financial anxiety | Total Wealth

Taxes and Tummy Aches

Kate Phillips — Tue, 04 May 2010 23:29:35 +0000

Ten Tips to Get Your Bookkeeping, Taxes, and Bill-Paying Done! A funny thing happened on the way to getting my taxes done… Some kind of “tummy bug” hit. Not that awful have-to-sit-on-the-toilet-with-a-bucket-in-your-lap flu that leaves you wondering what else your body could possibly purge, but a milder I-just-don’t-have-an-appetite-and-my-stomache-kinda-hurts thing. Now, with all the “work” I’ve done with my relationship with money, I’m pretty conscious about how my mind, body, emotions, and financial world fit together. Was I resisting doing my taxes? To be honest, it’s one of my least favorite things, though I’m not sure the tummy ache was related. (I actually was in a pretty good mood after I got into the swing of things…) I’ll admit, I relish exploring the more creative, emotional, right-brained aspects of money… from brainstorming business ideas to helping someone process through their “stories” about money, perhaps gaining big “aha’s” or even reframing how they relate to money. But I’m not an accountant type; I struggle with mundane record-keeping tasks, and I’m not the person to come to with your questions about Quickbooks! Having huge breakthroughs in my relationship with money — and developing many distinctions that help others to do the same — created a new world of possibilities for me, but it didn’t make me a bookkeeper! Still, the bills must be paid, the taxes must be filed. And if you’re like me (naturally resistant to mundane financial tasks), you might even find your mind and emotions working against you to accomplish these things. As they say, awareness is a perfect place to start…. but awareness itself doesn’t guarantee change or even progress. What’s needed is focused attention and energy. Changing our focus and energy around something can have profound effects. Law of Attraction coach Sandy Forster, an Australian single mom who went “from…

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Winter Contemplation #1 (or, how to get unfrozen)

Kate Phillips — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:58:33 +0000

I live by Lake Marcel, poised between the Snoqualmie Valley and the Cascade foothills, between the towns of Carnation and Duvall (east of Seattle). It is peaceful, idyllic. It looks like the kind of place you’d go to visit your financially-secure retired relatives in their second home… nestled between tall fir trees, near the community beach. Part of my daily routine is to walk around the lake, weather allowing. I walk to stretch my legs, clear my mind, and… to listen. Sometimes, I hear Spirit speaking in Nature – perhaps through a bird or a tree, and often, through a living metaphor. Oftentimes, the answers to the very questions I have been pondering are to be found in Creation – in Universal, Natural Law, clearly observable in the physical world. (For those who have ears to hear and eyes to see…) As I’m writing my eBook on “Overcoming Financial Stress,” I’m thinking of how I manage and overcome financial stress – or any stress – in my own life. (Opt in to the right if you’d like a copy… it will be finished soon.) “Stress” is fundamentally a fear-based reaction. It’s a fear-based reaction to the past: we’re afraid we’ve made terrible mistakes that we should feel regret over; and a fear-based reaction to the future: we may have food, shelter, and love today, but surely it will disappear tomorrow! And who would we BE without the income, the home, or the “stuff” we’ve come to identify ourselves with? And perhaps things aren’t so great in the present. Perhaps we are confronted with uncomfortable challenges and find ourselves clinging to a past that no longer exists, discovering change the only constant. If only tomorrow were guaranteed to be like yesterday, if only we could predict it, manage it, control it! A natural reaction to change, challenge, and fear is to “freeze.” When we encounter a bear (or a large barking…

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