Money Problems
“Old Brooke” as I kindly refer to as the version of me pre-life coaching used to obsess over money. I counted every nickel and felt a large void in my life when we didn’t have enough. It drove me to work even harder and budget even tighter to get ahead in the smallest of ways. It came from this place of scarcity. Constantly focused on what we DIDN’T have.
The money that wasn’t there
The new(er) car that wasn’t in the driveway
The bank account that didn’t have enough
The job that wasn’t paying enough
But I came to a point where things started shifting. The money didn’t change but something else did. I started noticing the things that WERE there.
The full fridge that always produced enough
The home that always kept us warm
The vehicle my husband could always fix
The new business opportunities that always popped up
I started to see all the things we DID have. I started to feel a sense of gratitude and with gratitude came much abundance.
Abundance allows our brain to feel free. To have a sense of trust and fullness in life. Where we believe enough in good things coming back to us that we don’t focus on whats not there.
If you think back to our wonderful ancestors that I refer to as “caveman times”. Think about how they were designed to operate. Our brain (as I refer to lower brain aka caveman brain) focused on three main objectives.
Seek Pleasure
Avoid Pain
Preserve Energy
Basically that lower brain is designed to keep us alive. It wants us to seek pleasure because it wants us to find food to survive, and find a mate to reproduce to keep our species alive.
It wants to avoid pain, for the obvious reasons to stay away from Lions, Tigers and anything that could cause us pain.
And lastly preserve energy. Just eat, reproduce, and stay alive.
So I’m explaining these concepts because I want you to think about scarcity and how that comes into play. Our brain LOOOVVEEESSS to point out when **DANGER DANGER there isn’t enough food for example. Or there isn’t enough time to run back to the cave before it gets dark and we could get hurt. Or think about a mate, there is only so many females to reproduce with we must find a mate and quickly before we lose our opportunity. (Okay this is getting a little out there, stay with me!)
But scarcity is a PRIME emotion that has kept our species alive and well for thousands of years. When scarcity comes up our brain thinks it is VERY important. It marks it with a big red flag.
That my friends is why we have money problems. Heck thats why we have LOTS of problems. Like why we don’t ever feel like we have enough time in the day, or why we get a little crazy when we see a FREE sign, even sleep (hello mommas of newborns) or when our gas tank is low, or this one you’ll love, our battery on our phone is low.
Our brain marks these circumstances at the TOP of the list as HIGH PRIORITY. But listen to me the amount of money we have in our bank account, or the things in our home and driveways does NOT dictate whether we have a life full of scarcity or abundance.
We can kindly remind our brain….. Brain, we have plenty of ________ (fill in the blank). You will start to notice when you are feeling a lack of (scarcity) or feeling a surplus of (abundance).
When I remind my brain of all the wonderful things we do have and truly believe that my life is full I feel a jolt of abundance. When I count every penny and have a detailed, oriented, alphabetically ordered budget it brings my brain into a full blown scarcity mode. It starts seeing money spent as a missed opportunity for everything else.
Keep noticing what your brain is producing for you. Tell that caveman brain that all is well, there is plenty. :)
