Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion.
bell hooks, All About Love
Hosting money circles, group coaching classes, and workshops has been a passion of mine every day I have worked as a one-on-one financial planner. Community programs help us feel like we belong, no matter how hard things are. While working with clients individually, I knew that whatever guidance I gave them would fall only on their shoulders – which is hard.
However, in the right group setting, each person’s vulnerability can change the story from “I’m bad with money” to “Money can be hard”. Once it’s no longer me, myself, and I that is doing things “wrong” with money, and instead we’re in community around a hard topic, then money becomes a new skill to learn.
Last Friday March 25th, 2022 was the first session of the Bosque Money pilot and it was incredible! As the facilitator, I felt so honored to have people share openly and have already received great feedback for future cohorts. While the exercises we went through can be done alone, they are exponentially more powerful and transformational when done in a supportive environment.
Becoming confident with money decisions requires more than “hot tips” and willpower. I believe to truly have a confident relationship with money calls for healing, because in our society most of our interactions with money are far from nourishing.
Money is more than numbers, just like food is more than nutrition, and rest is more than non-action. Those are each key components, yet they do not show the fullness of the concept being defined and explored.
By working in groups we normalize where we are with money and tap into our resourcefulness. Thanks to the group guidelines of confidentiality, deep listening, and promoting self-awareness we create a space where communion and healing is possible.
This approach to money pendulates from the micro to the macro, from the societal to the personal and back again because everything informs everything.
We started spending, saving, and giving money as little ones so there’s a lot of past experiences that inform where we are today. If things aren’t working well, a quick-fix will be nothing more than a band-aid, similar to fad diets. And just like with fad diets, we end up blaming ourselves when we fail. Instead, we’d be better off taking the time and focus to change whatever has us stuck in diet mentality in the first place.
What we truly need is support, clear steps, accountability and lots of nourishing money practices.
Are you ready to move from dreading money to feeling confident in your money decisions? Join the waitlist to be the first to hear about our summer cohort!