This year I got real with my money. I was lucky to have enough money from family during college, and had savings to travel with after school, but it wasn't until this year, in January 2014 that I made a commitment to start reaching my income goals.
I had been living in the angst of "Why am I not earning what I need?" "Where do I even start?" and "How can I ever pay my rent as a yoga teacher??"
I have always spent time taking care of myself through yoga, healthy eating, rest, and drinking lots of water, but when it came to my finances, I ignored them.
I rarely opened my credit card statements to read through the transactions, didn't look at my bank accounts except for when I took money out, I spent money freely, and hoped it would all just "work out" at the end of the month. Living this way added a lot of stress to my life - especially when things didn't "work out" and I had to use my savings or money from my parents.
After months of living in that game - I felt pretty crappy. I felt bad that I wasn't financially supporting myself, and that I couldn't live within the means of the money I was earning. What I began to see was:
Looking at your finances is just another form of self-care.
As yoga teachers, healers and coaches, sometimes we think we need to offer our gifts for free or donation-based in order to be of service. However:
You need to earn a good income to continue doing your great work. {tweet it}
If you're not able to pay your bills at the end of the month, and you have to go back to finding another job, you are not honoring your gifts, or the people who are coming to you for them.
What I've learned is:
If we choose to ignore our finances waiting for everything to “work out” then we:
- limit our potential
- our impact
- our ability to retire one day
- we’ll probably always have to rely on other people and
- we take away our freedom to make empowering choices for ourselves
BUT...
If we choose to take our finances into our own hands: we can live a life with:
- freedom
- empowerment and
- we can focus on how we want to give back and be of service to the world
This year I invested in myself in ways I never had before: I hired a coach, a photographer, and a web designer, I attended Marie Forleo's B-school, and I went on my first retreat. Every time I invested in my education and my business, I gained back huge amounts of knowledge (and income) in return.
In April of this year, I began meeting the monthly income goals I had never been able to meet before. I led my first group coaching program, I consistently gained new clients in my private practice and I even saved enough money to go on a trip to Hawaii.
I've been talking to other women, and clients who are in a similar position I was in: taking steps to take better care of themselves, but looking the other way when it comes to their finances. So, I decided to lead a teleclass series on this topic, to share all I've learned with you. I'm calling it, "Financial Alchemy: 3 Calls to Create a Money Mindset."
In this series of 3 free calls I'll be sharing:
- Practical tools to track income and expenses
- How to create a budget and save more money
- How to spend with awareness
- How to know and own your value AND
- Alchemical tips to earn more income in service to your passions
The first call is Wednesday, October 29 at 5 pm PST. You can sign up to receive the call info and recordings here.
Love, Meredith
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About the Author:
Meredith Rom is passionate about empowering women to embody their Divine Feminine presence and rise to new levels of financial abundance. She works with women one=on-one and in groups through yoga, online programs and writing
