Shelby Melissa

Journal Prompts: Money and Worth

—

by

Shelby Melissa
in

I’m starting new series of posts called Journal Prompts. They’ll come out sporadically, but all focus on specific journaling prompts. This week’s theme is around money and worth.

Journal Prompts: Money and Worth

I journal. A lot.
It’s pretty much my freakin’ job to journal.

One of the things that sort of naturally happens as a result, is that I start to see patterns. Patterns of what I am coming up against within myself.And one thing that has been coming up recently, has been money. Naturally. I run a business. I pay bills. I live in a society that puts a lot of value in money.

So, it is no surprise.
But what is a bit of a surprise, is how deeply rooted this idea of money = value/worth is. And I’m not talking about the value objects and things. I mean self-worth. Let me show you.

Here is part of a Journal Entry from December 5th.

Q from yesterday – Why is it that we all want to be rich? What is it about money?
I speculate it isn’t the money exactly but what money gets us, and what being rich means.
Money gets us happiness, up to a point. Studies show this. Money gets us comfort, experiences, relaxation, and of course things. Being rich means not worrying about getting sick, missing work, unpaid bills, being unable to afford food. It means freedom – because really, how often are rich people held accountable? (And how often does that actually significantly affect their lives?)
So, what we really want is security, comfort, freedom, and the ability to make mistakes.And happiness. And to some extent it is also about status and power. (And also we live in a capitalist and consumerist society which drives needing more money but also links worth and money.)

So, what if our worth wasn’t linked to money? Then what?
We’d stop charging based on our worth. And maybe we’d stop chasing after it. Like in excess. Maybe capitalism would be less of a thing or hold less sway. Or consumerism. It is so hard to imagine what that could look like because I think it is so entrenched in our society. Money, and thus power, determines your worth. When in reality, our worth is already inherent to who we are and no one is worth more or worth less than the next person.

And then again on January 7th. Journaling about resistance around charging certain amounts.

But finally really getting it on January 8th with this:

What in me is not okay with charging this? Or why am I hesitating?
It’s too much – okay. That is a tired excuse. What is it really?
I think maybe I worry about people saying “no.” Or like that they think it is too much. Why is that?
They wouldn’t be valuing me, or something like, it means I’m not valuable. Holy shit. Another fucking layer of money and self worth. Fuck that shit.

(lol. I swear a lot more in my journal apparently.)

Are you seeing the pattern too? I’ve been tying up my self worth with money.

But that isn’t fact. Like I said on December 5th – we are inherently worthy. Money doesn’t actually mean a thing about our worth or value as people.
And when we stop linking our value and worth to money, or when we begin on the path to not doing it any more, we begin to feel freer. Things feel a lot less like the 10 of Wands.

So here are some money journal prompts for you:
-What if my self worth wasn’t linked to money? Then what?
-What if I valued myself and that was enough? What would my life look like?
-If this was all true, what would I do now?

If you are comfortable, comment below and share your journaling results! I’d love to hear what comes up for you!

And if you would like to explore this area of reflection further – Worth and money are also tied to production in capitalist societies like the United States, read this blog post, Releasing the Pressure to Produce, to explore this topic more.

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *