Women-owned businesses have been the fastest growing segment of new start-up entrepreneurial endeavors. I’m glad to see this, as I’ve been a professional and an entrepreneur for many (yes, many) years now.

I have found being an entrepreneur takes a special kind of courage, and it can be an amazing platform to grow one up spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. I can tell you story after story of the types of personal growth and expansion experiences that I’ve undergone that would not have presented themselves as dramatically if I had only stayed in the world of the job market.

Now job markets have their place for accelerating personal growth also – especially when they dry up as they are doing now! Our changing times are an opportunity to develop your courage and follow your purpose in developing your business platform to support your soul’s journey in evolving to your true potential.

I want to touch on the biggest dragon that will need to be slain on this journey to fulfillment and empowerment. You may have guessed it; it is the issues that continue to haunt women and society concerning money. Money has been blamed for all manner of “evil”; in fact, people often MIS-QUOTE the Bible saying, “Money is the root of all evil.”

Actually, it says the “love of money”—and here love refers to trust in or coveting—which refers to the true root of greed, selfishness and the belief in “not enoughness.” Do you know what this is? It’s FEAR – Fictitious Evidence Affecting Reality. Fear is the root of the perception of evil. Fear of lack, to be more specific, and this lack covers everything from lack of love, security, and even self-esteem – three fundamental human ego needs. I’ve learned that the Universe always brings to me just what I need to explore and to solidify a lesson I’m undergoing.

In recent weeks, I have received many insights into my relationship with money. I’ll share a couple as it relates to the Soul of Money and business. As a young child, I always seemed to easily save and attract money. I never had fear about it; I just assumed I would have lots of it. I had a teenage experience however, that was full of drama and, ultimately, I made a decision; I created a paradigm that was based on a FEAR that money would not be there for me when I needed it.

In fact, I unconsciously connected my fear that I would not be provided for with my very sense of security in life and self-esteem, which at the time was already bruised. You see, I wanted to be a doctor in a world that not only did not believe I could do it, but made it clear that I was “on my own.” Back at that time, I could not even obtain a student loan due to my father’s income, and I was afraid to move out and live on my own.

I was in a mediocre, at best, public high school system, and lack-mindedness was at every turn, it seemed. Even though I was a strong student, I received no college guidance. Long story short, the Universe provided so remarkably well that I paid for my own undergraduate degree in cash, attracted a merit scholarship, and saved thousands of dollars by the time I graduated undergraduate a year ahead of schedule. Medical school tuition money also magically materialized.

Yet, without conscious realization, I bought into the “survival of the fittest” paradigm, did not really “see” how abundantly the Universe had met my needs and continued to abundantly provide. No matter how many millions of dollars flowed through my hands, I never seemed to have “enough,” nor could I seem to keep a significant proportion of it. I kept my FOCUS on “not enough” and continued to create this in my experience.

Granted, I tithed regularly, and to be honest, some of the time it was done in a sense of self-protection instead of just openhearted generosity – yes, intention does matter. I think tithing helped me to at least keep some of my money in an energy of sharing, instead of all fear-based waste. (This waste was one way that I as creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of “not enough.”)

I recently realized that I literally had this fear-based belief in my body, in my bones, blocking the light of my soul in many ways. When we refuse to honestly examine the source of our drama, instead of diving right in and intentionally asking for the insight into eliminating the “cataract of the soul” that is hindering our clarity around money, we set ourselves up for money drama.

My conclusion is that money is neutral. I call it the great “exposer,” however, as it will reveal all manners of FEAR. We project all kinds of fear onto money. Money only exposes what we are afraid of; it does not make us “do” anything. Money is not “bad” or “good”; yet, if you think you can ignore it, judge it, or pretend that you don’t need it and still have a healthy, flowing life and business – you are delusional and still looking through another “cataract of the soul.” Also, this “not enoughness” shows up not only via our money issues; it is reflected also in our perception of time and energy.

A key secret to women being successful entrepreneurs is to deal with judgments such as “money is not spiritual,” or that you can actually stay in business without being able to pay your bills. Then there is blaming money for all manner of “evil.” This fear will only keep money out of your pocket. Or, how about issues of self-worth? If you think that you are not “smart enough,” not “good enough,” or “what will they think about me if,” you are setting yourself up for struggle.

If you think, “rich people are bad” or that “you shouldn’t consider the money, just serve” – another fear disguised as “spiritual” – you may want to examine your money stories. If this is your choice, that’s fine. The conflict I see, though, is when others try to tell me that I should not concern myself with collecting money that I legitimately earned in the name of “service.” In my world, I get to choose when I do charity work and when I do business, which by definition involves the exchange of money. No one decides this for me in the name of being “spiritual.”

Money just reflects in manifested form what is hanging out in our soul’s field and blocking its light. It shows what is covering over your inner light. Even if you are a billionaire, it can expose lack-consciousness. Lack-consciousness also manifests as greed, selfishness, worry about the stock market percentages, connecting your sense of personal power and worth to it, et cetera.

Give me a break! Even if you took one billion dollars and put it in a CD, you could live quite comfortably for an entire lifetime (or a few); unless, that is, you focus on never being satisfied and “not enough.” Are you seeing this? The issue here is PERCEPTION. As Buckminster Fuller is known to have said, we will have to switch the paradigm from “you or me” to “you and me” if the world is to stay intact.

If we ask different questions, like “what can we do to create a paradigm where we can live abundantly and take care of our planet, and support the development of people’s talent and let go of the need to dominate others?” (All things are possible if we at least open our mind to consider it) – instead of completely buying into the lie that the present way is all that is possible – maybe we could find some new answers. Just maybe, but why not start to ask?

Where do we start? We start by realizing that FEAR is, for the most part, completely psychological. As I said, Fictitious Evidence Affecting Reality. Getting more—be it money, information or business cards—will do little to grow a healthy business and life as long as we refuse to shine the light on our issues, and money will reveal a ton of issues if you would only pull up the courage within to deal with it.

CORE confidence comes from the inside out and will go a long way in the development of an abundant life and a successful business. Abundance is a paradigm, a mindset and in my world, not the same as greed. When you feel abundant, you are not in a “not enough” energy, in the first place, and you live from generosity and have plenty of overflow to share.

Author's Bio: 

Valencia Ray, M.D. teaches business owners and corporate leaders how their amazing brain can actually hijack personal power -- not in the abstract, but in the context of integrating business and personal life. Dr. Ray, a board-certified eye surgeon and medical business owner for over 20 years before selling her practice, shares her own life changing process. By sharing her story, she helps others to expand their vision and learn that by living with purpose and confidence, it is possible to have a more integrated, healthier lifestyle – with less struggle, more inner peace and more abundance.

For more information and to contact her regarding dynamic, inspirational keynotes, trainings in collaborative leadership and team building, entrepreneurship and coaching programs, visit her website at http://www.ValenciaRay.com