In the realm of wellness and spirituality, money is a subject that doesn’t always seem to fit properly. On one hand, seeking or asking for money can easily be viewed as a selfish or individualistic pursuit, which obviously contradicts the intention of most spiritual practices.
On the other hand, every person requires a certain level of sustenance to live and flourish, and money is a modern form of energy that can be molded to fill our survival needs or support others. Therefore, it’s not difficult to see that money isn’t intrinsically “unspiritual.”
Given its ubiquitous presence in the world around us, we decided to create a blog post to explore the energetic qualities of money from a Qi Gong perspective. Through this piece, we’ll seek to share thoughts and insights to help you cultivate a healthy and intentional relationship with this intangible resource.
Money and Qi
What is the relationship between money and Qi? Well, if we look closely, we’ll realize that money is a form of Qi that operates in the world similar to how Qi works in the body.
Each person has a particular relationship to their internal life force energy. Emotions, thoughts, and the physical body are all resources that we can work with skillfully to realize intentions such as happiness, vitality, and love.
On the other hand, if we fail to work with our internal energies in a mindful way, we can create an inner state of suffering and pain. If our minds and emotions become unhealthy, we may even start to direct our energy in ways that harm others and lead to even greater disharmony in the world.
Similarly, our inner emotional state will also determine how we relate to and use money. If anger or insecurity is a big part of our emotional state, it may lead us to use it in unhealthy or destructive ways. However, if we stay grounded and connected to ourselves, we may view money for what it is—a means to an end that reflects our intentions, which can include supporting ourselves and empowering others.
Why It’s Easy to Have Negative Views About Money
Money is a form of energy that can be used in both healthy and unhealthy ways. Since unhealthy uses can be very damaging, it’s easy to confuse unhealthy intentions behind certain uses of money with money itself. The examples are many…
If someone doesn’t feel aligned with their life’s purpose or is lacking confidence, they may seek to fill that void through the pursuit of financial gain and status. Of course, this would be an unhealthy relationship with money, and one that doesn’t lead to happiness or fulfillment.
Some people have negative views about money that are a reaction to others’ destructive intentions and decisions.
In the world, it’s not hard to see a million different examples of money being used in harmful ways. Whether it’s a corporation poisoning the earth to make a profit or a politician abandoning their moral values for monetary support, the harm caused by unhealthy financial exploits is deeply emotionally activating for many people.
It’s very understandable to be angered by destructive intentions that are brought to fruition through the energy of money. However, if we start seeing money as the root cause of harm, we are allowing our emotional state to create a misaligned view. In reality, it is the emotional state that drives destructive financial decisions.
If we start to resent money itself, we may miss out on all of its positive uses.
Cultivating a Healthy Relationship with Money
Being that money is energy, we can use it to further our intentions and improve the world.
When we’re connected to our authentic selves, we can make sound decisions about how we want to use our financial resources. We can think about what food we want to consume, what businesses we want to support, and what experiences we want to create.
By being mindful, we can make sure that our financial decisions are coming from a place that reflects our true values and priorities. When we think in these terms, money becomes something that prompts us to examine our beliefs about what is important.
This practice of mindfulness surrounding money applies regardless of how much of it we have. It doesn’t matter if we’re making decisions about how to spend one dollar or one million dollars, spending what we have can always be a practice of intentionality.
One Form of “Qi Exchange”
When two people interact and share, there is always some form of exchange taking place. Whether it involves physical goods, labor, knowledge, or emotional energy, each positive connection is a dance in which energy flows in both directions.
When it comes to Qi Gong, there are some practitioners who don’t like the idea of paying money for classes or programs. While we completely respect these feelings at Holden QiGong, we also believe that monetary exchanges are no better or worse than other kinds of energy transfers.
Throughout history, teachers and even monks have shared their wisdom within various frameworks of energetic exchange. In ancient China, Qi Gong students would regularly serve their masters in order to learn from them. A master’s students would care for their animals, help to maintain their residence, and tend to their garden. Although Lee doesn’t have a team of students to grow his food, he has had apprentices train with him in exchange for their service.
In monasteries, monks and nuns of all faiths and practices typically receive financial support from the people they serve. Often, their expenses are low and donations are voluntary, but there is still an exchange occurring for the spiritual and emotional support that they provide.
Each person has something to share. In addition to cultivating our gifts and becoming as skillful as we can in our craft, it’s also important to recognize what our own needs are. None of us can give what we don’t have. Being aware of our mental, emotional, and physical needs not only allows us to have more for ourselves, but it actually makes us better equipped to serve others.
At Holden QiGong, we realize that money is one of the energetic forms that allow us to both sustain our livelihoods as well as share Qi with as many people as possible. While everyone on our team is deeply passionate about the message Lee has to offer, we all have the same living expenses that most people have in the modern world.
We are deeply grateful for the financial support that our students provide by purchasing our programs. It allows Lee and our entire team to spend significant time and energy creating and delivering Qi Gong classes to tens of thousands of practitioners around the world.
Some people may not realize how many moving parts there are in an organization like Holden QiGong. We have over fifteen people working full or part-time to cover all aspects of running Lee’s business. Whether it’s running the Facebook group, writing emails, building website pages, responding to customer support messages, facilitating a happy work environment, or creating blogs like this one, we have many roles that are all filled by people who love Qi Gong and appreciate our students.
Over the past four years, we’ve been able to reach more than 10 times as many students as we did in 2016. This is due in no small part due to the financial energy we’ve received and put back out into the world.
In essence, we believe that as long as a person or organization is truly helping others and cares about the people they serve, money can be one form of a positive energetic exchange involved in the process. We truly appreciate the love and support we receive from our students and are excited to continue sharing Qi with the world.