"I've been loving the Living With Money course! It's been such an unexpected opening for me, I realized how much I've been running away from money and everything to do with it, and since I started with the course last week I've been experiencing such honesty and closeness with myself. Thank you (and thank me for finally looking.)"

Join Todd Smith and me, along with a group of 8 participants, to take a deep dive into stories about money.

Discover the peace and abundance available to you, and turn stressful money-thinking around.

Make money your friend, not your frenemy. 

Money worries plague so many of us. Surprise bills, medical needs, stocks crashing, banks failing, housing prices soaring, losing our jobs, insecurity, judgment, resentment, jealousy and fear of not having enough.

Money touches all of us, and our stories about money travel with us, until they’re questioned.

In this course, you along with 8 participants travel through six modules:

• The Trouble with Money
• Questioning Shame and Guilt with Money
• Understanding Family of Origin Money Stories
• Breaking Barriers to Asking For and Receiving Money
• Wealth, Poverty and What Isn’t Fair About Money
• Turning Around Our Worst Fears About Money

MONEY TROUBLES

Money trouble is very common in the human experience, but even more so is worrying about money trouble. Many of us have had thoughts like these about money, and they cause stress, anxiety, resentment, and/or lack of freedom: “I need more money”, “those wealthy people have all the fun”, “I never want to be poor again”, “money causes tension in relationships”, “money is evil”, “I won’t have enough money for retirement (my wedding, my family, my future, my spouse), “they ripped me off”, “they sold their soul for money”.

When our relationship with money is unfriendly, and we feel distrust and anger about how money intersects with our lives--no matter how much or how little we have--we suffer. Our attitudes and perceptions of money, often stemming from childhood experiences and conditioning around money or decisions about money we made in the past, run our lives every single time we encounter money in the present.

And not only does money appear to be an enemy, uninterested in us, neglectful, even a monster that causes hurt for people....we feel ashamed to be so concerned with it, embarrassed to want more of it, and secretly believing we shouldn’t care about it so much. Or at all.

If we don’t investigate our money stories we feel stuck in stressful ways of living with money. We feel trapped in jobs we hate. We feel confused about how to get more money. We feel guilty about the money we have. We feel nervous about other people and what they want to do with our (or their) money. We love money, and we hate money. It’s very painful.

THE WORK OF BYRON KATIE

The Work is a way of clearly identifying the beliefs and stories we have about conditions, people, situations we’ve encountered, and life itself...and taking these beliefs through a self-inquiry process. Once we identify a stressful concept, we ask four questions:

• Is it true?
• Can I absolutely know it’s true?
• How do I react, what happens, when I believe this thought?
• Who would I be without this thought?

Then, we turn around the thought several ways; to the self, to the other, to the opposite.

For example, the concept “I need more money”, after walking it through the four questions, we turn around in the following three ways: “I need more of myself” and “money needs more of me” and “I don’t need more money”.

These become profound to consider, and our original stressful stories break apart, one by one. As this happens and the old stories dissolve, we find new possibilities coming to mind, new actions to take, new connections and synchronicities occur we hadn’t seen before. Money, or anything that happens, can become a fun and friendly companion. Isn’t this what we’ve always wanted?

THE VALUE OF THE WORK ON MONEY

Money touches our lives nearly every day, from quick moments of exchange at the grocery store, to receiving our monthly housing bill. Money flows in and out of our lives. Doing The Work on money is a way to gain clarity in all these different areas of life, and often around life itself. Learning how to identify your stressful thoughts about money, and question them, can be a powerful path of self-inquiry.

The cool thing about questioning stressful thoughts and beliefs about money is that it accomplishes two things simultaneously:

1) It brings inner peace as the view of money shifts from stressful to engaging. This is actually a step of spiritual growth, which The Work frequently stimulates.

2) It opens the mind so it can see situations that involve money more clearly, allowing more effective action. This often results in practical improvements with the money situation itself.

How you see money depends on the beliefs you inherited from your family, the conclusions you came to through your own experience, the beliefs and taboos of society. Many times, money is not something we talk about. We are often alone in dealing with money, with very few tools or understanding of how to manage it.

In this course, we will dive directly into the world of money and our thinking about it. You will find out that you are not alone in dealing with this topic and that shame, fear, and frustration about money are distributed equally among all of us. You’ll also learn how easily this experience of stress can be shifted with a little self-inquiry.

WHAT YOU'LL GET FROM THIS COURSE:

In this course, we’ll cover a wide range of topics connected to money including:

• Shame and Guilt around money
• Stressful beliefs from our family of origin
• The stress of asking for and receiving money
• Fear of Not Enough in the future
• Stressful beliefs about wealth and poverty
• What’s not fair about money
• Our worst fears about money
  

You will have access to 12 hours of video recording with eight participants sharing their honest experiences, discussing, and doing The Work on money. The topics covered and the exercises we provide will give you many options for exploring your experience of money and doing The Work on it.

WHAT IS INCLUDED

First, you will meet 8 unique participants from varied cultures, countries and experiences.

All of us, participants and facilitators, are honest and willing to share their deepest fears and most painful experiences about money, relating and life. While we're aware we can never know the full extent and story of anyone's suffering, the following summaries offer the situations people bring to this program. You may find one of them is similar to yours, and track how the participant holding this story about money and how it grows and shifts in insight during the course of the workshop:

• A middle-aged man who grew up in middle class white family has found meaningful work, but wants a higher salary and thinks often of running his own business or finding another means of income. Has thoughts about partner's capacity to pay for things like traveling together. Didn't like father's common earning track and father's beliefs about safety, career and money. Looks at siblings choices, comparing them to his. Considers corporations, the financial system and institutions, and distaste for them at various times.
• A single mother in the UK from a lower-income white family struggles with anger and scarcity, constantly feeling as if she's barely making ends meet, feeling unsupported and abandoned, and unsure about what direction to go with money. Her confidence with money is low and she feels angry about her conditions and the system. She helps others, and doesn't receive financial support for what she does.
• A married woman of international background who has one parent from Ethiopia and the other from Poland, who lives in Switzerland, does not work full time. She has thoughts like "I should have a good paying work" and "I need to be more successful". She's unsettled with receiving support from her husband and feels embarrassed about her business attempts.
• A man who grew up in Guatemala in a religious missionary family now lives in the US married with fully grown independent children. He constantly notices anxiety about money. His wife is unemployed temporarily and has battled cancer. He shares thoughts, like so many of us have had (religiously raised or not), that beliefs about money have been very confusing when it comes to spirituality; wealth is dangerous, those who are poor are noble, "evils" can easily arise when money is involved, money is not trustworthy, and creates guilt.
• A single middle-aged woman from the mid-west/south who has never been married, has no children, and recently spent 3 years taking care of her father until he died, laments at her situation at having a limited amount of money to live on left (inherited from her father) and uncertainty about what to do next. She once was very successful as a make-up artist, and yet is nervous about stepping out into the world again--and at the same time curious.
• A married woman with two children from a white family who was trained as a nurse has recently gotten a part-time job as a nurse again after many years of being a stay-at-home mom while her husband worked as a doctor. She is ready to expand further into the world but concerned about disrupting the status quo.
• A Mexican woman with a very good but very demanding career navigates life with family, a boyfriend, being independent, and wanting more. She notices childhood stories about others with more money, advice given by relatives, a habit of over-spending, and her desire to be generous.
• A French mother of a 3 year old who lives with her partner has paused her art career to care for her little son. She remembers a successful life in Indonesia doing her art, being around wealthy patrons. She expresses concerns about remaining independent, guaranteeing safety for the future and her child's future, and how much is enough.

It does not fully matter what the 'story' is behind someone's life. We discover there are no new thoughts. And, how dear to notice we are not alone, we understand the conditioning of all the people and stories rising here. It is so good to come together in this process of inquiring and seeing our lives in new, fresh ways when it comes to money.

AS YOU FOLLOW ALONG WITH THESE VIBRANT STORIES, YOU RECEIVE:

• 12 hours of video recording where Grace and Todd lead participants through the exercises on money, share intimate experiences about money, and explore new ways of living with money.
• Handbook of practical exercises you can try on your own as you start to do The Work on money.
• Tips for identifying stressful thoughts and stories to question about money
• Practical tools for action with money after you have questioned your thinking, addressing debt repayment, spending, planning, tracking, and enjoying living with money.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Will the course work in my time zone? Yes, you move through this course at your own pace. All of the course materials will be available as soon as you purchase the course and you can come back again and again to review them.

How long will the course materials be available to me? We have no plans to limit your access. As long we are offering the course, you will continue to have access to it.

How much does Living With Money cost? The course is one payment of $197 or three monthly payments of $67. (Paypal is only an option for payment in full). You will have access to the entire course immediately when you enroll.

Can I pay with a payment plan? Yes, please choose the option to pay in 3 monthly payments of $67 when you enroll. There are two links so be sure to choose the payment-plan option. Paypal is not accepted for the payment plan option unfortunately. You will need a credit card to purchase the course with the payment plan.

Are scholarships available? Yes, if finances make it impossible for you to participate, please contact us and request a scholarship application.

Are there any live sessions for this course? No, this is a do-it-yourself course which simulates being in a live course. Your participation will be through watching the videos of the course sessions and doing the exercises on your own.

What if I have questions? You can send Grace or Todd an email at any time with specific questions and we’ll be happy to support you.

How is this course different from Year of Inquiry? Year of Inquiry is an interactive ten-month program with trainers and live sessions. One month is devoted to The Work on money, however, Living With Money concentrates with many hours on many aspects of money and offers numerous exercises to use and access for as long as is needed. Living With Money is self-directed, allowing you to go as deep or as shallow and as long as you like with the materials.

In addition to taking this course I encourage you to find a partner to do The Work with in your life regularly, join First Friday free inquiry hour with Grace once a month, enroll in a month of Summer Camp for The Mind--a live inquiry blitz of open sessions Monday-Friday during the summer only, or, join Year of Inquiry, making ​The Work of Byron Katie an ongoing practice in your life.

Do I need to have previous experience with The Work of Byron Katie to benefit from this course? No, you don’t need to know anything about The Work of Byron Katie to take the course. However, we encourage you to familiarize yourself with the four questions and turnarounds of The Work before you begin. You can do this by reading “Loving What Is” by Byron Katie or watching videos or listening to audios of Byron Katie doing The Work with people--free on youtube or at www.thework.com.

Is this a practical course on how to make more money, budget, or invest? No, this course is focused on stressful thinking about money and how to move through it. We identify and question the thoughts that hold us back with money. By doing this, we open the doors to creativity and freedom in earning, spending, giving, borrowing, investing, asking for, and receiving money. We do share a few tools for dealing with money as a bonus, but money tools are not the focus of this course.

Can I Get My Money Back If I’m Not Satisfied? Of course, if you find that this course does not meet your expectations in any way, just let us know and we’ll be happy to give you your money back.

What If I’m Not Organized Enough for a Self-Directed Course? You will find that this course is easy to do on your own. Think of it as a TV series if you like. Binge-watch the whole series in a day, or watch each section whenever you have the time. Our hope is that you will find the information compelling enough to keep coming back to the course no matter how you organize yourself.

BONUSES

In addition to the six modules of Living With Money course, you will also get these bonus modules:

• Video of Todd doing The Work with Byron Katie on money in the 2009 classic, “I’m Not Living Up to My Full Potential”. Todd also shares his experience after doing that work and how it changed his life.
• Support Materials for Taking Action - We share some of the tools we use to manage money including a great budgeting app, a method for paying off debt, and more.
• Handbook of Exercises - A list of exercises you can do with The Work and money. We share some of our favorites here.

READY TO JOIN US TO RELAX YOUR FEARS, FRUSTRATIONS, AND BARRIERS AROUND MONEY? READY TO MOVE INTO ACTION WITH MONEY IN A NEW WAY?

We’d love to have you. Todd and I have both found astonishing differences in our circumstances and relationships with money after we questioned our old out-dated, fearful thinking about money. We are still learning and growing with money, still making discoveries about money and life.

One thing we can both say is that doing The Work on money has allowed us to build appreciation for money, reconcile with money, and most of all, enjoy money.

Money, instead of a dangerous neighbor, has become a true friend. Money has become a loving truth-bringing energy to our lives that shows up to dance with us in just the right time, in just the right amount. And when and if we feel the heat of worry, disappointment or suffering, we know what to do: The Work.