How to solve the problem of money
Let's focus on how to solve the problem of money. In fact, the reasons mentioned before have seen the answer, to solve the problem of money, the first thing to do is to eliminate the mentality of scarcity, recognize that scarcity is an illusion, but also eliminate the mentality of the more the better, stop the pursuit and grasping of money.
The chase and grab of money is also a state of mind of want and fear, and the logic behind it is very simple: if you believe that everything is enough, you have no interest in chasing and grabbing anymore. We can often see our own heart through our subconscious behavior. According to the law of "mentality creates reality", the mentality of scarcity will create the reality of scarcity. It is not directly related to the amount of money, even if in reality you have a lot of money, as long as you have a lack of mentality, you will still experience the experience of lack. For example, some people suddenly speculate in stocks with serious losses, or do not do business smoothly, and there are problems with capital turnover.
(Cultivating the mind is all about a preoccupied mentality, and if the mentality is not right, the reality is not right.) On the contrary, the more the mentality is right, the more the reality is right. ）
Without guidance, or without experiencing some major setbacks in life, we often don't easily think our money is enough. We have countless reasons to be short of money, and therefore we firmly believe that we are short of money, so we continue to experience the reality of lack of money. It's a vicious circle of creative mode. Some friends say that you are not wrong to say these things, but it is also useless. If I'm really experiencing scarcity, I can't possibly lie to myself into believing that I have enough.
If a friend has experienced a minimalist lifestyle, I believe they will have a deeper understanding of this aspect. There are not many resources needed for a person to survive. A little food, clothes, a place to sleep, some supplies for travel, basically enough, that's what we really needed. Many times we consume for all kinds of desires, which are the pursuit of more, better and more advanced.
In this regard, I will share some of my own experiences and insights. In the first few months of my job, we were still in an internship, and the salary was only 2500 yuan, and we had to rent our own house. In order to reduce the burden, three of our colleagues rented a room together, while also cooking and eating by ourselves. After receiving the salary, we removed all the expenses, and we still had 1,000 yuan left at that time. The 1,000 yuan is completely at your own disposal. I don't know what other people think, but when I owned the 1,000 bucks, I felt like a rich man who owned so much pocket money for the first time in my life. Of course, I will not spend all this money. We occasionally go out for a barbecue and a beer and we feel very satisfied, and what I experienced during that time was a kind of abundance mentality from the heart.
Later, we became regular employees and our salary doubled, but I felt a lot of scarcity. The surrounding environment of the place where we used to live was not very good, which affected our rest. We felt that the increase in wages could improve our lives, and we moved from the urban village to the middle and high-end residential housing, and the rent expenditure suddenly increased a lot. We also have to pay two or three months' rent upfront, and although the money can be returned to us at check-out, it is not so easy for us to come up with so much money at once. During that time, we also needed to use credit cards to spend, so we didn't run out of money to spend, but the feeling of lack was very strong.
After experiencing these days, I never had the initial sense of abundance in the five years I worked. My deposit number will not exceed thirty thousand yuan at the highest, and once it is exceeded, it will flow away in various ways, sometimes friends borrow money, sometimes physical health expenditures, sometimes friends come to me to find a job, and I can afford some of his living expenses. During those years, my deposit numbers often hovered at more than ten thousand. Based on my monthly income, this situation is really not very optimistic. When I had a girlfriend, I spent more money, almost moonlight. Maybe everyone will also have this experience, when you first work, the salary is relatively low, but you can still save money. After the salary increase, the expenses in all aspects are more, but instead I experience a sense of scarcity, and in reality, there is a situation where money is constantly flowing away.
In my early days, at a departmental dinner, our leaders said this. When the salary was still small, we still had a sense of abundance, and we still had some money left every month. After the increase in wages, our various desires open gaps, and instead experience a strong sense of scarcity. Therefore, scarcity and abundance are not determined by how much money is, it is a balanced state of money. Because we want to experience something higher and better, this chasing of separation upsets our inner balance. If separation is not eliminated, our desires will only rise endlessly. No matter how much money we have, our desire to spend will exceed our existing ability to spend money, resulting in scarcity.
This is also what has just been said, the key to the problem of money is to eliminate the sense of scarcity and stop the pursuit of money. If we realize that we have enough, we have a feeling of abundance in our hearts and we will experience an abundance of life. It has nothing to do with having more money or less money, it is just feeling that everything you need is enough.
An old colleague I used to share a room with later became the boss and became what we saw as rich people. There was a time when he often did something in the circle of friends that we thought was a show of wealth. For example, he is struggling with which Arowana to buy, and each of these fish is over 10,000 yuan. Sometimes he also expressed his feelings in the circle of friends, saying that which brand of cigar tasted better, and he did not have the habit of smoking before. When I meditated, I saw clearly that this was a chase for the separation of money. Maybe this is the standard in the circle of rich people, but these things are certainly not the necessities of life, which I believe everyone will agree.
Later, we teased him in the group chat, saying that he ate mountain and seafood every day. Old colleagues said that his favorite thing to eat is pickles with white porridge, those so-called mountain treasures and seafood are actually very greasy to eat, and if you eat too much, you will not feel delicious. On that point I believe he is not showing off, but it is the case. I went to the countryside to work for a while the year before, and there were more than a dozen opportunities to eat out for dinner in those months. At first, I did think it was a kind of enjoyment, but I really felt very tired of eating too much. Later, I even felt that eating out became a kind of socializing, a burden, really not as comfortable and delicious as making a bowl of egg soup noodles at home.
Material satisfaction doesn't last long, and it doesn't necessarily bring you real happiness. Let me give you some examples: When you buy a premium console, it may not be as happy as if you were playing a favorite game with friends in an Internet café. When you buy an e-reader, it may not be as happy as reading a heart-pounding novel. When you taste a bottle of wine worth more than a thousand yuan alone, it brings less happiness than you and a good friend to spend dozens of dollars to eat a barbecue. When you spend a lot of money on a high-end audio equipment, it may not bring you as much happiness as the shock of hearing a favorite song when you were a child. Happiness is not so much related to matter, and happiness is closely related to one's ability to feel the mind.
If some friends are experiencing money problems, and the sense of lack is particularly serious, it is recommended that you try to have a dialogue with your inner wisdom in free writing, and reflect on what problems are caused by the money problems you encounter. Is there a chasing mentality for money behind this, or a hatred of money. What kind of intention is your pursuit of money based on, and is it to use this money to bring happiness to those around you? Or is it just out of the fear of want, desperate to make money, or to pursue an illusory sense of vanity with a show of wealth mentality.
The right view of money
Above we are discussing some distorted perceptions of money. So what is the correct view of money? In fact, it is the right position of money, it is not good or bad, it is a tool, in essence, money is the same as a kitchen knife, you can also feel your own view of the kitchen knife. The kitchen knife is the tool you use when cooking, and money is the tool you use in the payment process. You don't ask for a kitchen knife to bring you happiness, and in the same way you don't ask for money to bring you happiness, that's not money's mission. One or two kitchen knives are enough at home, you don't have to worry about not having enough kitchen knives, and you stock up on a dozen or twenty kitchen knives at home. The same is true of money, you have enough money to cope with the necessary expenses in life.
We are always worried about the future will be short of money, in fact, in the future we will also have the ability to make money, if you have enough confidence, you will always be satisfied when you need to use money. I'm not advocating that you want to be a moonlighter, but I want you to know that your worries about the future will cause additional financial losses. (Don't jump from one extreme to the other) You just have to use your money normally, not wastefully, and not overly frugal.
In the past few years of practicing the mind, I have seen many examples of "need to have", which are some friends who have practiced to a certain level to share their experiences. They have enough confidence in the reality of mindset creation, and when they need money, there will be various opportunities in life for them to get the corresponding money. Generally it is just enough, will not give too much, will not give too little. This is a common routine in the cultivation circle. My previous opportunity to go to the countryside to work was an event of this nature. If you can't have that confidence right now, you should at least try to dispel your fears first. Every time when you are worried about money anxiety, consciously stop, don't think in a bad direction, and use the zero limit method to clean up and calm yourself down.
We should treat money like we do with breathing. We know that there is always enough air, so we don't pursue more air as much as possible, we don't force ourselves to inhale more air, and we don't fear exhaling air, so most of the time we don't realize that we are breathing. We treat money best with this mentality, not expecting it to come, not caring about its flow, just like breathing, and not even realizing that money is flowing.
When you meditate, you can do this exercise: imagine yourself sitting in a golden river, and this golden river is the energy of money, which flows through our transparent body. The river sometimes widens, sometimes narrows, but it always continues to flow smoothly through our bodies. We look at money in this way, it is a continuous flowing river, sometimes more money flows through us, sometimes less money flows through us, we just feel it flowing through us from the perspective of a bystander. We are not masters of money, but observers of money. It's like we're not the masters of the air, but we can feel the air flowing in and out every day. Don't expect, don't contradict, don't worry, this is also the attitude we should have towards money.