Today I interviewed Bella Casarella on “The Way of the Toddler Hour.” She is a money coach and financial advisor with a background in the healing arts – just the kind of combo I love. I learned a lot from this interview, not least of which is the saying, “You can never get enough of what you don’t need.” Get it? Needs are met by addressing them. Too often, and especially when it comes to money, we address the stuff we don’t need way more than the stuff we do. Bella used the example of a time a few years ago when she found herself buying an expensive coffee almost every day. As a financial advisor, she knew that she would be saving a ton of money by not going into the local coffee shop every day and buying her latte. Instead of beating herself up over all those lattes she didn’t need, she asked herself how the latte was compensating for a deeper need. At a time in her life when she was spending a lot of time alone, she realized that the latte represented connection with her community, which is what she needed. When she identified the real need, she was able to diversify and find ways other than buying a coffee every day to feel connected with the outside world. If she had not done that inner inquiry, she would have been filling her days with lattes that she didn’t need for even longer. She asks us to engage with our money as a relationship of equals. By doing so, we can see when and how our spending aligns with our deeper values. As a starting point, she suggests we track our expenses to open up the “code” of our patterns and where we are endlessly compensating for those things that we do need, but aren’t addressing, with things that we don’t. Another suggestion was to spend a week (or even a day) Cash Only plan and to see how our values and spending habits change when we aren’t using plastic. Really, it’s all about staying engaged with our money and conscious of what we are doing with it. It is about relationship. Any relationship, whether with another person or with an inanimate object, will benefit from conscious engagement. This is what our children most desperately want from us – to be consciously engaged with them as human beings. This is why a baby smiles at such a young age. I encourage you to listen to the podcast. It is a deeply insightful exploration of how we can overcome limiting beliefs about money and create a relationship with it that is mutually beneficial. I will NEVER get enough of what I DON’T need. By figuring out what I DO need, I am one step closer to healing my relationship with money. When I know what I need at the core of my soul, I can make sure that I address those areas without ending up at Starbuck’s everyday (as much as I do love a latte).

(http://toginet.com/rss/itunes/thewayofthetoddlerhour PODCAST IS READY! Today we interviewed Bella Casarella, money coach and financial advisor at The Art and Soul of Money. She gave practical and easy to follow tips for healing our relationship with money. This is a note taker, so get a pen and paper ready! Learn about money personalities and archetypes, unhelpful cultural messages, how money can be a spiritual growth tool and much more!)