Vitamin We #14: Art of Money

£€$$ is more?

You will probably say no to this 😂

Seriously though, how much does the subject of money occupy our head + heart space? Has it become the elephant in the room that stands between our valuable relationships?

While we all know money is just a tool, how many of us can discuss the taboo topic without emotional attachment, judgment, assumptions, and comparison as if we are talking about flowers & sand?

The book I’m featuring in this edition is a powerful one that brings a refreshing, feminine approach to financial literacy.

We are also featuring stories that highlight the importance of art being accessible for all - regardless of whatever conditions one might be experiencing at the moment.

Enjoy!

Why is “money” in English not even countable in most common cases?!

According to Merriam-Webster, “In most instances, we treat money as a mass noun or noncount noun—just like oxygen or mud or honesty. You can't have a single mud or four honesties, and in the same vein, we don't say a money or one money or twenty-six moneys. Even though it can be composed of discrete bills and coins, countable dollars and cents, the concept of money is treated as a mass in English. You either have money or you don't.”

If you think being good with money and understanding how money works is about being good in Math, having accounting knowledge, or a business degree, think again.

More accurately, money is a currency that is meant to circulate and flow to enrich everything and everyone it touches, not to be hoarded (stagnant) or drained (exhausted).

Give and receive.

Breathing in and breathing out.

To offer and to be offered. ♾

“ As a quadriplegic with paralysis in all four limbs, I use assistive technology to do most things.

Right before the pandemic, I acquired a headtracker device with the help of a fundraiser that allowed me to paint and compose music on my computer with head movements. It was the first time in decades I was able to create in those ways and the freedom I felt was immeasurable!

My abstract paintings, done mostly in oil, reflect my experiences as a disabled person. Like everyone else, I experience both joy and sadness, frustration and satisfaction and my art helps me to connect to those feelings in a way that is unlike any other activity I do. 

I also think it's important to show how access to assistive technology is so important for people with disabilities so they can express their creativity. It is so unfair to block access to people based on physical disability from the arts because they do not have the means to get assistive technology, which is expensive. I think of the decades I was unable to paint and compose and wonder what I would have created during that time.

I paint daily to express my inner experience and post my work on social media, especially Instagram and Twitter. I also post art videos, showing how I create my art, sometimes accompanied by music I compose. People are initially curious about how I paint with a headtracker and I've certainly had a learning curve figuring out how to paint with the assistive technology, but I experience the same artistic freedom that every other artist feels. 

I hope that my work appeals not only to art lovers, but sends a powerful message about the need to provide people with disabilities with the tools they need to live a full and productive life.”

“ I have been an artist for as long as I can remember; during my first years, most of my artistic education was self-taught. It was until college that I was able to attend more "formal art classes".

As an artist in real life, I couldn't pursue it full-time, so my artistic career was more like an after-work thought than a full-time career. That changed in January 2022; after a very difficult job and mental crisis, I decided to quit my job (I used to work in finance with a very good paying salary and benefits).

I couldn't live like that anymore; doing something that I didn't love not only was draining my soul but affecting my mental health as well as being in a high-stress profession. I remember being incredibly scared, almost paralyzed with fear, but then I thought:

"What if someone told me that I only had a year to live?" 

What would I do with my life if that was the case? Will I still accept to live like that? Or would I take the jump of my life and change it forever?

Now, I didn't make the jump blindly, I made sure to plan for it financially and then take steps to take care of my mental health (took therapy) and since I didn't know how to make art digitally (I only used to paint and draw using real brushes and canvases), I made a plan to enroll in online courses to learn how to use software tools (Photoshop, Illustrator) to began doing digital art.

So I did it and joined the NFT community in March 2022; not knowing anyone or anyone knowing who I was, I started to connect with as many artists as I could; I entered every art contest I could lay my eyes on; I replied to everything so people would recognize me more and more; I did it with a genuine and sincere desire to connect and learn from other artists.

For me, the creation of art is the deep desire to connect and express thoughts, ideas, and emotions with others; art has this special power to help us discover something we didn't know we had.

So here we are, still doing art, way poorer but way happier, but I really didn't do this for the pure pursuit of money, mostly as a way to reconnect with myself, to understand what is important to me, to be able to say at the end of this life: "Yes, I had the fortune and the privilege to be able to do what I loved the most, and I will never regret that decision".

At the end of the day, we only have one shot at this life; shouldn't we do everything in our power to live it on our own terms? ”

Idea #1 The 3 Phases of Deep Money Work:

1. Money Healing - The emotional support and foundational tools to dissolve the resistance, shame, or other emotional patterns we have for money

2. Money Practices - Translate the deep insights we had in phase 1 into real-world actions like money habits, value-based bookkeeping etc

3. Money Maps - The big picture visioning that unfolds the narrative of our unique lives and infuses it with personal meaning.

These 3 phases are not linear but fluid, interwoven, and organic.

Idea #2 ***Money Shame***:

Money shame might be a universal human experience, but each of us carries our types and flavors of it.

Does any of these expressions of money shame sound familiar?

• "I'm too right-brained, creative, and bad at math to be good with money." 🌝

• "I earn plenty, but I still seem to spend too much - how do I have this much debt?" 🙈

• "I only deserve money if I work really really hard for it. Lazy people (like me) don't deserve money." 🦥

• "Wanting more than "just enough" money is selfish." 🦀

• "I should have more money by now - the fact that I don't means something's wrong with me." 🦄

• “I have to hide my designer bags and fine items when my sister/friend visits, so as not to trigger envy or bitterness in her towards my comfortable lifestyle." 🦚

Boiling down all these different flavors of shame, the essential core is the feeling of "something wrong with me," which stems from COMPARISON: Comparing ourselves with others, and comparing ourselves with an idealized version of ourselves. Money shame keeps us tight-lipped as if it's a dirty little secret.

Sadly most of us are not given financial education on an emotional, practical, and spiritual level.

The only way out of money shame is gentleness. There is tremendous value in healing the truth about money, and holding space with tools like body check-in for us to feel our feelings, and acknowledge their existence. 

Idea #3 How "Grown-Up" Are You with Money?

There are moments when we react like a toddler and throw tantrums when things don't go our way, or like an adolescent when we feel the FOMOs and shopping impulses. If we dig into our money stories, we can uncover a lot, and be able to update new stories that reflect our current identity.

Money Story Visualisation Exercise (P.73-74):

Idea #4 Take Yourself to Money Dates!

Many of you are familiar with having Artist’s Dates from the teaching of the Artist’s Way already, so it’s time to take it to another level - taking yourself to Money Dates!

What it means is a dedicated time and space for us to connect with our money relationships. It's an ongoing practice that breathes life into a money relationship as we build healthy habits to get more honest, clear, and empowered in this area of our lives. Besides having a 1:1 chat with our money, it is a particularly powerful practice to have money dates regularly with our loved ones to align values and priorities throughout different life seasons.

I highly recommend this book to you if money has been an emotionally charged or a taboo topic since you were young. The author also has a free 7-day email course on the topic (NOT affiliated) that you can sign up for to have a taste.