History has it that the old rich and the new rich across many generations, go through experiencing money in cycles of poverty, survival, growth, abundance and then back to poverty. Almost like a vicious circle. The first generation that sees poverty is the most hungry to get out of it, get a roof on their head and provide for basic needs of the family. In this phase little things like one square meal a day, a blanket to keep you from the cold and having a roof over your head is all that the family is consumed with. A shift happens when one or two people in the generation take the lead and get the family into a better space financially.
Now this generation hands the baton to the next one who then runs the next mile of the race. Basic needs met, they now look for a better place to move into, a better house, a better locality and so on. When this growth is sustained for a period of time, they usually reach a tipping point where they leverage years of hard work, savings and knowledge that gets them to take a massive leap.
This is almost a rags to riches story that a lot of us have seen in some families at some point in our lives. Either we are them or we know one such family. Along this cycle of making and losing money, our cellular memory is recording all the experiences. As it is also recording our emotions through these phases, our levels of humility, compassion, our values, how we feel being poor or rich, our behaviour and our actions.
As money grows and fills our bank accounts, our needs also get bigger. As our material comforts increase, our spending on lifestyle increases too. The car we drive, the house we live in, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the places we travel to, even the people we hang out with and so on. Everything goes in for a massive upgrade. And this is what most people call success. ‘While this is a truth, it is not the truth, the complete truth’ – says Sidra Jafri. She lovingly adds – ‘When you start making more money in life become aware and check, if you possess your possessions or your possessions possess you.’
‘When you start making more money in life become aware and check, if you possess your possessions or your possessions possess you.’ – Sidra Jafri
This is an interesting perspective to consider and one that serves as a reality check. While cash funds dreams and makes our life comfortable, it is our choices from this point on that decide our destiny. Are our decisions to possess more steering us away from a quality life with loved ones? What are we doing with the extra money that is coming our way? Are we proportionately increasing our spends or are we giving more, since we are earning more?
Some people feel since they are giving more to charity and contributing to the society, they now have a right to splurge the remaining money precariously. As you grow your money, please grow your awareness around what it is you are doing with that money. Are you replacing your quality time with your children with expensive gadgets? Are you handing out expensive cars and not checking on your children’s spending habits, in the name of making them independent?
It is a great idea to make our children independent, but not before you hand over important values to them. Value transfer comes first. Only when you are convinced that your kids have imbibed those important values from you, is when you do the money transfer too. Most millennial parents who are the new rich, come from a space of over providing for their kids – saying, we didn’t have this comfort growing up, so we want to ensure we give it to our kids. While this is a great motivator for most of us to make more money, so we can provide a great life to our kids, the generational flip happens when we give them all that money can buy, but forget to give them all that money can’t buy – good values and belief systems.
Also to look more hip, rich and cool the new age rich have shifted their habits overnight. We have done away with some of our old values thinking it is uncool to have them anymore. They seem irrelevant in the new world order. Some of these may be – why walk, use the car wherever you go. Switch to luxury brands wherever possible. Why eat home cooked food all the time, eat out and be seen at the most swanky places in town. Being rich is becoming more about looking rich than feeling rich from within. We are living in the Swiggy age – where food is just a click away and nutrition is not a top priority for many. The results are there to see. Years of eating junk food has landed us with diabetes, blood pressure and a whole bottle of medicines on our bedside. FOMO and social media addiction are compelling us to have a good reel life, without bothering about our real life and how we truly feel deep inside.
The question that comes to mind – ‘Is making more money – a boon or a bane?’
If the increase in money flow from you to the next generation is coupled with value flow, then this is a boon. If not, you are contributing to the fall of the next generation, who won’t know how to use all the money in the right way, will be possessed by the material they have, and they will keep searching for more and more and more of material in their hunger to feel better and happy.
In the principles of Awakening Sidra tells us about the 3 important aspects of money – befriending money, respecting money and appreciating money. When the money flow increases, ensuring we respect its presence in our life is imperative. Sidra says – ‘Respect where you spend the money and stop abusing it.’ Abusing it would mean to spend your money on experiences that only numb your senses further – excess of alcohol, substance or excessive hoarding of clothes, jewellery, buildings and so on. Remember when we go on an overdrive with any of our possessions is when our possessions have more control over us. The more we accumulate the less content we feel. That is because contentment does not come from money and material possessions alone. It comes from having a healthy balance of the right values and beliefs around making more money and truly upgrading the blueprint of our entire generation.
Sidra invites us to be that light worker in our family matrix – the one who with awareness shows the way to receive more money and appreciate the money we have by putting it to the right use. Money at a core level is an energy. And we know that everything is energy. What we put out there is what comes back to us. If we put our money out there in the right places with the right attitude of appreciation and respect, it will grow the flow of good money for generations to come, both for you and for all the places you have directed the money you make. If you are directing your money towards addictions and accumulation, consider changing the flow towards contribution and rechecking your list of needs. Directing the flow of money towards the right places, releases us from a life of depression and sets us on the path to live a life of fulfillment. It is a choice for us to make. A choice that will affect us and our generations to come. What will you choose?
Through our money consciousness workshops we help individuals become aware of their money blueprint, create a shift towards a financially abundant life and upgrade their cellular memory. Click here to know more.
