how big is your basket?
Remember that irritating saying, “Do what you love and the money will follow?” It’s not that simple. You still must understand yourself enough to look at the ways you are allowing or disallowing the flow of money in your life. In other words, you may be doing what you love, and the money may be following you, but if you don’t know how to receive it, the energy and the money will slip through your hands as fast as you make it.
Imagine that you have a basket above your head. The basket represents your ability to receive money in your life; it acts as a threshold between powerful universal energy and yourself.
Money comes into your basket and it’s up to you to choose whether you bathe in its brilliance or feel diminished by its scarcity.
Celeste, a small, athletic woman in her early forties, came to see me at her friend’s insistence. A talented, sought-after web designer, Celeste needed to earn more if she ever wanted to take a vacation or retire. She admitted that although she knew she could and should charge more for her services, she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. I discussed the idea of the money basket with her and asked her to describe hers to me:
It’s petite, like me, and holds just enough for the day. It’s old, worn, and similar to one of the baskets I’ve seen in the Museum of the Native American— the decorations faded, the edges of the basket shiny from use. It was given to me by my grandfather who said it would be just fine for me. I secretly want a new basket with bright colorful designs.
Many of us “inherit” our money basket from our family, and we operate under the assumption that we have to accept what we’ve been given. Celeste, unconsciously, held back her desires and undervalued her time and energy, believing this was honorable and spiritual.
I asked her to draw an image of the basket she wants for herself. Moving quickly with watercolors, Celeste drew a picture of herself balancing a tightly woven red basket shaped like a crescent moon. It was as wide as her arms and light to hold. She drew a second basket that she was standing in. There were holes in the first basket that allowed the money flowing over her body to be contained in the second basket.
Within days of drawing this image Celeste reported that she had decided to revamp her business. She wanted to work only with clients that delighted her. She shifted her business and raised her rates. To her surprise, many told her it was about time and applauded her actions. She hired a CPA, created an LLC, and began to take a regular salary of twice what she had allowed herself before. The drawing is framed beside Celeste’s computer, a reminder that her money basket is wide and beautiful and that her ability to receive is of her own choosing.
© 2012 Luna Jaffe (excerpt from Wild Money: A Visual Journey to Financial Wisdom)
