|
My intention with sharing my story is to create an opening for women to rise and be free from the patriarchal conditioning that many of us have grown up with regarding money and sex. I believe this freedom opens the possibility for happier marriages, healthier families, satisfying work environments and all-around personal development. In short it would be good for everybody. With 50% of marriages failing in the first 3 years due to money fights, 28% of woman suffering from deep anxiety over money and survival, and an even higher number ill prepared for retirement this is a conversation worth having.
Born in 1966 I grew up when female independence was more of an aspiration than a reality. In those times equal pay, career advancement and business ownership were being fought for along with birth control pills and active duty in the military. It was not the standard yet and had a long way to go. As a little girl I was entrained in the romantic idea that some man was going to take care of me. In my family that man was my father. This was both a blessing and a curse. Throughout my life I felt I always had someone to rely on. At the same time this support allowed me to become less developed in the area of self-reliance and independence. At a time when society was beginning to encourage women to be independent my family was living in an old paradigm. Dad worked for the space industry as a nuclear engineer. He was also a Colonel in the army and day trader of stocks. Mom never balanced a checkbook in her life. Dad kept her in the dark about money and she didn’t seem to mind. There was a lot of manipulation around money. My mom trained me to look good, be sexy and attract material possessions. This was a sign of status. I left home when I was 16 years old. I worked hard my whole life for money, yet I always lived beyond my means. I owned a house but couldn’t afford the maintenance. I was a single mom teaching yoga. There was never enough money it seemed. Deep down inside I felt unequipped and incapable of expanding my worth in my field. I found myself relying on my Dad for support all while dreaming to find some man to come into my life and take care of me. I fell in and out of love. I crashed, I burned, I got resigned, I got sick, I got lazy. I withdrew to heal and reinvent myself. When I ventured back out into the world, I started dancing tango. That’s when I met my husband-to-be. Each of us were at low points in our lives when we met but somehow, we stayed together through the ups and downs and eventually got married. When we met, I was still living with a deep fear that if I don’t have money I will die. Money is my inspiration. I’ve been entitled with the support of my Dad and poor at the same time. The support started to feel more like a trap than a source of freedom. I was wary about my financial future. My lack of trust in my financial capabilities caused me to bring into question a female’s primal urge to get with a man who is going to increase her worth. This became the central inquiry of my life. Dad got sick in the summer of 2016. We were told the news of his imminent death a few months after Peter and I got married. Dad died New Year’s Eve 2016 while I slept by his bed. All the financial help I had been receiving stopped. The time to reconcile my Money Story had come. The slow suicide of negative thoughts and emotions I had been putting myself through got worse. I injured my hip and could not move forward because walking was difficult. My marriage suffered as well. I projected my pain on to my husband which caused sex to stop, intimacy stopped, adventure and enjoying each other became rare occurrences. My money started dwindling. The feeling of being trapped grew stronger. Guidance was needed on how to disappear my money trap. When you sweep important relationships under the carpet, such as one’s relationship to money, then you decide to change the carpet you are walking on, you become faced with a lot of stuff underneath which needs to be cleaned up. This was the situation I was faced with as my inquiry continued. I had to create a new environment for myself in order to move through this, so I went into partnership with my husband on a house about 45 miles South of the big city of San Francisco. After much soul-searching I moved from my home of 25 years in Applegate which sold February 2018. The inquiry was painful. The demons came out. Historical memories of family fights over money, threats that if we didn’t behave, we would be taken out of the will. Dad acted poor and mom acted wealthy. Do we, or don’t we have money was how things occurred to me. A dichotomy. Then one day the big highlight moment hit me like a ton of bricks. I realized how my sexuality was tied to my money story. What I thought was sexual freedom began to feel more like prostituting myself to get my needs met. I could see that this way of being was influenced by family, ancestral, and cultural conditioning. Mom and Dad had vulgar language and fights often over money. Money was used as a physical, mental and emotional weapon. I assumed that they believed a woman’s purpose in life was to use sex to get money. This caused a great tear in my heart. Our culture promotes this too, in the media, in the workplace. I had a deep-seated belief that money was power and would solve my problems, but it was so darn hard to get! It was this habitual way of thinking about money that created the stories I held tightly in my head. I realized I didn’t want to follow this path, so I set out to clear the dichotomy. My awareness about my relationship to money expanded the more proactive and responsible I became. I took the stories about money out of my head and got straight with them on paper. To make it real and to transform my negative thoughts about what money means to me I had to change my conversations about money; with my husband, my clients, my family. I took responsibility for every penny earned and every penny spent. My debts were self-imposed by me and only me. When I realized my attitude toward money dictated how money occurred to me, I saw that I had more power than I thought. I have the power to have integrity with the promises I’ve made regarding money. I can honor the relationships I have with banks, creditors, clients, and wherever there is a money exchange. I began nurturing these relationships with love and healing. I made a game out of money by seeing how I could bring money into existence with my words. I began to speak FOR money rather that AGAINST it. I empowered others to have positive conversations regarding money and process disempowering conversations with skilled mentors, coaches and friends. By far the most lasting effects are between me and my husband. I no longer hold him responsible for my money story. We create together as we each hold the handle of our own money bucket. The ground we walk on together has been swept and cleaned. Together we are prepared to lay down that new carpet free of unwanted dust and particles underneath. Now there is space for real connection and unadulterated love.
0 Comments
The Harvard Healthy Eating Pyramid represents the latest nutritional science. The widest part at the bottom is for things that are most important. The foods at the narrow top are those that should be eaten sparingly, if at all.
While some extreme diets may suggest otherwise, we all need a balance of protein, fat, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals in our diets to sustain a healthy body. You don’t need to eliminate certain categories of food from your diet, but rather select and eat more of the healthiest options from each category. Source and further reading: https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/healthy-eating.htm Eating a healthy diet is not about strict limitations, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy, improving your health, and boosting your mood.
Healthy eating doesn’t have to be overly complicated. If you feel overwhelmed by all the conflicting nutrition and diet advice out there, you’re not alone. It seems that for every expert who tells you a certain food is good for you, you’ll find another saying exactly the opposite. The truth is that while some specific foods or nutrients have been shown to have a beneficial effect on mood, it’s your overall dietary pattern that is most important. The cornerstone of a healthy diet should be to replace processed food with real food whenever possible. Eating food that is as close as possible to the way nature made it can make a huge difference to the way you think, look, and feel. By using these simple tips, you can cut through the confusion and learn how to create—and stick to—a tasty, varied, and nutritious diet that is as good for your mind as it is for your body. Source: https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/healthy-eating.htm  Have you ever felt called to a place, a specific longitude and latitude on planet earth? Your own personal spot? That is what happened to me one day while planning my long-awaited family vacation. The vacation of a lifetime; expansive, adventuress, healing and educational: Sardinia, a land of ancient Wisdom Keepers called me to her land! The ancient Megalithic structures, Centenarians and the transparent healing waters resonated with everything I am about. Trusting my intuition, I booked the flight for the family vacation.
Sardinia is 1 of 4 of the most ancient islands on planet earth, whose tectonic plates are protected from earthquakes. This Island exists off the west coast of Southern Italy. A place less influenced by any single culture, rather multiple cultures are part of the fabric, Sardinia is home to the Sardinians. It’s an ancient culture with fewer episodes of war and conquerors than other lands of the Mediterranean. The lifestyle is close to the land, has a relaxed pace and a strong family value system. Sardinia is considered a Blue Zone Island by some researchers, with more Centenarians per capita than other regions of the world. Its population density is low and the land is vast with rugged mountain ranges floating in a sea of transparent blue water, a grounding force of health and longevity. In ancient times the land was rich with silver, so much so that the surface appeared to glow in some areas. What a sight it must have been for the early explorers when they came across this shiny Island. Sardinia means Sandal and is considered to have been made from the footprint of a Giant. She is home to some of the oldest megalithic structures known to man, Giants' Graves, Holy Wells, Nuraghi Temples, Towers and even Pyramids are everywhere on this island and are all perfectly aligned to Astronomical phenomena such as the Summer Solstice, the Equinoxes, the Big Dipper and the moon. The Sardinians believed in the Hermetic principle of “As above so below.” The ancient architecture reflects this connection between the cosmos and terrestrial life. Researchers who are interested in Sardinia are skilled in archeology, astronomy, megalithic language of the stones, water and conductivity, architecture, resonance, astrology, and the healing powers of plants. Many researchers are examining Sardinia for its possible connections to Atlantis. What prompts a pilgrimage and what causes a calling? What sparks the direction of a journey? For me it was family, heritage, curiosity and dreams. I followed a feeling and it led me to bliss, to connection, and spiritual cleansing for me and my family in body, mind and spirit. Love amplified us all and left a residue of inspiration and light. I can honestly say, my kids, my husband and I highly recommend this shiny Island Sardinia, the footprint of a Giant floating in a sea of transparent water. Here are a few tools I have put into place to get me into balance:
Sleep- Have a bedtime, remove cellphone and electronics from bedroom. Melatonin works great and so does magnesium. Diet- Eat whole foods, watch caloric intake, stop eating at night, avoid salt, oil, and sugar. Aim for 1 gallon of Distilled Water a day. Exercise- Moderately, rest and digest more. Herbs- Shitavari, Licorice Root, Evening Primrose, Black Cohosh, Tulsi are just a few herbs that work wonderful. Oh yeah and don’t forget your Gaba! Other- Organic Progesterone Cream for breast pain. GOOD Skin Care practice Limit use of Caffeine, Alcohol, Tobacco, Processed Food and Toxic Chemicals such as cleaning products, petrochemicals, and even many supplements are loaded with metals, preservatives and poor quality. These are a few easy fixes. There are many more. |
AuthorKaren Barbarick-Collins is a Certified Ayurvedic Technician and Registered Yoga Alliance Teacher. She is the founder of Bending Blade Healing Arts. Archives
August 2019
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
|
Sign Up for Health Tips
For Email Newsletters you can trust. |
LocationFairfield CA
|
Telephone530-305-7337
|
|