A few months ago I had to just stop everything I was doing.  Why?  Because all my great marketing efforts were not paying off.  All my positive thinking was not creating a change in my bank book.  All my visualizations, working with limiting beliefs, and using strong emotion to imagine my financial abundance as already here were bringing anything but more clients and revenue.  Using the Law of Attraction’s principles to bring about financial prosperity was wearing me out.

Do you sense a theme here?  Financial abundance and prosperity.  Although I had other things on my mind, I certainly was using a lot of intent, energy and focus to create a greater flow of cash.

As someone who is very upbeat and optimistic, it didn’t get me down that things weren’t improving much over the year.  I knew that patience was required and that the Universe has a rhythm and timing for everything.

I worked on several projects during the year, putting in huge amounts of time, energy and some money for some of them.  Most of them fell apart or doors closed up.  As entrepreneurs, we are taught to be persistent and not give up.  As humans, we are also taught that “when one door or window closes, another opens up.”  I subscribe to both of these, so I continued despite the appearances before me that things weren’t working in a positive direction. 

I got a very clear message one day to just stop and be still.  To listen.  So I did, and I realized fairly quickly that although I had been including my spiritual self in my daily doings, I wasn’t taking time to just BE with God.  And, another thing I learned is that by putting so much energy and time into creating financial prosperity, I was forgetting the fact that I am not in charge of this whole experience.  I am a co-creator.

You’ve got to understand that this is a little more subtle than I make it sound.  Because if you know me, or if you were to spend a day with me last year, you would see me expressing gratitude to God for all that I have, taking time to appreciate the beauty of nature, being compassionate and kind to others and myself, and doing many things most would call “spiritual.”

This is not the same thing, though, as consciously connecting with God daily, and with an attitude of “whoo-hoo, I get to co-create this beautiful day with God again, how blessed I am!”  No, it was more that I was thinking about how I was going to go about accomplishing the various tasks on my list, and creating my day and my future.  It was all about being “in charge” and on task.  It was about “ego” working with the Law of Attraction, and focussing mostly on money.

Now, putting more focus on spirit is not a new concept.  Depending on your spiritual leanings, this may sound like great common sense, or nonsense.  I am not out to convince anyone about God and how things work in this amazing Universe.  I simply want to share something personal that I think will work for some of you too.

So, that day when I stopped, I decided that because what I was doing was not working well in the financial realm, that I would take some time to listen to what God was wanting me to hear and to do.

My goodness, how things have been changing since I did this!  I began that day to put God first.  To some of you, you might be laughing and saying, “well, of course!”  What this looks like for me is that I go to spend time in a room away from phones and computers with God and the angels (and usually my dogs come along for the ride too), before I go to work.  I used to turn on my computer first thing in the morning.  By not doing so now, I signal to my Higher Self and to God that I have changed my priorities.

Now this alone has felt wonderful.  Because by taking time to align with God and with my higher purpose, I am more likely to begin my day balanced and consciously in a co-creative state, rather than in an ego-based “I can do this” state.  Everyone’s time with God or with Spirit may look a little different.

Each day I use some part of that time to just sit quietly, to say some prayers, and then to open to listening to God’s voice.  Usually I don’t hear any direct messages at this time, they usually come later during the day, from ideas and inspirations that pop into my head, things that others say to me, or from the myriad of ways that we can be open to hearing messages from God.  I know I am certainly more open to this “voice” because of my morning alignment time.

Part of my God-time might be spent in singing a song, a song about God, or about surrender.  Perhaps it’s a song about the joys of nature, or about living life fully.  Or I might read an inspirational passage, and I almost always use my angel cards to get a message from them.

I have understood during this time of reflection and being more in tune with my spiritual self that I wasn’t off base in wanting to have financial abundance in my life.  There is nothing wrong with that in the context of a fulfilling and happy life.  I do believe, though, that with my intent now on being as happy and as healthy as I can be, along with the intent to serve God and my highest purpose, I am in a much stronger position to receive financial abundance.    Another piece that was missing for me is the way I was going about it, and not being conscious enough of the co-creation aspect.

Also, I believe I have not been in full alignment with the work I need to be doing.  That is in a period of evolution right now.  Some new and wonderful service work has recently emerged, and that will certainly feed my spirit.

So, I believe as a result of my shift in focus, miracles are happening.  My health is improving rapidly, I’m happier and my bankbook is growing!  Recently an endeavor that I began last year with an ad company online (not adsense or anything like that) is paying off big time.  All of a sudden, and I do mean suddenly, I am receiving wonderful checks from this company.  It was quite synchronous that this began to happen after I surrendered and brought God more into my life.  Would it have happened anyway?  Probably, and yet I also believe there is a connection as well.  For any of you who have a website and would like to hear more about this company, please just send me an email.  You too can start earning some fabulous income from this.

Putting God or Spirit back into my life, or taking this spiritual part of me to a new level has also been about opening my mind and my heart even more. It is bringing me more joy, peace and prosperity than I could have imagined last year.

If this speaks to you, if you’ve been struggling at achieving greater financial ease, please do listen to me.  If you’re not sure you are doing the work that is aligned with God and your higher purpose, then just slow down.  Allow yourself some time to align with your spiritual self, whatever that definition is for you, each morning.  If that means getting up a half an hour earlier to do this, give it a try.  Making a conscious practice of doing this, just as you have created the practice of washing up and brushing your teeth in the morning, is fairly easy to do. 

Now, there’s another practice that I began to do when I stopped in my tracks a few months ago.  I’ll save that for another blog.  I do believe that practice, that I’m calling “Life Review” for now, has also contributed to this greater flow of health and prosperity that is coming my way. 

Life truly is a mystery, and I don’t have all the answers by any means.  We each have to come up with the daily recipe for a healthy and happy life that works for us.  However, I do know that we are in a tremendous year for growth and change.  There is incredible spiritual energy and help available to all of us right now.  There is a window open and I encourage you to step through with me.  Open your arms to receive the love, joy and magnificent life that you deserve!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 9:26 am and is filed under Growing Your Business, Living Well with Change and Challenge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.