ABUN-DANCE: ACCESSING A TREASURE FILLED KINGDOM
Years ago, on a trip to Cambodia with my meditation teacher, he asked me how much money I had in my wallet. I told him $145. He said, "Can I borrow it?" I hesitated, cleared my throat, looked down and grumbled with a fake smile, "Sure!" I placed it in his hands and he opened the window of the tour bus and threw it out on to a dusty Cambodian road. I gasped and he said. "Why let that worry you? It's energy. Let it flow in and let it flow out. Doesn't it make you happy that someone is going to find that in a few minutes?" After some thought, I actually felt overjoyed and relieved.
What about you? Do you have a healthy, happy relationship to money? What does it mean to you, and how does it influence your life? Money can turn the sanest people into neurotic fools. We have so much tied into it, but what is it really?
It was the experience with my meditation teacher that opened my eyes to my complicated and peculiar relationship to money. As a workshop leader, I use dance and movement as a tool for personal and professional exploration. So it was natural for me to incorporate this knowledge into my investigation of our relationship to money.
I have noticed that people will talk about absolutely anything, except their financial status. From my students, I have heard the most intimate details of their sexual exploits, but never a peep about the most controversial and button-pushing subject of all time: MONEY. Why is that? What is money? What does it mean to our survival? What is the difference between abundance and prosperity? If a person doesn’t have enough money to freely donate to a cause like Forest fire disaster relief, can they say they live comfortably? Can a person live in comfort when their neighbour lives in ruin or in poverty?
The money/body workshop isn't a get rich quick scheme. It's a movement meditation workshop where we explore the meaning of Abundance, Prosperity, Wealth and Well Being. We will use music and movement to explore the 8 money archetypes: The Victim, The Innocent, The Warrior, The Martyr, The Fool, The Artist, The Tyrant, and The Magician. The body reveals all truths. It is the instrument and the container of our stories. Although some of my students have cleared blockages and created greater abundance in their lives, that is not our intention. The backbone of this exploration is movement and mindfulness, which cultivate an open mind, grounded body and a heart of generosity. Kinesthetic learning is an entry point to understanding our complex relationship to money. When we unravel the inner money archetypes, a treasure-filled kingdom is revealed.