Have you ever had times when you don’t feel so crash hot and would prefer to be feeling better? At times when you get into that place do you ever find it easy to stay there or hard to climb out of it?

How do you feel when you think about your money or certain aspects of it? Do you feel good about it? Would you prefer to feel better about it? Do you have a belief that you will feel better when some event occurs (like earning more money, paying off your credit card, or finally starting to save)? 

Do you have a choice on how you feel?
I have to admit. When I am in a foul mood the last thing I want is some positive psychology guru (or wannabe guru) telling me that I need to change the way I am thinking to change the way I feel. 

Sometimes I want to choose to wallow in it a little longer thank you very much.

But when I am good and ready, I know that the only way to feel better is to change what I am focusing on. I know this. But why do I sometimes resist it?

I guess it comes down to free choice. 

At times:

• it can be downright addictive staying in a negative space, staying in the victim mode,
  
• it just seems to take too much mental strength to think my way to a better feeling state, 
• outside factors can be used as a reason to stay in a negative space, and
• sometimes it even feels “useful” to acknowledge and feel into the negativity for a little while.

“Blaming” outside factors 
Since Mum died in particular I have found that all of the above factors have played a role, particularly the last three.

As a grieving daughter I often felt: 

• like I didn’t have enough strength to think myself happy, 
• like my Mum’s death and the circumstances surrounding it was justification to stay in a negative feeling place, and
• that it was useful to stay with the negative emotions, as if that was somehow helping me “process” what had happened.

What I have learned is there is no right or wrong with this. It comes down to knowing for myself when the time is right for me to start my shift in thinking.

What does this have to do with money?
 In my past life as a Financial Planner I had to make long disclaimers often to cover my ass and the company’s ass from being sued.

I have recently started to add this disclaimer to my one on one and group work: “I can’t help you with your money without accidentally, incidentally helping you with other areas of your life because it is all interrelated. If you want someone to help you just with your money find someone else because I am not the right person.”

I make this point because the idea that we can move - when we are good and ready - to a better feeling place about our money is the same as moving to a better feeling place regarding any aspect of life and the world as we know it.

Start with the general
I know that it can feel bad when you go through a breakup, a redundancy, financial struggles, and the death of a loved one. Believe me I know because I went through all of these in the past couple of years.

And sometimes it can be really hard to see the gift, the blessing, the universal wisdom and perfection in these events which can cause so much pain in our lives.

And sometimes it can also be difficult to see the perfection and divine order in the regular, run of the mill, day to day stresses and struggles.

So when you just can’t see how everything that is specifically happening to you right now is perfect, it may be more useful to pull back, look at things more globally or universally.

Albert Einstein has been quoted as saying “The most important question a person can ask is, "Is the Universe a friendly place?”

If you can answer yes to this question, or even be open to the possibility of this being true, you may start to feel a little better about how the “universe” is dealing you your hand.

Would a friendly universe “punish” you?
A friendly universe wouldn’t punish you would it? It wouldn’t give you anything you can’t handle. 

What would a friendly universe do? 

• Would it steer you towards your path of highest good?
• Would it create circumstances that allow you to learn lessons that serve your soul?
• Would it stir the pot to help you avoid falling into a life of routine and mediocrity? 

When you are ready to start feeling better, and find you can entertain the possibility that the universe is friendly, you may start to see how even the most painful events are perfect for your soul’s evolution. 

You may start to see how any events or circumstances that have caused you pain all have great blessings attached to them. You may even begin to see how you are exactly where you need to be.

There is no question that when your finances are in good working order they can support you in your life and help you live your purpose. 

If there is anything I can do to help you to get your finances in better working order, to feel better about your finances or to support you in living your purpose please contact me.

To your happiness and harmony,


Susan Broughton
Journey to Abundance
© 2013
www.journeytoabundance.com.au  

Can you imagine anything worse than a Financial Planner signing up for unemployment government support?  Can you imagine anything more scandalous than a Financial Planner operating from prison?

Well as it turns out - and I have this on good authority- that there is an ex-Financial Planner in Perth who signed up for Centrelink and who now operates from prison.

How can I be so sure of this? Because that ex-Financial Planner is me!

What the!?!?
I must confess the day I first walked into the Centrelink Office to apply for the New Start Allowance I was so frightened that I would be spotted by former co-workers or ex-clients. 

I was so ashamed and judging of myself. I was dreading what others might think of me.

How had my life come to this? I wondered. 

There is so much stigma around asking for help. I always considered myself the “type of person” who would be able to take care of herself. Too proud to ever take a handout.

Yet there I was, with my hand out, asking for help, and learning to become willing to receive it.

How did it come to this?
I could blame the fact that I was made redundant. I could blame the economy. I could say it is the financial planning industry’s fault for no longer being an industry I wanted to work in.

But the truth is it was me. I needed help because of the choices I had made. I wouldn’t say mistakes, but I had made some choices...

I didn’t want to work as a Financial Planner anymore. I didn’t see it as a future for me. I was exhausted walking a path that was not my own. I felt like I was pretending. I was trying to sell something to clients that I didn’t truly believe in. The ways I was truly helping clients, the things that felt the most rewarding to me, didn't really fit into the financial planning mould.

A friend of mine let me know about a government program call the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme (NEIS) which allows “eligible job seekers” to get support in starting their own business. The help was there for me, if only I was willing to take it.

Take the help Susan
So here I was, a former Certified Financial Planner, someone who graduated university at the top of her class, signing up for government assistance!

The stigma I had to deal with (that I mostly created in my own mind) was tremendous. Yet it seemed to me crazy (and not very abundant) to refuse the help that was available to me.

There were some great lessons here for me about receiving and also about putting aside self judgement and judgement of the way the support was showing up.  

So I said yes to that support and from there Journey to Abundance was born.

Where does the prison come in?
The NEIS program involved me getting a Certificate III in Micro Business Operations along with help creating my business plan and 12 months of mentorship.

I was blessed to receive help from the award winning trainer at Business Foundations in Fremantle which is conveniently located in part of what used to be the Fremantle Prison.

They also provide business incubator offices and I snagged a great “cell” on the ground floor which I have done up beautifully. It “smells like purple”.

The irony is that I have created a life that I am so much happier living, in which I feel so much freedom and in which I get to help women achieve a greater sense of freedom and joy - and I do it from the prison!

I guess you could consider my business a NEIS success story given that I completed the program at the end of March and my business made it through the critical first year. To me this is huge given what has happened in the last year (not the least of which was my Mum passing away back in Canada). 

I must admit that the first year in business is scary, there are so many challenges and there were so many times I questioned if I was doing the right thing. I can honestly say I don’t know if I would have made it through the first year without the training, support, mentorship and community that the Business Foundations provided.

Want to know more?
If you want more information about the NEIS program there is a big NEIS Expo at Business Foundations in the Fremantle prison on 30 April and it is free to attend. I am doing a little presentation on creating financial freedom on the day. Why not come along and check it out?

And if you want to know more about what I do in helping women create more freedom and empowerment in their lives feel free to contact me or check out this site.

To your happiness, freedom and harmony,


Susan Broughton
Journey to Abundance
© 2013
www.journeytoabundance.com.au  

Photo credit:
“Hands Holding Bars in Jail Stock Photo” image courtesy of “sakhorn38” (FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

I want to ask you something. When was the last time you challenged yourself? Can you remember it? Can you remember how you felt?

I mean a time you really challenged yourself. When just before you did something, you were on the line, thinking “I am not sure if I can do this”. And then you did it anyway

Can you remember the emotional journey? The feelings you had right before you did it, maybe fear, anxiety, or even terror.

And then what feelings did you feel in the moment that you did it? Maybe relief, exhilaration, or empowerment. 

Can you remember how you felt just after? All too often I think we move on without really celebrating the meeting of a challenge. 

Imagine we could live life like this
I am spending this week down south, on a personal retreat near Margaret River.

It is just me, alone, following my intuition on what I will do in any given moment. I am completely surrendering to what my body and soul needs.

Imagine we lived our lives like that more often? (I invite you to notice what you may be telling yourself after I ask that question. Without judgement. Just notice.)

This is a time for my healing, connection to myself and nature, and if creativity wants to happen, I am allowing it to happen.  I have no deadlines, no pressure and no fear...except for the fears I make up...see the next section for more on that.

(As a side note: I have been getting loads of ideas and inspirations about a way to help women explore their relationship with their money through archetypes or money “styles”, this is coming from my studies into the feminine, what it means to be a woman and rites of passage for women. I don’t know where that is all going. Will that be my first “real” book? My next workshop? I don’t know yet.)

My terrifying challenge
I was driving back to the retreat yesterday after picking up some food in town. Something told me to turn south rather than north when I got to Caves Road.

Next thing you know I am about 10 kms south pulling into the entrance to the parking lot for Calgardup Cave which is a self guided cave - you don't have to go on a tour with a guide. I paid my fee. They gave me a helmet, a flashlight and a quick briefing. 

The lady suggested I walk all the way to the end of the cave, about 150 meters in and about 27 metres deep, turn off my light and just sit there. She's said "I do it all the time." and "Some time I would love to sleep there."

Above ground, looking at her gorgeous, brave face I thought to myself “too easy” and “how empowering”. And off I went on my merry way to experience the cave in all its glory.

Too easy?
I think a lot of things in life seem easy in "the light of day" and with others around to support us. Or they seem easy in theory but not so much in practice. 

In the cave there was no daylight, nobody to hold my hand and encourage me. In the cave I had only my flashlight and myself to rely on. 

I quickly realised, as I descended into the depths of the cave, that this was not going to be easy for me. I was thinking to myself “you are the girl who used to be afraid to get up in the dark and go pee in the middle of the night”.

Sleep here? I was thinking "yeah right".

I went as far as I could manage, which was not far at all, to where you only just started to need a flashlight to see, and had a full on panic attack. I pulled back. Retreated to where there was more natural light and sat on a bench, catching my breath and feeling my heart pounding in my chest.

I know it is important to discern the difference between fear and intuition. My fear was saying "run out" and my intuition was saying "you need this".

But, was I going to be able to do it?

A flash of hope and courage
Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is feeling fear and doing it anyway.

As I sat there plucking up my courage I saw a flash in the cave. I realised the couple who I had seen earlier were in the cave. I decided to make my move.

I headed deeper in the cave towards the couple. I passed them as they were making their way out of the depths. The man pulled to the side of the narrow platform to make way for me. As I passed I said “thank you for being here to make it less scary”. What is the lesson here about sometimes needing to find a little something to draw strength from?

They continued their way out of the cave and I continued my way in. I walked up, down and along the slippery cave steps and platform holding tight to the cold, damp, metal railings.


I don’t know where the courage and resolve came from, maybe from actually knowing it was safe, even as my fear told me “run out” or maybe from having faced scary things in my life before like speaking at my Mum’s funeral. 

So I did it, I descended deep into the cave, deep into my fear.

Afraid to “go within”
I made it all the way in. The couple was now long gone and I was all alone. I sat on the bench at the end of the platform. And before I could loose my nerve I turned off my flashlight and just sat in the darkness.

Listening to the silence. 
Listening to the stillness. 
Listening to the darkness.

As I sat there I realised it was only what I was making up that I was afraid of. It was only my imagination that I had to fear, no real threat was causing my reaction. 

My fear was what I was making up. I didn’t “conquer” my fear. I went into my fear. I went within. In sitting in that cave I was sitting with myself. I was looking inside myself.

And there really wasn’t anything to fear at all. In that moment, I was so overcome with emotion about what I had realised, about the strength this represented to me, about being willing and able to trust myself to be okay even when I feel that degree of fear.

And in the darkness I feel like a piece of me healed from my Mum’s death as well.

And I cried.

The cave is the feminine
You may think of women as warm and nurturing. And they certainly are that.

In the yin and yang symbol, the yin represents the feminine. It also represents the dark, the cold, the silent and the still. The cave represents the feminine.

I realised that I was afraid not only of the dark but also I was afraid to go that deeply into myself. To go that deeply into my own feminine. 

There is an incredible amount of strength in the feminine. I connected to the strength, deep inside the cave, deep inside myself.

I know that all women have that potential inside them as well and I long to see all of us express this more in the world.

In the comments section below please share a time when you really challenged yourself. What did you learn about yourself in the process?

To your happiness, feminine strength and harmony,


Susan Broughton
Journey to Abundance
© 2013
www.journeytoabundance.com.au  

I am going to go out on a limb and assume that if you have read any of my other blog posts or my eBook you may already be well aware that I write about the things that I need to learn about. 

And this post is no exception.

One of the “7 Mistakes Women Make With Their Money” is about giving away our power and not taking our income or income potential seriously. One of the ways we give away our power is by not valuing ourselves as the amazing human beings we truly are.

I know that I continue to do this in some ways and I continue to bring awareness to this so that I can empower myself to make different choices. 

Recently I had my “consciousness raised” about this subject in a seemingly “totally-unrelated-to-money” kind of a way. Which drives home the point once again that our abundance lessons are to be found in all areas of life and it is worth keeping our eyes open and remaining curious to how we can learn these lessons.

What do kisses have to do with power?
I was recently in an “intimate situation” with a man. By that I mean we were sitting alone, talking...

He did something that was so sweet, so adorable and so unexpected that I found myself sitting up and taking notice.

What did he do you ask? 

He had taken my hand in his, our fingers were clasped, and he ever so sweetly brought my hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it.

You may be thinking, “big deal”? But it was a big deal to me and here’s why.

How something small can represent something huge
In the moment when he kissed my hand I thought “how sweet”. But that moment stayed with me. Somehow my mind had marked that tiny moment as significant and worthy of further reflection.

So upon further reflection I realised something. I realised that this sweet kiss was poignant to me simply because it was unexpected. It was not unexpected because I didn’t realise the man liked me, I did, it was unexpected because I didn’t expect a man to do something so sweet to me.

This is a big big big HUGE revelation to me.

Expectations can bring us down
It was a revelation to me because I realised that I wasn’t expecting a man to be so sweet to me. Put another way I was expecting a man to be less sweet. Put another way, and taking the thought to its end point, I was expecting a man to be more of an ass.

Yikes! Was I really expecting that!?!

This speaks volumes about how I expect to be treated, what kind of men I attract into my life AND what kind of behaviour I am willing to put up with.

(Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t been attracting and dating total losers or anything, but I was allowing myself to be treated as less than the amazing human being that I am...that we all are.)

The big lesson
Life is one big never ending classroom. We don't get to choose the lessons we are learning but we get to choose, to some extent, how we learn them...

The lesson here is that we attract into our lives the people, circumstance and events that reflect what we are putting out into the world. Often what we are putting out is outside of our awareness.

Sometimes things happen, little angels get sent to us, sometimes in the form of another human being, and gently, gently teach us what we need to learn.

If we don’t listen the lessons get louder and less gentle and the teachers can appear far less angelic.

So the lesson for me was that I was accepting, expecting and therefore attracting people, circumstances and events that were less than what I am worthy of. 

And, in case you aren’t already reading between the lines with this, it means I wasn’t valuing myself enough!

How to apply the lesson
We all have situations in our lives when we notice, in our own circumstances or other people’s, the ways we would like to be treated.

When we notice this it is a sign that there is a desire to be treated better. This can apply to any area of life from our romantic relationships, to our relationships with our family, friends and coworkers or clients.

We can all apply this lesson by asking “why am I not being treated the way I would like to be treated”? Why am I being treated in a way that is less than what I desire? 

Are you game enough to swallow the bitter pill?
It is a bitter pill to swallow because the answer is always “it’s me”, the answer is always “I am letting this happen, I created it, I am allowing it”.

(I know right now some of you are thinking, “I didn’t create it, that person is just an ass” but I urge you to look at what role you played in it, or what you need to learn from it because we are always co-creating.)

From there we can choose to:

• ignore the lesson, 
• feel bad about ourselves, or 
• (this is the recommended option) empower ourselves to make different choices in the future and to invite different experiences into our lives.
  

If reading this blog left you with a sense that you would like to understand more about how your inner world of valuing yourself can impact your outer world of money, click here to book your obligation free money dragon assessment. 

Please share your ideas, experiences or ah-ha moments regarding how you have learned to value yourself more in the comments section below so that other's can learn and grow from your sharing.

To your happiness, valuing your awesomeness and harmony,


Susan Broughton
Journey to Abundance
© 2013
www.journeytoabundance.com.au  

Photo credits:
“Loving couple holding hands” image courtesy of “imagarymagestic” (FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
“Blank Black chalkboard” image courtesy of “Grant Cochrane” (FreeDigitalPhotos.net) (words added)