What is Your Relationship With Money?

Recently one of my clients, let's call her Sarah, was struggling with her relationship with money.

The way she felt about money had begun to show itself in some of her relationships. In fact, she had never addressed her relationship with money in a meaningful way until it started to affect some of her real-life relationships with people. Given that women thrive on connections and interactions with other people, it's not all too surprising that this is the place where we started to work on this topic - in the context of relationships.

So, we began working on pinpointing what exactly her beliefs were about money, and how they influence many aspects of her life, including her relationships.

For one of her exercises in between our sessions, I gave her an assignment to draw her beliefs and feelings about money. It didn't matter what materials she used, how big the paper was, or whether she used images from magazines - the important part was seeing her current money mindset in picture form.

Next, I had her write down all her beliefs about money.

You know, like the thoughts that many of us think are natural, such as "Only people who work 60 hours a week make money" or "I never feel like I'll have enough money." Many of these beliefs stem from our childhood, and we carry around these preconceptions about our ability to earn without even noticing them. By having Sarah recognize that many of her money beliefs are actually myths, she is regaining control of her earning potential and beginning to reshape her relationship with money.

What are some of your money beliefs? How can you start to move past them, and into a healthy relationship with the amount of money you'd like to earn?