrinsically tied to me and that it’s probably tied at my root chakra specifically is a great aha! this week. I’ll be working on being more grounded, more rooted to nature and I’ll practice all the things that my root chakra needs to be healthy:

• The color red
• Sandalwood & Frankinsense
• Protein
• Earthing (walking barefoot)
• Sweeping
• Elephants & Ganesha
• Avoid drugs & sugar

Try -it! Let me know if your finances improve when you take better care of your root chakra and change the energy of lack in your life to attune with the abundance of Mother Earth.