Like it or not, money connects you to the world. How you make it, where you spend it, and what you spend it on affects not just you, but the planet as a whole.

What's amazing to me is how little time most of us put into understanding what drives these decisions. We'll work at jobs that align with our values, or spend our money consciously, but what about our deeper relationships with money? Does money make us feel safe? Free? Anxious? Successful? Dirty? How do these unexamined qualities resonate through the world when we spend or invest or save?

I'm fascinated by this stuff. :)

Because of this, I was completely taken with Brent Kessel's new book. It's Not About the Money is an insightful and incredibly practical work. Also, it's unique in its approach: Brent is a man with a long-standing meditation and yoga practice who happens be the co-founder and CEO of one of the top wealth management firms in the US. The book includes gems from his conversations about money with the Dalai Lama, Ram Dass, Rabbi Harold Kushner, leading financiers, and even a Nobel-Prize winner.

Brent's philosophy is that we should invest our money in a way that is positively interconnected with as many beings as possible—that doing so helps grow not just our own personal wealth and well-being, but the health of the world as a whole. (Indeed, his company, Abacus Portfolios, accepts only those clients who are willing to invest in an environmentally sustainable way.)

It's beautiful.

His book introduces eight financial archetypes—collective energies that manifest within us and influence our beliefs and actions. Becoming aware of these, Brent writes, is crucial to understanding our core stories so that we can experience more freedom and greater choice around money.

(My two major archetypes turned out to be 'the idealist' and 'the empire builder.'  Hey—stop laughing. ;) You can find out your own dominant archetypes by taking the quick quiz here.)

In addition to the quiz (the results include practices to help you understand and transform your own relationship to money), Brent's offering a small gift (from Zaadz founder Brian!!) to Gaia members who purchase the book, and a free consultation with one of his advisors to anyone interested in managing money more consciously, or learning more about what a cooperative investment strategy might look like.

(I hope hope hope you take him up on at least one of those offers! I get little shivers when I think of the collective effect of adding just a little more consciousness around money.)

Because what can I say? I used to be terrified about financial issues—in fact, it's still something I wrestle with. But the more I realize how my feelings on the topic are so much about self-knowledge and unexamined personal anxiety, the more comfortable I've become really facing these emotions. Whatever your own core story is around money, you'll get something out of the quiz and recommendations and practices in Brent's book.

If nothing else, well, take some time to think about what an economy based on cooperation and interconnectedness might look like. It's Not About the Money helped move me in that direction, and the more all of us start telling this story—and investing our money toward building an environmentally sustainable economy rather than one based in competition and exploitation—the better.
 
In awareness and interdependence and more than a little idealism,
    Siona
    & the rest of the Gaia Team