You Don’t Have to Choose Between Money & Meaning
Recently, I had a conversation with a healer who insisted that spiritual work and financial abundance are mutually exclusive — that you simply can't have both. As I listened, I could feel my body physically recoil from this statement. It wasn’t just disagreement — it was a visceral rejection of a narrative that quietly sabotages so many spiritual women in business, like healers, coaches, and creatives. It’s the belief that you have to choose between financial well-being and spiritual integrity, and it shows up in ways that limit your impact, your income, and your energy.
This belief, though often unspoken, still lives in the subconscious of too many women doing sacred work. It manifests quietly but powerfully — undercharging even when you know your work is life-changing, feeling guilt or shame when your business begins to thrive, pulling back from bigger goals because they feel spiritually “off,” or hiding your desire for abundance in communities where it feels taboo to want it.
This idea — that pursuing wealth somehow compromises your spiritual authenticity — isn’t just outdated. It’s fundamentally wrong.
The Many Origins of Scarcity Wounding
The belief that poverty is somehow more spiritual is not simply an old idea we outgrew — it’s a deeply rooted wound passed down through creative and spiritual lineages over generations.
Consider ancient monastic traditions, where spiritual practitioners renounced worldly possessions. What’s rarely acknowledged is that these monastics were not isolated or unsupported. Their communities met their basic needs so they could dedicate themselves to spiritual development. They weren’t hustling to pay rent or wondering how they’d feed their families.
We see a similar dynamic in the “starving artist” archetype — the romanticized notion that the truest creatives suffer financially for their craft, with poverty worn as a badge of authenticity. Yet many celebrated artists throughout history had wealthy patrons who ensured their needs were met, freeing them to focus entirely on their creative expression.
On the surface, creative and spiritual women might seem to come from separate lineages. But the underlying message is strikingly similar: your value lies in your loyalty to lack — that financial struggle is somehow a sign of purity or higher purpose.
Perhaps most quietly insidious is the fact that financial agency is relatively new territory for women in the West. For generations, we were denied the legal and social right to own property, earn income, or build wealth independently. So this belief — that spiritual or creative women shouldn’t seek prosperity — isn’t just about religion. It’s gendered conditioning, designed to keep us from accessing power.
And these stories aren’t just historical relics. They live in our bodies, our family legacies, and our culture. They continue to shape our choices and perceptions — about how much we’re allowed to want, earn, or enjoy, and about whether we’re “good” women if we choose to prosper.
The Modern Spiritual Dilemma
For women walking a spiritual path — coaching, creating, or offering healing services — this conflict often takes root in our most tender and vulnerable inner spaces. We second-guess our prices, we feel hesitant to talk openly about our financial goals, and we worry that growing our businesses might somehow disconnect us from the depth and integrity of our work. We shrink our desires in communities where ambition is quietly shamed, and we steel ourselves against judgment from those who equate wealth with ego.
If any of this feels familiar, please know: you are not alone. This internal tug-of-war between purpose and prosperity is one of the most common — and least openly discussed — struggles for spiritual women in business. I’ve lived it, too. And here’s the truth: you cannot create lasting, nourishing prosperity while simultaneously believing it is selfish or wrong to desire it.
Yogic Truth: Prosperity Is Part of the Assignment
My spiritual tradition is yoga, and what many people don’t realize is that ancient yogic wisdom addressed this false dichotomy thousands of years ago. The yogic tradition outlines four aims of life — a complete and integrated framework for householders, meaning people who live in the world, raise families, earn a living, and participate fully in society:
Dharma – fulfilling one’s purpose and right livelihood
Artha – creating prosperity and material well-being through right livelihood
Kama – experiencing pleasure, enjoyment, and creative expression
Moksha – seeking spiritual liberation and self-realization
What’s important to recognize here is that artha — the pursuit of material prosperity — is not only included in this framework, it’s regarded as one of the essential components of a balanced spiritual life. Prosperity is not a distraction from spiritual growth. It’s part of the foundation that supports it.
These four aims were never meant to be pursued in isolation. The ancient yogis understood something that many modern spiritual seekers have forgotten: when your material needs are met with integrity, you create the spaciousness and stability that allows your spiritual practice to deepen.
Financial well-being gives you the grounding to continue doing the work you're here to do, sustainably and joyfully.
Money Is Not a Moral Issue
Money itself is not good or bad. It’s not sacred or profane. It’s simply a form of energy — a medium of exchange and expression. What gives money spiritual dimension is the way we relate to it, and the consciousness we bring to earning, spending, saving, and investing.
Are we earning our money through integrity or exploitation? Are we holding it with gratitude or grasping? Are we sharing it with generosity or out of obligation? Are we using it to nourish life or to numb out?
When we begin to examine our conditioning around money — all the judgments, fears, and inherited stories — we create space for a conscious relationship. One that honors our values, supports our growth, and reflects who we are becoming.
Financial Well-Being Is Spiritual Power
In the world we actually live in — with bills and rent and grocery costs, with its healthcare systems and childcare gaps, with its many demands on our time and energy — financial well-being is not optional. It’s foundational.
When we are resourced, we have the time and spaciousness to rest, to move our bodies, to meditate, to be in nature, to practice, and to create. Economic stability relieves the chronic stress that erodes our health, blunts our intuition, and narrows our perspective. Prosperity expands our capacity to be generous — with our time, our money, and our presence. And abundance allows us to support the people, causes, and communities we believe in with real, tangible power.
This world doesn’t just ask us to be spiritual. It asks us to be grounded, awake, and well-resourced — so we can lead, create, serve, and sustain.
The Spiritual Responsibility of Abundance
When we say yes to financial well-being, we don’t just help ourselves - we show others what’s possible. We normalize abundance in sacred work. We heal ancestral patterns that told us we had to choose between service and survival. And we become living proof that spiritual devotion and material thriving are not just compatible — they belong together.
Choosing to claim prosperity isn’t about hoarding, striving, or chasing. It’s about allowing your work to support you. It’s about honoring the value you bring. It’s about creating a life that is both grounded and expansive — one that nourishes you, your clients, and the communities you care about.
This is what financial stewardship looks like. This is what sacred prosperity can become.
You can be spiritual and prosperous. These states aren’t in conflict. In fact, they reinforce one another.
When we release the outdated narratives and unconscious beliefs that tell us we must suffer to be good, we open to a fuller experience of abundance — not just financially, but emotionally, creatively, and spiritually.
The world doesn’t need more wise women in scarcity. It needs conscious, grounded, abundant women who are willing to be seen, supported, and prosperous — and to use their resources to reshape what’s possible.
I want that for you. I want that for all of us.
Let’s talk about what is possible for you + money.
If this post spoke to you —if you feel the tension between purpose and prosperity in your own life - I’d love to hear what’s coming up for you. This is the exact kind of conversation I hold space for in my work, and it’s often where real transformation begins. My program, Get Right with Money® is where we heal on all levels with money - energetically, emotionally, and behaviorally. We do this work together in a program designed to help you build lasting financial well-being without abandoning your spiritual integrity.
It opens again in January, but you're invited to reach out now.
I welcome you into a conversation about where you are and what you want with you + money.
