Do You Ever Wonder About The Link Between Money And Happiness?

Serving others to the highest levels will make you wealthy before you start noticing it. When you’re trying to make money, if it begins and ends with money, it will be a short-term victory. But if it’s about transforming lives, then the win will keep going and growing. ~ Lisa Nichols

Shall we try to understand the meaning of this ‘Victory’? Let’s start from the beginning?

What is money?

“Come on Myriam! Are you kidding me?”

I am not. Some history might be interesting!

Here is a small extract from a masterpiece called “Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari:

Money was created many times in many places. Its development required no technological breakthroughs — it was purely mental revolution. It involved the creation of a new inter-subjective reality that exists solely in people’s shared imagination.

Money enables people to compare quickly and easily the value of different commodities to easily exchange one thing for another and to store wealth conveniently. Money is thus a universal medium of exchange that enables people to convert almost everything into almost anything else.

Money is based on two universal principles:

• Universal convertibility: with money as an alchemist, you can turn land into loyalty, justice into health, and violence into knowledge.

• Universal trust: with money as a go-between, any two people can cooperate on any project.

These principles have enabled millions of strangers to cooperate effectively in trade and industry. But these seemingly benign principles have a dark side. When everything is convertible, and when trust depends on anonymous coins and cowry shells, it corrodes local traditions, intimate relations and human values, replacing them with the cold laws of supply and demand.

In this article, I will explore how we can use money with integrity, without compromising our values and relationships.

Money and our four life dimensions

Money is a contribution to reach and maintain the balance between the four dimensions of life:

• Physical: Healthy body, self-discipline.

• Mental: Continuous learning, growth, creativity, vision.

• Spiritual: Direction, what we stand for, principled legacy.

• Social/Emotional: Learning to own our emotions and regulate them; active listening, building trust and healthy relationships, passion.

“I am confused, Myriam! Would you be more explicit, please? How is that supposed to relate to my happiness and fulfillment?”

If we don’t have money, I would say there will never be room for real happiness or fulfillment despite all the gratitude we may have in our hearts. Why? Simply because we won’t be able to nurture any of the above dimensions. We concentrate only on survival.

For the sake of clarity, I’m not talking about the joy displayed by some underprivileged people. Those moments we observe, and love, are stolen from the universe and will always be short-lived. When we’re always anxious about affording dinner for kids, we can’t find time for self-care.

This unfairness makes my heart bleed, but that’s a story for another time.

How do we balance money and needs?

On the other hand, if our life is centred around money, what happens?

The more money we make, the unhappier we are. Why? Because we are never at peace. We are unable to feel worthy unless our wealth is continuously growing.

We have no time or energy left to grow as a person, to invest in relationships, continually worried and stressed about losing our wealth and becoming a ‘nobody’.

We have no care for people and consider how our actions may harm them, we may feel guilty (although some people are evil and have no remorse). In any case, we are not able to control our lack of ethics.

Do not focus on money, it arrives without concentration, directly correlated to excellence of service. Thus, money is simply a by-product of excellence! ~ Will Offen

What if you are principle-centered?

What happens when you commit to destroying your limiting beliefs about yourself and the world?

You move back to the original Principles Centre. You discover what you truly stand for. You start loving yourself, instead of being driven by ego and pursuing wealth. You become confident about the kind, humble, grateful, authentic, principled, vibrant, passionate, compassionate, vulnerable, quick to apologies, free & brave warrior you are.

Only then would having money make you happier and more fulfilled. Having enough money to pay your bills and live decently will make it possible for you to start such a holistic transformation.

Then, it gives you access to build and maintain the balance of your four dimensions. The most obvious example I can think of is having the wherewithal for a gym subscription, to nurture a part of the physical dimension.

Your new center gives you internal security and clear direction. Perception to use every experience as an opportunity to expand yourself and continuously grow. Your power is limited only by your understanding of the Principles.

Consequently, money will merely be the means to execute your life’s mission, which you will know is much bigger than yourself.

By doing so, you will be able to touch, inspire, and enlighten people’s lives, be a change agent, and build trust and genuine healthy friendships during the process.

You will be enriched with gratitude and fulfillment. How come? Because, when you are mindful of people and enjoy their happiness and satisfaction, your body releases Serotonin and Oxytocin, the genuine long-term happiness chemicals!

Takeaways

A powerful and natural way to ensure Serotonin production is maintaining our integrity in relationships and caring about how we treat others.

Moving from ego to self-love — in other words, becoming emotionally healthy, you will be able to genuinely love others and remove unhealthy expectations from the relationship.

Oxytocin is released when a person is giving you enough reasons to trust them by making enough deposits in your Emotional Bank Account (your trust reserve).

In business, we can see examples of this in ‘servant leaders’. They understand leadership has nothing to do with the position in an organization, formal authority, or social status, and everything to do with inspiration and stimulation.

True Servant leaders seek to guide people in their growth, empower them to accomplish themselves, and transform individuals into a community, a tribe and a team, all believing in shared principles and mission!