My Quest for Abundance: Giving up Money for Frequency
As we vibrate higher can we better align with the frequency of money? How working harder may not be the primary way to experience abundance.
*For your listening pleasure there is also an audio version of this article read by the author. It may include a few sidebars ;)
Freshly updated in April 2024
What We Unknowingly Trade for Money
We often allow money to divert us from living life in alignment. We stay in jobs or relationships that don't serve. Invest in companies whose values we don't even know (or don't align with) for a return. What if there was another way to look at it all?
What if being in alignment with ourselves could bring us more money than trying to make money ever could?
I've traded a lot of things in my life for money. Physical health, free time, mental health, sleep, relationships, peace, ease, relaxation, inner wisdom, creativity, connection...and of course, vibrational frequency. As I write this and watch my money drain out like bathwater in the markets, or even while sitting in my bank account from inflation, I wonder if it was worth it.
Over a decade ago my friend Jen tiptoed in late in to our yoga teacher training and flopped down next me. Flopped is an exaggeration, more like floated. Everything about Jen was pixie-like. "Where were you?" I mouthed. She giggled and whispered, "I was doing real yoga."
After class she elaborated, hands fluttering, "I was sitting by my window, cold air just bathing my face, rain hitting my cheeks, and I just smiled up at the sky and thought, experiencing this moment is real yoga. Not learning about the poses."
Jen was one of my first introductions to questioning how I was living my life, and we'll come back to her in a bit.
Money Can Keep Your Soul From Expanding
Money means a lot of things to all of us. I let money stand for so much more than financial gain. Instead of working on building my inner resources I worked on gaining outer resources.
Money came to represent safety. Why work on inner safety when I can just buy my way in to a high rise building in a swanky neighborhood? It came to represent relationship security.
I formed a belief quite young that for a happy marriage you clearly just needed money. I very much wanted a happy relationship, so at 9 years old I set out to make money. (See what I did with that logic there, and how the stories we tell ourselves can take us down some unaligned paths?)
Money came to represent confidence. In my quest to reign supreme at work I often didn't have energy for creative pursuits (hello exhaustion).
Missing a supporting cast of other fulfilling elements in my life to gain confidence from, my self esteem mainly came from work prowess.
Money came to represent physical fitness and mental health. I had money to buy fancy work out classes, and therapy right? How would I be as fit and mentally healthy if I didn't have a job that payed so well?
Ease came from finding efficiencies at work that allowed me to take a lunch break while my co-workers forked salad in to their mouths at their desks, not building actual relaxation in to my life.
Many of us use money to plug holes in our life we would otherwise have to address. If that money is yanked away it exposes us for the Swiss cheese we are.
Where we use money to plug up insecurities and old wounds, we are able to delay developing the inner resources that could fill them. We don’t have to rework our belief structures, build our self identity around less obvious aspects of ourselves, or face certain fears.
Avoiding this work can keep us from becoming a high vibration person. We can stay the same and use money as a panacea for almost anything.
Inner Resources Cannot Be Stolen So Easily
Jen and I lived next to each other, and sometimes she'd be outside in the mornings on the lawn practicing handstands while I was shoving my laptop in to my car for work.
To be clear, Jen had a job. She just prioritized ease and flexible hours, where I prioritized challenge and pay. She'd flop over and wiggle her fingers at me, maybe blow a kiss. Sometimes I'd wonder if my 401K was worth it as I drove away leaving her barefoot in the sunshine.
Markets can abscond with outer resources, handfuls at a time, based on something as simple as the idea of a foreign conflict. Inner resources cannot be pilfered so easily. Once you build them they are your tools for life.
I've spent my life building outer resources, and in retrospect I'd like to march in to the department store of my past self and demand a refund.
I'd like my ease, relaxation, connection and sleep back please. I will hand you this money for it on the spot. I'd like more time to learn to be an excellent listener for friends, meditate on why it is I don't feel secure in the first place and think I need money to feel safe, or to see if I'm any good at painting.
“Some people are so poor all they have is money.” ~Bob Marley
What Does This Have to Do With Vibrational Frequency?
I'm rolling around the idea that what if money is a symptom? What if we are chasing a symptom of something greater to be achieved, when we could be going for the root cause and getting so much more?
What if there are multiple ways to get money?
1.) Hard work and draining our personal battery to earn money
2.) Money moving toward us as a symptom of alignment
If we’re always chasing money from a place of fear we are potentially missing the bigger picture that money can start to move toward us when we are aligned with ourselves.
What do I mean by alignment? Strong alignment with self is one of the most powerful ways to raise your vibration. Let me give you an example using investing. We can invest in companies we don't align with just to make money.
Think of a health guru investing in Coca-Cola as a defensive stock. Or a member of Greenpeace investing in Shell Oil. Nothing wrong with it, but inside these people something may feel a bit ick when they hit the "Buy" button.
That ick is a sign of non-alignment. Investing for alignment would be picking companies to invest with that we align with. Think a decentralization enthusiast investing in Cardano. Companies you'd go down with the ship supporting. If the market absolutely bottoms out you could still feel good with your choice.
That is alignment.
One of the reasons crypto currencies may be so popular is they offer a new set of values for investors. Some are in them starry eyed for the returns, and some have finally found a home for their values where they can place their money. Alignment.
What if We Focused on Alignment to Get Money?
My view is we can use a stock portfolio as a tool to powerfully align with ourselves (root cause) and it can be worth more than using it with the sole intention of making money (symptom). Making money may pay dividends in the short term, but the damage in valuing money over alignment may hurt us long term.
In my theory, we may make more long term from being aligned- even if the money doesn't come from the stock portfolio itself.
The more we align with ourselves, and reflect in our actions what we value and feel inside, we vibrate higher and strengthen our frequency. This alignment can happen through a stock portfolio. It can happen if we have the courage to say we aren't doing well when a friend asks, instead of plastering a fake smile and murmuring, "Fine thanks, how are you?"
When our vibrational frequency is enhanced, abundance flows to us; without us even needing to use up our own internal battery to get it.
It would be interesting to see what would happen if people focused more on alignment than making money. I bet companies receiving support would shift. Niches that are profitable for entrepreneurs would likely change, and creations from these companies could be based on different values.
We'd be stepping in to Gandhi's words, "Be the change you wish to see in the world."
Change really does come from inside us, transmuting to become form in the outer world. When we act out our hearts in the world there's a mighty force in that.
Lessons from Dancing in the Rain
One night Jen and I danced in the rain. Just like a teen movie. It was even after a heartbreak of mine. It was April and the tree branches were heavy with cherry blossoms. We'd just left an art gallery exhibition, and were singing, "Happy" by Pharrell Williams in the car. Clapping along as she attempted to cheer me up.
The rain started to pound on the roof; she grabbed my arm with her impish grin and tugged, "C'mon!" and bolted from the car. I followed her laughing, flicking off my shoes. We even spun some cartwheels, the full moon barely able to keep itself afloat in the sky, as our soaking hair started to spin off droplets as we moved.
"Money and women. They're two of the strongest things in the world. The things you do for a woman you wouldn't do for anyone else. Same with money." ~Satchel Paige
Did I ever feel good working so much my neck was constantly tense? No. Did I feel good rushing around eating oatmeal with powered peanut butter while putting on mascara in the morning? No. Not having energy to answer personal calls after work because I needed to save my energy for a call with China? No.
I adored my wicked smart colleagues, but I wish I would have listened, and deeply understand, the example Jen was setting for me.
There's a balance between realistically needing money to pay for stuff, and being mindful of if we give up our alignment to make it. I'm not saying we can pay our bills with hugs. However, I’m starting to consider we may not be aware of what we are giving up (or the low vibration state we’re putting ourselves in) when we do things we don't align with for money.
I've finally listened and left my job to explore my ideas about how to increase vibrational frequency. I tried to come up with a plan before leaving, but didn't have the energy for it alongside my regular tasks. I realized I'd just have to leave and trust I would figure it out.
I'm testing my own hypothesis, and want to see if I can earn money using alignment instead of sweat this next time around. I'm writing this article because I like to write, not because I see a clear path to money by writing.
Jen passed away in 2018, not even 40 years old, from a cancer that took her within months. She was traveling through India when she found out she was sick. Thank goodness she knew how to live, since she didn't have the luxury of time most of us hope for. Her last Facebook post was a quote from David Bowie, "I don't know where I'm going from here, but I promise it won't be boring."
It's with that quote in my heart that I start this journey of figuring out how to raise my vibration that I'll share with you dear reader. I want to believe there's a better way to attain the experiences we want in life without working so damn hard.
The good news is, you don't need to quit your job to see if this theory plays out. You can watch me. I just sold a bunch of ETFs because while I aligned with the investments in them, I don't choose to support the company administering them.
I'm not willing to trade my alignment for money anymore. I'm going to give alignment and amplifying my vibrational frequency a try, because hard work doesn't feel sustainable if I'm not willing to trade my health and relationships.
I'm not saying there's no place for sweat equity. There's virtue in a good day's work. I just don't want it to be the only sharp tool in my life success arsenal anymore. I welcome all good wishes you want to send my way. I'm probably going to need them.
This post is dedicated with so much LOVE to my beautiful friend Jennifer Turnquist (below). The only person I've ever danced in the rain with.
You can find the unofficial second installment in this series on money and vibrational frequency here, or my website here.