28 Sep How to Become a Conscious Conduit of Energy – Part One

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Today, we will look at something slightly different than we usually see about ourselves. Before we go any further, please consider the following question: what would it be like for you to discover that you are a conduit of energy? Let me explain: a conduit is anything that takes energy, like water, electricity, or gas, from one place to another in an organized way.

We’ve used conduits for millennia. It was how we could stay in one place, raising crops through irrigation, ending the necessity of traveling from one place to another in search of food.

Take this metaphor one step further. Imagine that one of our primary aims for success is to be a conscious conduit of energy. In this case, we look at energy differently from water or electricity.

Imagine that we have to use six kinds of energy to make things happen in everyday life. They are the energies of money, time, physical vitality, creativity, enjoyment, and support. Let’s look at the energies of money and time in this article.

Money is a form of energy. It’s not a “thing” in itself. It’s energy that we all agree is valuable. The name “money” is derived from the Latin word moneta, a name given to the Roman goddess Juno, at or near whose temple the Romans first began minting coins around 300 BCE. However, coins were used with different names as far back as 1000 BCE.

Later, we created a form of paper that we all agreed had value because we could exchange it at banks for either gold or silver. For most of us, “money” is now an electronic blip on our computer screen or iPhone.

However, even though money is not “real” in the physical sense, psychological research into what stresses us reveals that the energy of money is the one that keeps people up at night the most, although the energy of time runs a close second.

Even though money is intangible, it can still get things done for us. For example, you need your lawn mowed. You give the neighbor’s child $20 to do it. It gets done fast! That’s energy at work.

One question: as you read this about the energy of money, do you have a clear memory of when you paid someone to do something specific like mow your lawn, clean your home, or do chores for you? It’s helpful to see the simplicity of what happens when money empowers specific, goal-directed behavior.

Time is an energy that’s closely associated with money. If you look at the energy of time, you can quickly see how it affects specific results. For example, twenty-five years ago, in the Mastering Life’s Energies course, I would ask people why they didn’t go on vacation, and they’d answer: “I don’t have enough money.” When I ask the same question now, the first answer is: “I don’t have enough time.” Then they might talk about money. However, this shift from money to time reflects how most of us experience our lives. As one person in my course put it:

Joel: I feel like I’m running out of time. Everything is speeded up over the past ten years. There’s so much to do and little time to do it in. I can see that I must “budget” my time like I’m seeing how much of it to put toward whatever I’m doing. Time management has now become just as important as money management. Where have “free and easy” gone? I worry about my time even more than I worry about money.

Returning to the metaphor that we are conscious conduits of energy, that our primary purpose is to use this energy to fuel-specific, measurable results, let’s look at what can happen to a conduit over time.

Like a pipe, every conduit can develop “leaks” and “sludge” that make it difficult, if not impossible, to water the “Garden of our Goals and Dreams.”

Looking at your relationship with the energy of money, your money “sludge” makes it more challenging to get that energy to fuel an idea, project, or personal goal. This is what that “sludge” can look like:

• Incomplete money business, such as paying back any loans from family or friends,
• Not knowing your bank account balance,
• Any promises to yourself, your family, and your business regarding money that you haven’t accomplished yet,
• Anything regarding your health, the health of your family, or pet(s) that you haven’t taken care of because of money concerns,
• Regarding insurance for your home: any theft, fire, or earthquake that you haven’t secured.

I’ve given some examples of money “sludge.” I know you can find more if you look at how unkept promises, whether to yourself or others, can create barriers to using the energy of money consciously.

A conduit can also develop “leaks” that siphon off energy, leaving the conduit less effective in watering your garden. Leaks occur when you spend money on what you don’t necessarily want or need. Like putting items in your basket while you’re on the way to the check-out stands in markets or other stores that sell items like clothing, shoes, jewelry, or books.

To make this real for you: have you ever put some of those items in your cart, paid for them, and then taken them home, only to wonder why you bought them in the first place? Stop and think: I know you will see when you’ve paid for items you’ll never use. That practice we’re looking at is what we call “leaking” the energy of money.

To examine how we leak money further, and if you’re interested in becoming conscious about how you use money, look at your monthly credit card statement.

Go over each item you paid for and ask yourself for each item that seems unclear, whether that charge was for something you wanted or for an item that didn’t mean much to you and was a case of leaking.
See if you’re enrolled in some program or product that you don’t really use, but get charged for each month, no matter how small the charge is.

Add up all of the “leaky” charges for that month, no matter how small the charge seems to be. Then, multiply that number by twelve. You now have a concrete example of how much of the energy of money you’ve been leaking annually. Imagine what you could have done with that money, something that would make you happy or fulfilled.

Congratulations! You’ve looked at where you have been unconscious about money. You can stop your leaks, saving that energy for goals that have meaning for you, like taking the trip you’ve always wanted to do or having something you want and will derive pleasure from.

Now, look at what time “sludge” and time “leaks” are all about. When I ask people I coach to do this, they come up with many examples regarding their relationship with time. Look at what is true for you!

In our next article, we learn how to turn away from being unconscious conduits of energy and toward a life filled with clarity, focus, ease, and grace regarding your relationship with money and your relationship with time.

Wishing you all my best,