Last week, I needed to review and submit my taxes—and as always, it was a nerve-wracking experience. I’m self-employed, and was worried that I didn’t plan carefully enough or that I didn’t keep good track of my income and expenses—and feared I’d owe much more than anticipated. Fortunately, I did plan appropriately and there were no surprises this year, and I was relieved. But I still felt annoyed that I even have to think so much about money.
We all have a difficult relationship to money. You might be struggling to earn enough to pay for rent or even food, and feeling hopeless or worried. You might have a wonderful job that pays you plenty—and yet you feel you don’t have enough or you should be earning more. Money symbolizes so much in our culture—power, status, freedom—and yet the truth is that money is just a means to get the material goods that we need to survive. It’s not the only determinant of our success, value, or wealth—in fact, it’s the least important. Far more valuable are our wisdom, kindness, good sense, and our connections with other living beings.
This meditation will help you recognize what you have and allow you to bring some ease to your worries, insecurities, and greed. You’ll pay attention to your support and resources, as well as your inherent beautiful qualities, and practice giving to yourself and others. We’ll use these metta phrases:
May I/you/we be open to the uncertainty of life.
May I/you/we allow myself to give to myself and others.
And we’ll take inspiration from this pith instruction:
"When we feel unhappy, when we feel inadequate, we get stingy; we hold on tight. Generosity is an activity that loosens us up. By offering whatever we can — a dollar, a flower, a word of encouragement — we are training in letting go.”
—Pema Chödrön, The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times
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