When I think of the word economics, the first things that I associate with that word are not spirituality, depth and transformation.
And I have to admit, in the past, I’ve considered it a bit of a dirty word. But I’ve had a change of heart. You might say, I’ve begun to see the heart in it, or at least the possibility of imbuing it with meaning and love, and it revolves around doing work that matters.
Economics moves our world.
An essential definition of economics is it is the study of the flow, exchange and management of resources or even energy. When viewed through this lens, we can see it is at play in how we interact with our environment, how the cells in our bodies function, and the way organisms interact with each other in nature.
What could be more fundamental and spiritual?
It is in many ways a dimension in which we are swimming, like fish in water, although at times, we are unaware of this invisible medium, and the dynamics which influence and sustain our lives.
Money makes the world go round
You might think that the economic system we live in is broken, and want to radically change it. But what can you do if you feel powerless to do anything about it?
I believe as individuals we do have great power, and we can influence “the system” with how we participate in it. When we change, we can have a different experience of the system, which in turn changes it, since we are an integral part of this whole; the system is us.
Whether we like it or not, money is a vehicle we’ve created for the purposes of this exchange of energy, as we go about our interactions in the world.
As they say, “Money makes the world go round”. Quite!
There are a number of dimensions in which economics affects our lives whether we’re interested in the subject or not!
Here are a few areas to consider to help you see whether your participation in the greater economy is healthy and as you would like it to be.
Consumption – Inflow
We feed energy into different parts of the whole system, by what we purchase. When we consume something it strengthens the part that produces it, and everything connected to it. We literally buy into it!
Is what you consume aligned to your values?
Does it bring you and the whole system greater health and well-being?
If not, then we have to admit that our behaviour is probably unconscious and/or driven by varying degrees of addiction.
How many times have you consumed something and then thought you wished you hadn’t?
It seems to me, that a lot of what we consume, is an attempt to fill a hole, to cover up an inner dissatisfaction with ourselves and our experience of life. Like any addiction, it’s an emptiness that can never be sated with what we’re trying to fill it with.
As Eckhart Tolle, mentions in his book, “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose”, it is about realising that true happiness comes from what happens within us.
We need to see what it is we are seeking deep down and what gets in the way of experiencing it. This shift in consciousness leads us to a life that is healthy and harmonious.
Labour – Outflow
There’s a saying… “you’re either part of the solution or you’re part of the problem”. I think this very much holds true for our labour.
Work is part of the economic exchange taking place on the planet that most of us participate in.
How you earn your money, and what you contribute to through your work, has a bigger impact, either positive or negative, than how you spend your money and the things you buy.
Your vital life energy
We give our vital life energy, time, creativity, talents, skills and knowledge in exchange for the mighty dollar! (By the way, you might want to reflect on why it is in this position! Perhaps it’s mighty because of our collective confidence in it, and the energy we put into it!)
What are you contributing to creating on the planet through the work you do?
Are you doing work that matters? Or do you believe in what you’re doing?
Are the products and services created by the organisation you work for truly beneficial for humanity?
Do your values align with what you’re spending your life producing?
Few people would take up a job in human trafficking, but we continue to work in fossil fuels, fast fashion, tobacco and the arms industry, and other less extreme examples, where the main motivation of the organisation is to make money, grow and little else, no matter what the impact.
By working where you do, you are giving your seal of approval and are in many ways dedicating yourself to the mission of the entity for whom you work.
Sometimes the choices are not easy. True. You might need to earn a living to provide for your family. However, that future not only depends on what we give them directly but also on the kind of world we are all working to create.
Live the Dream
What do you want to dedicate your life to creating?
What if we were to withdraw, our labour, our talents and skills from where it is currently invested and instead use it for the creation of what we want to see?
I wonder what effects this would have.
Obviously, we don’t just work. We can make a contribution to the world we want to see outside of how we earn our money. We can volunteer, financially support causes we believe in, participate in and create strong local community, and each and every interaction can be a contribution.
However, if you consider the number of hours we spend “working”, it makes sense to make sure that we are putting our energy towards something aligned with our values.
Amazingly, my experience is that when I committed to investing my life energy in something that I truly believed in, doing work that matters to me, it started to bring me things that I never imagined and that no amount of money can buy.
Living my dream, I serve others.
Income that’s not so passive
Part of the equation of the economic flow that we participate in comes in the form of income earned from anything other than work.
So, a way you can influence life on the planet is how you invest your money, and the sources of income other than from employment.
How do you feel about where your income comes from? Does the byproduct of the way your income is generated, heal or harm life on this planet?
There was a time when I worked in the gambling industry, I knew from first-hand experience that my heart couldn’t justify it as positive, no matter which way I looked at it. I tried to justify it, but at best, I saw the product I helped build as providing entertainment, and at worst, it caused a great deal of suffering.
In the end, I had to leave it, despite it earning me a very good living. I didn’t want to profit personally from an industry that I felt provides no value, and in fact is quite destructive in the lives of many.
Besides, I had other things to do with my life! However, it took some courage and stepping into uncharted territory to discover that.
So what is the balance of the impact of how you earn your money?
Are you doing what you’re called to do with your life?
If what you do doesn’t resonate with your heart, are you willing to go on the journey of finding out what does?
Money follows Attention
Yet another way we invest our life energy is where we put our attention. In the information age, attention is a commodity that is bought and sold.
Albeit subtly, we are quite literally creating more of what we place our attention on. A platform like Instagram, makes money from your attention. It is able to justify its advertising revenues because millions of us are spending many billions of hours of our precious life there.
I guess we need to evaluate how we want to spend our lives and whether those minutes, that add up to hours and days, are well spent.
Where do you put your attention and spend your time?
Is there something else that you would like to invest that time in which would contribute to your happiness and that of others?
Impact – Doing Work that Matters
How can we make this shift toward an economy that supports and sustains the well-being of the world?
In this chain of production and consumption, we are either moving towards health and well-being or dis-ease and degeneration. Each thought and action either harms or heals. In the end, we hurt ourselves, the environment, and other species co-inhabiting this world, on which we depend for our existence. We do to ourselves, what we do to others, and vice versa.
What we do at either end of the chain influences our global well-being.
Work Happiness from Within
The issue is that we believe that we can remain indifferent and not suffer ourselves. I think this is impossible since we are part of one system of exchange and flow.
Many of us are conscious of what we consume, but perhaps an even greater impact is dedicating our lives to soulless work, which goes against what we stand for, so perpetuating our collective distress.
When we begin to view this fundamental flow and energy exchange as occurring within one process that we’re not separate from, we regain our power.
Operating from a view of oneness rather than separation, in a state of awareness and presence, leads to a shift in consciousness with a more profound connection with life, we see that our happiness primarily depends on what happens within us. As we see this, we start to act with clarity, and heal ourselves and the world around us.
Work for a Healthier Harmonious World
To create a healthier, more harmonious world, we have the opportunity to take our role and responsibility for building it, to overcome the current crises of environmental degradation and societal conflict, that face humanity.
We can choose products and services that align with this vision.
In addition to being careful about where we invest our attention and money, perhaps the greatest way is by dedicating ourselves through doing work that matters to us, producing things that contribute to what we want to see in the world.
Be the change that you wish to see in the world. – Mahatma Gandhi
Together, these efforts together can establish a new economics, of a market of goods and services that promote health and harmony.
When we transform the consciousness and motivation behind the current economic system we have the possibility of using this very infrastructure to heal the damage caused.
When we are the change, and when we shift, that’s when true magic occurs.
Your Heartfelt Contribution
If your heart really isn’t in what you do, or it simply doesn’t make you come alive, perhaps now’s a good time to go on the journey of finding out what does!
Book an Introductory Consultation Call, to discover how you can find your mission, regain your zest for work that matters to you, and be the change!
Photo by Gustavo Quepón on Unsplash
