Search for Financial Freedom

What I like about my gaining consciousness about financial literacy, the abundant and wealthy life paradigm is that it came after a considerably long period of struggle towards spiritual growth. Now, I’m not saying I’m done with my spiritual growth . I don’t even know where I am now, in terms of my spiritual growth. But I feel a certain level of confidence that I have a viable spiritual footing or background for my quest for financial freedom and the abundant life. Suffice it to say that the beacon light is this biblical admonition – “ Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all its righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”

It was only in my late fifties that I was forced to consider radically improving my financial condition after a bout of credit card crisis and the realization that my financial situation was not viable for retirement. All through the almost thirty years of working in government was the ‘serve the people’ mindset which was inculcated in me starting my high school and college years, mainly because of the prevailing social and political conditions in my country, even up to now. Throw in the erroneous religious mindset that considers mere posession of financial and material wealth as "un-spiritual".

Frustrations arising from my idealistic mindset and the fact that new plans and dreams grew in my mind in the latter years, like travel plans, dreams of owning cars and a Mediterranean-inspired home overlooking Taal Lake --plans and dreams that involve considerable amounts of money, plans and dreams that didn’t occur to me in my younger years and which I didn’t expect I’ll be having in my latter years.

The challenge I’m facing now is achieving financial freedom and abundance and my dreams in the few remaining years of my life ….
Surfing the net for articles that could help me get started one way or another, because, really I did not know where to start, I came across topics like the law of attraction , among others. This led to ideas like reprogramming my mindset from a ‘lack’ or ‘poverty consciousness’ to an ‘abundance or prosperity consciousness’, beyond mere positive thinking.

From surfing the net and reading books, I moved up to attending seminars like the “Firewalk Bootcamp” , which being ‘spiritual’ or metaphysical in nature addressed the inner changes that I needed to undergo. Acting out things and ideas are much more effective than just reading about them. The bootcamp actualized some of those basic ‘prosperity consciousness’ in me.

Although the attention on just making money was the starting point of all these endeavors, I began to realize through reading and gaining knowledge about the money - making process, other dimensions related to making money , notable of which was the concept of a ‘prosperity consciousness' , the idea of a sound and integral character as an adjunct, if not a fundamental basis, of true wealth. Later on, I came to learn and realize that money is not the ultimate end, after all, but a positive and abundant consciousness that cannot really exist without a strong and integral character. That money is just a by-product of the former.

I am also getting to the point when I am becoming an advocate of spreading financial literacy and education, starting from the young, and people realizing and cultivating a positive prosperity consciousness in themselves, as a necessary part of their personal development. In particular, I’d like people to realize that financial freedom or being rich and wealthy is not antithetical to being a person of good character nor to being a spiritual person. The reality is that money is a resource that is necessary for one’s intellectual , mental and physical growth and development,maybe even for spiritual growth.

And just maybe, with this new advocacy, I have not really deviated from my former "serve the people" mindset. I'm just using another channel now --- through change in mindset. 'Serving the people' if one thinks about it, is really an offshoot of serving God. 'Serving the people' , aside from fighting for democratic principles and political freedom, is also about fighting for economic freedom, which ultimately will involve financial freedom.