by Connie Habash | Jan 6, 2023 | Abundance, Love
It’s rare that I offer a guest blog on my Awakening Self website. But I felt compelled to share with you someone who has had an impact on my life – in particular, my relationship to money. Her name is Morgana Rae and she’s known for creating financial abundance by putting love first.
As a spiritual person, if you’re anything like me, money can be an uncomfortable subject. We tend to judge it as “bad” or “not spiritual”, and then cause ourselves suffering around the issues of finance, income, business, and success.
But Morgana Rae helped me shift that. She helped me understand money as energy, and that a loving relationship with money – just like the loving relationships I want to cultivate with people and other aspects of my life and myself – is good, healthy, and only supports the work I do in the world and my spiritual awakening. And yours, too.
So I’m offering an interview with Morgana for you to get a sense of this paradigm shift in how we see money on the spiritual path. As she says, life and awakening is an alchemical process – “magic” – that transforms everything we experience and encounter, including money, into “spiritual gold”. I’m also passing on her free invitation to a special summit on love, money, and magic at the end of the interview!
Today I have the great pleasure of being the host on Day 4 of the Virtual Blog Tour of author Morgana Rae whose book Financial Alchemy: Twelve Months of Magic and Manifestation launches on Amazon on Monday January 23, 2023.
MORGANA RAE is the international #1 best-selling author of “Financial Alchemy®: Twelve Months of Magic and Manifestation.” She is regarded to be the world’s #1 authority on transforming relationship with money. She has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo Finance, all the major television networks, Coast to Coast Radio, and she was a recurring Money Maven on Fox TV. Morgana’s fans call her “the Money Goddess” because of the many documented examples of clients making unexpected income of 4, 5, 6, and even 7 figures within hours of changing their relationship with money. A pioneer in personal development for close to 30 years, Morgana writes, speaks, and coaches from a desire to empower idealistic entrepreneurs, artists, healers, and humanitarians to have a big impact in the world… and to heal the rift between heart, spirit, and money.
In her book, Financial Alchemy, Morgana walks you through her time-tested program to turn your personal Money Monster of scarcity into a Money Honey of abundance. The book is a self-guided system to help you uncover your limiting blocks to abundance and transform your relationship with money using a SUCCESS FORMULA that keeps you on track and positively “magnetic”.
Today, I’d like to share with you a recent interview I had with Morgana when I got to ask her some questions on money, success, spiritual growth, and stepping through fear. I hope you enjoy it.
Connie Habash: Why is having and nurturing a sense of personal Magic (or Alchemy) so important to enjoying our lives and evolving our souls?
Morgana Rae: It’s important to nurture a sense of personal magic because we’re talking about our relationship with life, getting in alignment, and not being at war with existence. This is the state of feeling that we can have what we want, that we can be in partnership with life, and that we can make use of anything that happens, no matter how challenging.
This is really where Alchemy comes to play. My personal definition of Alchemy is the transmutation of leaden human experience into spiritual gold. Then anything that happens, the car accident, the financial setback, the broken heart–any of it–can have some gem, some gift, some learning that will open up our relationship with ourselves and with the universe. The challenge becomes the key to the kingdom, the path to our heart’s deepest desire.
Connie Habash: What are your 3 favorite Magical things that you do for yourself, Morgana, to help you live a charmed life every day?
Morgana Rae: Oh, dear me. Let’s see!
One big thing I do is I talk to my money. I’m talking about money as if money were a human being, and my money is a person worthy of my deepest admiration and unconditional love—having nothing to do with dollars and cents. He’s a tall, dark, handsome imaginary guy, and I speak with him every morning. Sometimes I’ll ask, “What is our priority today, what would make you happy?” The big secret here is that the only thing that makes him happy is stuff that respects me and ultimately supports my happiness and empowerment.
Now, it may not be what I feel like doing that day, like balancing my check book, or doing something outside my comfort zone, but it will always be in my highest good. In my Financial Alchemy®, the one that’s coming out on January 23, I’ve included a daily entry for making money happy!
Another favorite thing that I do–and I do this more on a weekly basis (but you could do it daily also), is to ask the universe for help with something. Even when you can’t think of anything, ask for something! Ask for a short line at the Department of Motor Vehicles, or a great parking space. Learn to ask it and let it go. Treat this like a game that strengthens that muscle of manifestation. I choose something that’s outside of my control. Then I place a request. It’s sort of like saying, “Universe, if you aren’t too busy, I think I would like a new client this week.” Then I tend to forget about it, and it happens.
Here’s my third yummy practice. Every night before I go to bed, (and this is also in the book… I’m just GIVING you some of my favorite practices!) I make a list of at least five successes. They can be big and small. Washing dishes counts! It’s been scientifically researched, and human beings have amnesia about good things, so it really helps to make yourself recall your wins and write them down.
You may think nothing happened that day. Then by the time you come up with your five successes, you’ll think of number six, number seven, number eight, number nine… things just keep popping up.
There’s something really magnetic about acknowledging and recognizing your successes every night either through your own action or just lovely things that happen. It just charges your manifestation batteries.
I’m going to add some bonus magical stuff, other things that I have found really, really effective at helping me live a charmed life:
- Self-care is always magical! Make that a priority.
- Make a habit of doing things that scare you.
- Carve out time to dream. Here’s a tip: I talked about having conversations with money. Sometimes I’ll just have conversations with the universe and just ask something like, “Hey Universe, how do you want to use me?” And that keeps building the connection, because I get very interesting information that way.
- Get out of that forcing energy of making things happen right now.
- Desire things without attachment, and do what needs to be done.
You want to talk about magical things? Taking action is crazy magical! Action shows you and the universe that you’re serious. There’s something that happens when you take action.
And because it’s magic, the results are surprising, it’s not necessarily that you get the result that you wanted, or expected, when you wanted and expected. Sometimes it’s not what you expected and it’s a million times better!
Connie Habash: What thoughts, fears &/or personal qualities actually block our ability to manifest the things, money and people we desire in our lives?
Morgana Rae: Fear! Fears, worries, and deep, deep beliefs that we’re not good enough, that we can’t have what we want… after years of trying and failing, getting our heart broken, and all the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” that just kind of come with the human experience.
When our fears or limiting beliefs take over, they can show up in two extremes.
1) We give up, and then we don’t take the actions to make things possible to come to us. Or, the other extreme…
2) We get into a controlling, forcing, chasing, needy place.
Think about any relationship where you’re needy, graspy, and insecure. You don’t trust your partner, and you’re terrified your partner’s going to leave you. Imagine that partner is a lover. Now imagine that partner is money. (It’s the same dynamic!) Maybe you stop taking care of yourself. Maybe you sacrifice yourself—your dignity, your ideals, your happiness. Maybe you find yourself putting everybody else first. NOT attractive! To money or love…
Pretending your fears and hurts don’t exist isn’t helpful. What we ignore or suppress gets bigger and louder until it gets our attention. That’s why in Financial Alchemy® we face the monster FIRST. The magic happens after we slay the monster: all that remains is love. That next deep experience of being loved dissolves a lot of blocks.
After that, small daily actions of self-care—taking a walk in the sunshine, putting on some nice clothes, going to the gym, saying no to working for free–work like a magical manifesting serum.
———-
I hope you enjoyed this interview with Morgana Rae and that you’ll check out her book Financial Alchemy: Twelve Months of Magic and Manifestation at https://www.morganarae.com/book-prelaunch-2023
Here’s why:
Money, Love & Magic Telesummit!
11 Money, Love & Magic Mentors Share Their Wisdom on this
FR*EE 3-Day Online Event
January 17th, 18th & 19th, 2023
12pm Pacific/3pm Eastern/8pm UK
Book your place FREE at https://www.morganarae.com/book-prelaunch-2023
Over the course of 3 days, Morgana and her guests will be exploring how unlock your magical powers of manifestation to attract money effortlessly by putting LOVE first.
Here’s Morgana’s wonderful guest line-up:
- Morgana Rae – Coach, speaker, author of Financial Alchemy: Twelve Months of Magic and Manifestation @Morganarae
- Michael Stratford – Master Coach; Founder of MillionQuest. @GamifyYourLife
- Gabriela Berrospi – @gabywallstreet Forbes Finance Council Enseño a invertir en la bolsa de valores desde cero. Latino Wall Street.
- Jennifer Mclean – @meetjennmclean Author, Healer, Wellness Entrepreneur | Host, Healing With The Masters | Creator, Living Your Success Signature Business
- Doria Cordova – @DCCordova CEO Excellerated Business Schools® for Entrepreneurs/Money & You® Uplifting Humanity’s Consciousness Through Business since 1979. Join our Global Network!
- Marshall Burtcher – @bmburtcher Helping people-pleasers and codependents experience lasting peace, fulfilling purpose, and loving relationships in their daily lives
- Evan Marc Katz – @evanmarckatz Dating coach for smart women who have everything but the guy. Apply to Love U to gain confidence with men and create an easy, happy, committed relationship now.
- Pirie Jones Grossman – @pjgwellnessgirl Helps midlife women create their next best chapter! Best selling Author, 🎤TEDx Speaker, Psychologist
- Summer McStravick – @flowdreaming originator of Flowdreaming®, creator of M.E. School™, and Born to Make™.
- Shalini Yamdagni –@ShaliniYamdagni Int’l Pain Relief Expert. Best selling author of INSTANT PAIN RELIEF. Helping you break free from pain and create the life you want.
- Harrison Klein – @harrisonklein My passion is helping people with their life paths through consciousness awareness. I love seeing people get to their ‘a-ha!’ moments.
This special 3-Day Summit is Morgana’s FR*EE gift to you to celebrate the launch of her book, Financial Alchemy coming out on Monday January 23, 2023.
FREE GIFTS TOO!
When you buy Morgana’s book on Monday January 23, 2023, Morgana would like to give you the MP3 downloads of the Money, Love & Magic telesummit
PLUS…
You’ll also receive a complete library of beautiful personal development gifts from authors, speakers, coaches and other enlightened professionals from around the globe including one from me: Building Stress Tolerance
To claim your FREE pass to the Money, Love & Magic Telesummit! and read about the free gifts, go to:
https://www.morganarae.com/book-prelaunch-2023
Thanks for reading! As usual, please feel free to share your comments and thoughts below. I love reading your feedback.
by Connie Habash | Feb 13, 2018 | Love, Nature, Source, Valentine's Day
Yeah, I know. Valentine’s day is this week. How do you feel about it?
Do you feel loved? Do you have someone that you love? Do you appreciate this day to express that love, or does this day trigger painful emotions?
I think there are as many reactions to Valentine’s day as there are the spectrum of emotions. I personally appreciate the opportunity to express love and care for others. But I also don’t like the expectations and commercial aspect of “Valentine’s Day”.
And I don’t think this is about someone else – I think this day could be turned towards finding love wherever you are, inside of you. Because love isn’t limited to a person, a place, or a thing. Love is infinite, unlimited, and ever present. Love is the Divine, and it’s already within you.
But many of us have a difficult time finding and feeling this Divine Love within each of us. There are many reasons for this – spiritual beliefs, feeling unworthy, expectations, etc. One of the most effective ways to feel it is to express love out to others. But even that can be a serious challenge sometimes.
What works for me? Well, I have many ways that I tap into that unlimited source of Love, but there is one thing that opens me up to that Love almost every time. And that is going outdoors, sitting down, and deeply connecting with something in nature.
Right now, in California, we just had a warm spell and things are growing and blooming. I found a tiny sprout – the new life of a wildflower seed that I sowed in our front yard a few weeks ago – gently and bravely rising up between the wood chips.
I marveled at this seemingly insignificant form of life… how it trusts, reaches towards the sun, dares to unfold two little green leaves, and senses the possibilities. I wonder what plant it will become, the color of the flowers, how big it will grow.
I am reminded of my daughter who was just a baby 13 years ago, who now prepares for high school in the fall. She’s maturing into a heartfelt, wise, and determined young woman.
The tiny sprout… and my darling daughter… both expanding into their possibilities, both determined to be that which they came here to be. How can I not feel love for that sprout, even as I feel love for my daughter? Different, yes, but beautiful, magical, and all arising out of nature; one through my womb, the other through the womb of the earth’s soil.
My heart opens to feel the love for all creation. And as it opens to share that love, it opens to receive it. And that is how I experience the flood of Divine Love coming through me.
Just as I love my daughter and that sprout, I feel how Nature loves me: each unique creation unfolding on this planet is held, supported, nourished, and yes, loved by the Source of all life. That includes me, and that includes you.
Get outdoors. Find something to marvel at, great or small. Let it open your heart. If you do, you’ll feel the love for the dandelion growing in the cracks on the sidewalk, the tall and majestic pine tree, the sound of squirrels having a squabble on the neighbor’s fence, the fierce rain driving against your back. Life is full of miracles, and full of love. Behold the Beloved in all creation, and be held by the Beloved. Love is right here, right now, in and around you.
You don’t need Valentine’s Day for that.
Copyright @2018 by Rev. Connie L. Habash
by Connie Habash | Feb 8, 2017 | Action, Choices, Intention, Judgment, Love
February – a month that, stereotypically, we turn towards greeting cards with red and pink hearts, roses, chocolates, and are inundated with commercials about diamond jewelry. Valentine’s Day is around the corner, and whether it’s something you relish or are repulsed by, it’s here in our western culture.
I tend to avoid writing about this topic, but this year some new insights flowed in. Many of my clients and students struggle with the feeling of being lovable. This time of year can be triggering, causing some to feel lonely and lacking in romance. Others are disgusted at the commercial aspects, the commodification of love. And many of us continue to explore what is love, and what is the nature of our lovableness?
Valentine’s Day causes us to ask – who loves me and who do I love? How can I get love, have my needs for it met? I want to feel special, noticed, attended to, romanced, made love to, nurtured, and cared for. Naturally, we all want to be loved.
Spiritually, the question – as you probably know – is to ask: who can I love? How can I love others more? What is Unconditional Love? But to be frank, most people aren’t thinking about that on Valentine’s Day. They’re looking at their love life either with hopefulness and gratitude, or wistful longing.
It is a very basic psychological and emotional need to be loved. Scientific studies have shown that primates do not thrive unless they are held, loved, and nurtured as infants. We humans are no exception and in fact clearly need love and attention. However, if we are to truly feel loved and lovable, we must find the source of what love and lovableness is, whether we’re in a relationship or not. And we must find the blocks within us to feeling lovable as we are.
M. Scott Peck, author of the classic personal growth book, The Road Less Travelled, describes love in as clear and honest a way as I have found:
“Love is the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth… Love is as love does. Love is an act of will — namely, both an intention and an action. Will also implies choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love.”
Here, he asserts that love is not a feeling, happening to us, but rather an intention and an action that we choose. We often feel that love comes upon us passively; it is out of our control, given to us from another. But this is not correct. We experience the feeling that we call love because we have allowed ourselves to receive and experience it flowing through us. In essence, we open to and become love.
Those moments when we feel head over heels in love? When we receive a meaningful gift, a passionate kiss, a warm hug, an expression of appreciation or gratitude? Those are the result of releasing our inner blocks to the love that is there all the time, within us. We feel it within us, not outside of us.
By giving, we become the action of love. By receiving, we open to that love. By making ourselves vulnerable with someone we trust, we feel love. By offering an act of kindness, we become love in action.
When we see and feel love in this way, we come to understand that we have always been loved and lovable. It is the truth of who we are. We realize this when we release whatever is in the way of being that Love, the Love with a capital L that transcends the need to have someone to love or to love us, that transcends having a “reason” to love someone, that transcends whether we are “getting” what we want or not. This is Unconditional Love, the love without any conditions, reasons, or agendas.
Our task, then, is not to get the love we want, it’s to become that Love. When we are Love, there’s no question of whether we’re lovable or not. When someone is loving towards you, in a sincere and unconditional way, do you have any doubt that they are lovable? Don’t they just ooze lovableness by the fact that they are embodying what it is to be loving? We know we are lovable when we are loving towards others.
However, one of the blocks to becoming that Love is our difficulty with loving ourselves, yes? We have so many judgments about ourselves that it’s hard to let the love in from others. We have difficulty loving ourselves because those labels and judgments distort our self-image, making us unable to perceive the Love that is the source of Who We Are. Similarly, we hinder our ability to love others due to those same judgments and comparisons. Judgment and comparison create separation: between us and them, between the fragmented parts of ourselves, locking what we perceive as undesirable in the basement.
Love doesn’t judge or compare. Love embraces what is whole-heartedly, sees right through to the essence, accepts completely. Love doesn’t analyze. In contrast, Unconditional Love transcends thought. It is Being in the purest form, which gives rise to delight in All That Is.
Not so easy to transcend those thoughts, you say? It’s not as simple as thinking “I am lovable. I am Love.” Although that is helpful, we all know that plenty of other thoughts come in to the contrary.
Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith says that if we want to be beautiful, it’s not enough to say “I’m beautiful.” We must think beautiful thoughts, and then we become the essence of beauty. We focus our attention on all that is beautiful around us, appreciating the beauty of kindness, immersing in the majesty of snow-capped mountains. Filled with attention on beauty, we radiate with more beauty ourselves.
To feel and experience being lovable, our thoughts, words, and actions need to similarly be immersed in love. As Scott Peck asserts, this is love as a choice, an intent, an act of will that counteracts that which would impede it.
If we are either withdrawing from those we love, on the defense, or constantly demanding their attention, we are not letting love flow freely through us. We need to let go of our expectations, especially of perfection, and forgive ourselves and others. Our lovableness, though it is inherent in who we are, won’t be experienced unless we are attuned to Love by our thoughts, words, and actions. Otherwise, we see and experience more of whatever we think, speak, and do – and if that is judgment, it won’t be an experience of Love.
This Valentine’s Day, recognize the Love that is who you are. Acknowledge that, deep down, you are already loved and lovable. Then, do your best to attune yourself to the energy of Love. When you get down on yourself, what would you want someone who loved you to say? Practice thinking those thoughts. When you feel critical towards another, consider how you can be authentically more loving and accepting. If you see harm being done to another, how would Love guide you to help heal the situation? It will take some time to overcome the old thoughts and ways of being, but you can do it. You can become Love.
by Connie Habash | Aug 16, 2013 | Being, Freedom, Growth, Love, Presence, Space
For several weeks, I’ve been contemplating the nature of many things in the universe, including the nature of the Divine. I believe and feel that God is the source of love, and indeed is the energy of Love itself.
But in further exploring this idea, I realized that I needed to more deeply understand what I felt about the Divine. If God is Love, then what is Love? Because we all have different experiences and interpretations of love, it may cloud our true understanding of what that Infinite Consciousness or Intelligence is. We must come to a clear understanding of what Love is in order to understand God.
Many of us, consciously or unconsciously, have ideas of love. Some are based on what we did or didn’t receive as children growing up. Other ideas come from relationships we’ve had. And still other concepts come from what we’ve observed in the world or read in books.
Most of us base our concepts of love on what we feel inside. While I respect the power of feelings and the importance of honoring them and working with them, it can be a little deceptive to interpret love simply based on what we feel.
Why is that deceptive? Because feelings change. For example, many of us think we feel love when we’re “falling in love” with someone. We’re elated, we feel great, the world looks rosy. The thrill of being loved by another is ecstatic. It can be lusty, romantic, sweet, and make us feel worthwhile. At the same time, if circumstances change and we are rejected or betrayed, that same love can feel like jealousy, rage, despair, or hopelessness.
Is that love?
We often think of love when we think of our children. Certainly, there’s nothing like the love that a mother or father has for their child. It is elating, especially in those first weeks after birth. It is joyous, like when our little girl or boy runs to us with arms wide and throws themselves into our embrace. Being loved by a child touches us deeply, inspiring in us joy, responsibility, pride, and nurturance.
But this love also is painful, like the first time our toddler hits their head and cries like the world is over, or when they’re in bed with a fever. Our hearts ache for them, and we so much want to take away their suffering. Love for our children is also painful when our teen says they hate us, or slams the door on us. When our children don’t behave the way we want them to, love can feel like anger or frustration.
Is this really what love is? Does love change depending on the circumstance, or is love consistent, steady, always blissful? Or is it something else?
Well, clearly there are differences between the love we have for our favorite ice cream (love? really?), the love we have for our partner, the love we have for our parent or our children, and the love we have for the Divine. I could discuss the differences between them, but that’s really another article…
What I truly want to know and understand is, what is Divine Love? What is the Love, with a capital L, that I experience from and as God?
When I asked the question, answers started showing up. I was listening to a series of recordings by Dr. Vasant Lad, a renowned Ayurvedic doctor, about the essentials of the practice of Ayurveda, the health science of India. As he was describing the qualities of the 5th element, Space or Ether, he said something that surprised me. “Freedom is Love, and Love is Space.”
Huh? What did he mean by “Freedom is Love”? And why did he see Love as space?
It brought to mind the familiar quote: “If you love something, set it free. If it returns to you, it’s yours. If it doesn’t, it never was.” Giving someone the freedom to be who they are, without judgment or expectation, is a great act of love.
And that is exactly what the Divine has given us. The Creator gave us the universe in which to explore our lives, and the freedom to choose our actions, attitudes, and responses to life. So if the Divine is indeed Love itself, and it is everywhere present and infinite, then it makes sense that Love itself is that spaciousness of our universe and the freedom within it to explore, discover, and co-create.
A different take on Love comes from M. Scott Peck, author of the classic, The Road Less Traveled. He was, of course, describing love in relationship, but his view of love is just as applicable to the Sacred. Peck defines love as “the furthering of the growth of another.”
For lovers who choose to commit to a life together, or even just a season together, there is no greater love than supporting our partner in their evolution as a human and spiritual being. It is also what we sign up for as parents, nourishing the growth and development of our children.
Indeed, the Divine, too, seems to express as Love that furthers our spiritual evolution. Every situation and even every moment in life is rich with possibilities to learn, to open our hearts, to discover our true nature, and to expand our consciousness. We are given a grand universe and a life in which to grow and unfold into our greatest potential.
As I continued my query of What is Love, I remembered a sweet little book I had on a bookcase next to my desk at home. It’s called True Love, by Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn. Chapter number two says it very plainly: “To love, in the context of Buddhism, is above all to be there.” It’s presence.
He suggests that we practice this mantra with ourselves and those we love: “Dear One, I am here for you.” Don’t we feel most loved when someone takes the time to be present with us? To listen, to accept, to understand, to give us safe space to just be ourselves with them?
Whenever we are being present, we are Being Love. We recognize our connection to the one that we are present with. In that moment, we open to Oneness, to the Divine flowing through us, as us.
These three perspectives bring together, for me, a greater understanding of what Divine Love is. No wonder we all long for freedom, for space to be ourselves, for support in our growth, and for someone to be there for us. That is Love… and that is our greatest potential.
Do you have definitions of Divine Love to add to the list? Post them here!
Copyright @ 2013 by Rev. Connie L. Habash
Today I have the great pleasure of being the host on Day 4 of the Virtual Blog Tour of author Morgana Rae whose book Financial Alchemy: Twelve Months of Magic and Manifestation launches on Amazon on Monday January 23, 2023.
In her book, Financial Alchemy, Morgana walks you through her time-tested program to turn your personal Money Monster of scarcity into a Money Honey of abundance. The book is a self-guided system to help you uncover your limiting blocks to abundance and transform your relationship with money using a SUCCESS FORMULA that keeps you on track and positively “magnetic”.
February – a month that, stereotypically, we turn towards greeting cards with red and pink hearts, roses, chocolates, and are inundated with commercials about diamond jewelry. Valentine’s Day is around the corner, and whether it’s something you relish or are repulsed by, it’s here in our western culture.
For several weeks, I’ve been contemplating the nature of many things in the universe, including the nature of the Divine. I believe and feel that God is the source of love, and indeed is the energy of Love itself.
