How to Develop the Feeling of Wealth
Figures on an income statement do not determine wealth. You can be rich when you’re poor and poor when you’re rich. The truly wealthy person recognizes that all her needs are met in lavish abundance.
How to Know If You Have True Wealth
The mental state of the truly wealthy person keeps her in right relationship with the universe. Her heart and mind remain eternally receptive to absolute good. So-called negative appearances do not move her because she knows that all is well no matter what appears.
People are not born believing themselves to be poor. They must be taught that they are poor. They must be taught to look at external conditions as indicators of their level of wealth. Think about it. How often have you heard someone say, “I grew up with nothing but I never felt poor?”
In truth, only the feeling in your own heart and mind can tell you whether you have true wealth.
Feeling is the Key to True Wealth
The feelings we entertain set up a vibration in our souls. That vibration then draws to us certain people, places, experiences and things. It controls what we see when we observe the world around us. It colors our experience from top to bottom. Even if the way we see it is not the true picture, the mental vibration in which we operate will keep us from seeing what may be obvious to someone else.
Joseph said, “The feeling of wealth produces wealth; the feeling of poverty produces poverty.” Feeling is the key to true wealth.
When you consider the way our current economic system is set up, this truth carries grave implications. Our current economic system is “based on artificial lack and rampant, unsatisfying consumerism. It can never give us what we really want. One of its key tenets, in fact, is to encourage us to seek things we already have. To keep the economy growing…we’ve been forced to monetize all the gifts we were given coming in…things like health, water, entertainment, food” (Thank and Grow Rich).
Release the Mental Blocks that Keep You From Feeling Wealthy
In order to develop the feeling that allows true wealth, you must discard several premises that the current economic system wants you to believe (drawn from Grout’s Thank and Grow Rich):
- “That we face an indifferent universe.” In truth, the universe is biased toward your success. The universe has a vested interested in your success and seeks to support your expansion in whatever direction you choose to move in.
- “That there’s scarcity and lack.” We really do have all that we need. Everything on the planet has been provided with an abundance of all that it needs to thrive and prosper. Because Spirit cannot change, this principle of lavish supply applies to you and me, too.
- “That we’re separate.” Paul gives it to us pretty clearly in Ephesians 4:4–6 “There is one body and one Spirit…one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” In short, the one indwelling Presence connects inseparably each of us to one another.
- “That our purpose in life is to value things that just don’t matter.” Let us reclaim our right to define what makes us happy. Every day all day we are bombarded with messages of what constitutes true happiness. This steady drip on our souls by the media companies has convinced us that we couldn’t possibly be happy unless we consume the things they want us to consume. In truth, we can say “No!” to that.
Cultivate an Inner Feeling of Wealth
In Thank and Grow Rich, Grout identifies five different ways that you can rev up the feeling of wealth within you. She speaks of them as types of capital.
I appreciate this material so much! Every spiritual teacher I’ve studied from Neville Goddard to Joseph Murphy to Rev. Ike to my own spiritual mother, Rev. Della teach that feeling is the key to demonstration.
But none of them explained how. Do you speak your affirmations really loudly? Do you pray really, really hard? Do you jump up and down like Tony Robbins? What if that’s not your personality? How do you stir up the gift and keep it stirred up?
More importantly, how do you cultivate an inner feeling of wealth when the outer picture shows you something different? How do you feel wealthy when you cannot pay your bills? How can you keep the feeling of wealth alive when you cannot purchase something that you really need? What about those moments when you want to do more for your family but cannot?
Grout lays out a 5-step investment plan for cultivating an inner feeling of wealth no matter what your life looks like.
Invest Your Alchemic Capital
As she explains, this type of capital is “the capital of change, of evolution. Specifically, it’s where you tap into your own inner magic, using it to effect change. In yourself. In the collective conscious. In the universe.”
Your ability to change yourself holds enormous potential for lifting your energy. Adding a little color to your hair. Putting on a bright nail polish. Bringing in a splash of color to your daily wardrobe. Or…beginning an exercise regimen that takes off several inches and plenty of pounds. Tapping into your alchemic capital is excellent medicine if you find yourself in a rut.
But, the real wealth can be found in making inner changes. I am a HUGE proponent of the “slight edge” philosophy as taught by Jeff Olson. I often look for little things that I can do on a daily basis that don’t seem to make much difference in the short term. Over time, though, those little daily actions become like an avalanche of good that nothing can stop. For example, what if everyday — for only 10 minutes — you read a portion of the biography of a great person of history?
Invest Your Spiritual Capital
Y’all already know I believe that your relationship to Spirit is THE most important thing you can do. I believe that what we experience is a direct reflection of what we believe about God. Not what we say we believe…but what we actually believe. In other words, our lives serve as an unfailing witness to our deepest held beliefs about the universe (Spirit) and how it works.
We just completed a powerful series on prayer using Catherine Ponder’s The Prospering Power of Prayer and Hypatia Hasbrouck’s Handbook of Positive Prayer. I created a playlist with the videos from those lessons.
I believe that we do not change ourselves so much as we get in touch with the Spirit that indwells us and that contact changes us. Prayer, then, is our only method for accessing the Spirit. In the absence of prayer, we are left to show up for life the way we’ve always shown up for life.
Making the choice to invest your spiritual capital is the single most important thing you can do. Period.
Invest Your Creative Capital
Our differences make us special. So, bring your creativity to everything you do. No one can do what you can do the way that you do it. Make a point to find and celebrate the unique ways that Spirit flows through you into expression.
What is the thing you do that makes your soul sing? For me, that is teaching. When I teach, I experience an emotional high like nothing else. You know how people joke that a great singer could sing the phone book and it would be awesome. That’s how teaching is for me.
You have something like that. When you do it, it taps into something primal within your soul. You experience a euphoria that nothing else can match. In the book, Grout tells the story of Kevin Costner discovering his love for acting. The thing that stood out in the story was Kevin’s admission that he didn’t care to improve in accounting (his then course of study). But when he found acting, he found something he wanted to grow in and get better at.
What’s that thing you want to grow in and get better at? That’s where you invest your creative capital.
Invest Your Adventure Capital
“…adventures don’t just happen on treks in the Himalayas or at Burning Man. They happen anytime you consciously choose to step into an unfamiliar place. To shake things up a bit. It can be something simple like taking a different route to work, trying a new dish on the menu, or simply saying ‘yes’ to something to which you normally say ‘no.’”
Everything you experience influences how you express the light that indwells you. It starts with an impact on the thoughts you think. Those thoughts control the words you speak. Your words, then, direct the actions you take. And, of course, the actions you take determine the destiny you manifest.
Every new museum you visit, work of art you explore, or trail you hike touches you in ways that shift how you see yourself and the world. Now that you know so much is at stake, won’t you make a deliberate choice to include a little adventure in every day?
Invest Your Social Capital
“Social capital means having a team to cheer you on and, when asked, to participate in your crazy schemes.” We make our lives richer through the time we spend with good friends. Make an effort to cultivate lasting friendships with people you enjoy being around.
Researchers at Harvard University recently completed the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which may be the longest study of adult life that’s ever been done. For 75 years, they tracked the lives of 724 men year after year, asking about their work, their homes lives, their health, and of course, asking all along the way without knowing how their life stories were going to turn out.
The study looked at men from various social positions — from the wealthiest to the poorest. Here’s what they found: The thing that determined whether someone grew into a happy, older person is “how satisfied they were in their relationships…The people who were the most satisfied in their relationships at age 50 were the healthiest at age 80.” In short: “the good life is built with good relationships.”
My Call to Action for You
Now I want to challenge you to invest in your portfolio. You now have the tools to rev up the feeling of wealth inside yourself. How to produce a feeling of wealth is no longer a question. The next question is will you? Will you make the effort to cultivate the feeling of wealth inside of you and change your life at depth?
In the comments below, name at least one thing for each area of capital that you plan to do to invest in yourself. Be specific. As my good friend, Rev. Gaylon McDowell always says, “You must be definite with the Infinite.”
Richest blessings!
