"The Great Money Taboo"
By
Linda McCarrin, BA, CHLC
Certified Holistic Life Coach

There is a saying;: “ Money talks” but how many of us freely involve ourselves in money discussions? Yes, I understand what the meaning of that quote is…that if you have money you probably have a lot of other things in your life…but really, how many of us FEEL comfortable talking about money in specific situations, as opposed to generalities as opposed to not talking about it at all?

I was having a conversation today with a co-worker about tickets to see the play, “Wicked.” She couldn’t tell me how much she paid…just that they were “e-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e” (you have to say it slowly and deliberately!)
Another incident was when I first took my job and after having had lunch in the lunchroom, 3-4 people crowded around me warning me about this particular co-worker who had been at our table. As they hovered around me they said things like, “Watch out for her, she’ll ask you what you earn, what your mortgage is, and more.” I felt like I’d been enveloped by the rumor mongers of the company hoping I’d be on their side! I didn’t have the wherewithal to say anything then, but just recently I told them how I felt at that earlier moment and how I wanted to tell them that I could choose my own friends, thank you very much!! In getting to know the “colleague-in-question” better, I realized that she was much more fully expressed and comfortable about a lot of topics. AND, she was fair because she had no problem speaking about her finances, in fact she offered them…which REALLY made people nervous.

Right or wrong…good or bad…money still is one of those taboo topics.
Can learn from these examples by being more open about discussing money? Who can learn from it? What are the payoffs for opening up about this subject? What do we have to hide about it? What are the possible consequences? What feelings surface for you when you think about discussing money? Has anyone ever asked about your money? What came up for you then? Where did you feel it?

Linda McCarrin, BA,CHLC

Author's Bio: 

Linda McCarrin is a Chicago-born native. She has had a varied career from teaching to real estate sales to working in the health field. From an early age her intuition was always serving her. But it wasn’t until she went through what she calls her own “personal tsunamis” that she began to see that she was not on a divinely planned path. It took a cranial tumor to help her understand that and so she embarked on a course called, “Self-Mastery…A Journey Home to your Self” from Holistic Learning Centers. It was here that that she realized it was her past programming that kept her from coming from her true spirit. As a Certified Holistic Life Coach, she now teaches what coming from your Spirit is about through her company Ripple Effect Presentations featuring her “Seminars for the Soul” series. Linda travels to get the message across that we are here to find out who we are so that we can do what we are good at in order to have life’s abundance. Her favorite quote is: “People don’t change until the pain of remaining the same is too great.” You can reach her at Rippleeffect10@comcast.net or write to her at Linda McCarrin, Ripple Effect Presentations, Orland Park, Il. 60462. Her website is being developed.