Yours Consciously Sneha

Tag: consciousliving

  • FACTORS THAT AFFECT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH MONEY!

    Money is my favourite concept to talk about, So why is Money my favourite thing to talk, because it has been the most challenging thing for me to deal with most of my life. This is also why I indulged myself to learn a lot more about Money when I started my Upcycling business a year ago.

    I read books, I watched videos of billionaires on their Money Mindset, I listened to Podcasts, I followed an infinite number of coaches’ advice, I even hired a coach-you name it, I have done it. All of it, for me to expand and learn about Money as I was so freaking bad with it.

    But just learning isn’t enough right, you will have to integrate whatever you learn. And also, if you learn from 1000 sources like I did, there are 1000 perspectives. You will not be able to integrate every perspective, if you do so, you are losing yourself in the process and you are just trying to be like someone else and you are doing all of this only because-“If I do this then I will be able to earn more money”!

    This is exactly what I was doing and nothing was working out, and that’s when I started to look deeper into my life and the kind of stories I had created for myself with respect to Money. There are many factors that affect your relationship with money, to make it simpler for you all to understand, I have broken it down into these 3 major factors:

    1. Family, you were raised in.
    2. Society.
    3. Generational Patterns.
    1. Family, you were raised in.

    Now, the family you have been raised in plays a huge role, even from the time you were in your Mother’s womb. From ages 0-8 our Subconscious Mind is super active, we do not have a developed rational mind.  This is what I call the sponge state, where we absorb everything that we see, hear, smell, touch, and feel. If your parents fought over money, you would have absorbed that and formed a story that Money brings in fights in the family, if you were raised in a family where money was just enough for survival needs, you would have formed a story that Money will not bring in happiness.

    So I want you to go back, and see if you can recollect if you can remember any memories from your childhood that had to do with Money. You may not remember it also and that’s fine. So here’s how I recently discovered how I carried on exact same patterns as my Mother did.

    In my adult life, I was always the one who would be generous and give people Money, even when I didn’t have any, I would borrow from others and give to people. Ofcourse, it always got me into trouble. But I just wouldn’t stop, definitely, this is a people-pleasing behaviour where I just wanted that person to be with me and I did not want to tell NO.

    Recently I had this realisation, that my Mother would do exactly the same thing. As a kid, I always saw her helping my Uncle-her brother with Money, she use to borrow from neighbours and give him money and then the neighbours would come asking for it.

    So, do you see the connection? I was shocked when I had this realisation, ofcourse I was aware I was a People Pleaser but what I did not know was how I took it all from my mom.

    Make a note of all the common behaviours you have in your life with Money and Journal about it, and wait and see if something comes up. Since it is all subconscious mind, it takes a while for it to pop up so don’t force it. It happens in the most unusual times, like when you are washing vessels or cleaning your house.

    And it is still okay, even if you don’t remember anything. As long as you are aware that you have a behavioural pattern, that can be changed.

    2.  Society

    We all grow up, and we are of course part of society. We hear stories from others, we watch movies, we are told to live a certain way, we are told Rich people are Evil, and we are told Money brings unhappiness. Societal conditioning is very much deeply rooted to be on the Survival mode, this is how we evolved right? And that Survival mode, our fight and flight mode loves drama. Loves staying in the victim mindset and loves to loathe self-pity.

    I have been here, I would always gain attraction from people saying “I do not have Money”, so that they feel pity and help me. This may be triggering to some of you, but this is how it is. This is why I am being transparent and telling you, that I have also lived in this mindset most of my life. Ofcourse, I was doing it all subconsciously and when I realised it, I felt very ashamed and had to work on being compassionate about myself and showing love to my inner self.

    So now, I want you to ask yourself, what kind of stories I have formed from the influence of society?

    Where did you pick these stories from, was it from your neighbours or friends or colleagues or movies, Movies surely do influence us. Especially when most of our movies have Villains who are super rich, I find this very funny. I have no idea how all evil characters are so rich! I think I saw a meme about this, making fun of evil characters being rich hahahaha

    3. Generational Conditioning

    So here, you will have to go deeper into your family history. For example, on My Father’s side, they were very poor, I have heard stories where they would just eat rice with water. My Grandfather really struggled a lot as a farmer to raise 8 children. God knows how it was when my Grandfather was a kid, and this was the time when India was ruled by the British and most of the farmers were deeply affected. So the Money struggle is in my family for generations. My father moved from the village to the city for a very low-wage paying job, even though it was a government job, it was not paying him well. I am pretty much like a first-generation educated child, so my Father always passed on that conditioning to me that “Money comes only with the struggle” explicitly and also genetically.

    Now, I am not a scientist to talk about Genes, there are some theories that say Generational trauma is real and some theories say it is not. It is a debatable topic, but from what I have personally experienced and what I have seen, generational trauma does seem real.

    So now, see if you can find out about your family history. If you are on good terms with your family and you feel safe with them, this might be easy.  If you are not on good terms, there is a way for that too. Map all the political movements that your ancestors might have gone through, like in India British rule did affect a lot of people.  Any religious or cultural parties, that may have affected how your family has shaped the stories around money, see if you can pull up any information around all that you think may have affected your ancestors.

    And most importantly, be compassionate to yourself while you do the work, I do know all of these stories can be triggering. It was for me, and it still is for me on many levels. Take your time and do it in a relaxed way. I also do want to iterate on this, that there is nothing wrong with you if you do not know how to deal with Money. There is nothing wrong with you if you have made bad choices in the past about Money. There is nothing wrong with you if you are broke.

    And don’t ever tie your Self Worth and Value to the Money you have, that’s just how society defines it, unfortunately. Culturally, we have just been those people who want to label everyone based on their societal status and that status is mostly judged on how much money they have.

    Hope all of this gave you some insights into your relationship with money, this will be a series of many blog posts so watch out for more.

    I am also conducting a workshop on how to strengthen your relationship with Money, Initially, I was keeping it open only for Entrepreneurs as I saw a lot of people struggling with pricing their products. While we will cover that as well, it is open for everyone if you would want to uncover all these whacky stories and live the free life that you deserve.

    Click here to register for the workshop.

    The same post is available as a Podcast, available on all platforms-Conscious Stories with Sneha!

    Follow me on Instagram @yoursconsciouslysneha

    Yours Consciously

    Sneha

  • You define your success!

    Upcycled Scrunchie I am wearing here can be purchased on Instagram @upcyclewither

    Woooo, it’s almost been 4 weeks since my last episode-there are many reasons why there was a gap, and one of the biggest ones was my health. Something alarming happened 2 months ago and I was in that zone. Nothing to worry about, I went for a test and I am all fine now but this story definitely deserves another blog post.

    Now getting back to the topic-Success, tell me who does not want to be Successful, we all do. But, oh yes, there is a but. Do you want to be successful or do you want to be Famous or do you want to be Rich? What is it that you want?

    Wait a minute, aren’t they all linked together? When you are rich, you are automatically Successful in what you are doing and that makes you famous.

    Well yes, that is right. This is what I have been chasing too and that’s where a realisation hit me that I was chasing. I was going with the flow of how Society defines Success, extremely egoistic, leading with masculine energy and being so rigid that I want to be Successful in a certain way. I started a business this way, wanting to be a Millionaire in one-year hahahahah

    Again, I am not here to say that there is something wrong with Successful People. With my experience the past one year, what I have learnt is-we all as humans need to be fulfilled with “what we are and what we have in this moment”. If we are not fulfilled NOW, at this moment, no amount of money or fame or success will ever be enough for us.

    Say in my case, I have mentioned many times that I wanted to be Rich because I just wanted to run away from this house as I wanted to run away from my Father and my Brother. Although at that time, it seemed like a quick fix and I was influenced a lot by the concept of Self Made Woman-this may offend feminists but that’s my truth.

    And now, I am sitting here and saying that I am glad that did not happen so quickly because even in that other house where I would have moved if at all I had gotten rich; I would still be carrying all the traumatic past with me and I still would have lead an unfulfilled life.

    A few days ago, before drifting off to sleep, I had this download about Success and that’s what inspired me for this episode. There is no one fixed definition of Success, every day you waking up is a Success, every day you cooking for yourself is a Success, you moving from saying “I can’t” to “I can” is a Success, and you smiling and spreading Joy to others is a Success, you planting a seed in your garden is a Success, you receiving  1 Like on your Instagram Post is a Success, you moving ahead even when your reality looks nowhere closer to your dreams is Success.

    That one small step is Success.

    I can go on with it hahahah but you get the point, You define your Success. Don’t let others do it for you, don’t even let me do it for you. You do it for yourself.

    It is quite easy to fall into that trap especially these days when you are constantly being fed by so much information on Social Media, and everybody else’s success stories. I have been there, I know how it feels. I use to always feel that I am unworthy of deserving Success, that’s why it’s not happening to me and something is wrong with me and constantly comparing myself with others.

    A year ago, I barely could move from my bed, I was terrified of facing the camera, I had extreme levels of Body Insecurity, and I had high levels of anxiety. I was in a constant Survival mode and now a year later I am confident in speaking in front of the camera, bloody hell I have a Podcast which was not even part of my plan and I so much enjoy doing this; sharing my story and my journey with all of you.

    This is Success for me, This is my definition of Success, the improvements, being Self Motivated when nothing is going my way is Success for me, those 10 views on my reels is Success for me, I define my Success now and I am not giving that control to anybody else.

    Everybody’s story is different and everybody’s journey is different. So is your Story and so is your Journey.

    Enjoy those tiny steps that you take every day, it may seem tiny now but eventually, you will know how big of a step that is.

    You Define your Success and be kind to yourself in that Journey.

    I will end this blog post with the great Dalai Lama’s quote: The planet does not need more successful people. The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds.

    You can listen to the same story as a Podcast Episode too, available on all major platforms-Conscious Stories with Sneha.

    Yours Consciously

    Sneha

  • Fear of Failure is an Illusion!

    As I am getting closer to celebrating my 1 year anniversary as an Entrepreneur of my Upcycling business, which I launched last year on April 20th. I have just been seeing some old photos of the posts and reels I have shared on Instagram.

    If you don’t know what I do, I collect fabric leftovers during the production process and make products from them. If you would like to buy, check my Instagram page @upcyclewither. So when I first started, I wanted this brand to be a Women’s Apparel brand, if you would have read this post called “Learnings and Musings of 2021” you would know the story.

    Anyway, in short, I launched the brand, it was in the mid of the raging pandemic, but I still did get orders from friends and in a month’s time by end of May or so, I had to let go of the tailor I was working with. I personally do not have any degree in fashion or sewing,  at that time I had just learnt some basics from that tailor.

    So I cancelled all of these orders or rather said I will keep it on hold until I find another tailor, and that did not happen either. I slowly started to learn online and started stitching myself and introducing accessories like Coasters, Handbags and so on.

    What I wanted to talk about in particular in this episode is “Failures” and how we perceive them. Failures are Feedback, there is nothing wrong or right about it, or rather there are a lot of right things that come with it. Then why are we so afraid of them, in my perspective, we are not afraid of failures, rather we are afraid of how people will look at us if we fail at something.

    In that fear, very often we may not even want to take that step and even if we do if there is the feedback we do not know how to process it in a healthy way.

    I have just been trying to recollect how I held myself when I realised I cannot make it as an apparel brand and then switched over to accessories.

    I had done a pretty good mindset work by then, on not wanting to give any thought to how others are going to judge me because I did not make it as an Apparel brand. I was of course very upset about how to go about this but at the same time, I also firmly believed that everything happens for a reason and at this moment I will concentrate on what can be done and what can I learn from this situation.

    I was also joking on Instagram 2 days ago, coz I love clothes and I am glad that the apparel line did not work out coz I was afraid that I will keep it all to myself which I did with a few of them.  hahaha

    Last week I watched the documentary Return to Space the story of Elon Musk how he started Space X and about all their rocket launches and failures and success stories. The first 3 launches of SpaceX failed and that cost them 100 million dollars that’s how much Elon Musk had at that time to invest, they did not stop after that. He and his team worked together again and built another rocket which was a success. Rest is history, you all know how Successful he is now with SpaceX.

    This is the mindset most successful people operate from, I always wondered why the failures aren’t spoken much of, that’s coz they don’t stick on it too much. Okay, it’s done, it’s over, we have learnt something from it and how can I implement that on the next one.

    Just this one mindset is enough, for us to handle anything in life-personal or professional. And you know, when your mindset is so strong you will energetically repel all those people you are worried about who are going to shame you or even if they do, you will not bother about it anymore.

    Now that you are aware, failure is an illusion, here is a sign for you to start whatever you have been putting on hold.

    Introducing my new coaching program, Rewind to Rewire to work through all these blocks of Failures and Success, click here to apply.

    Yours Consciously

    Sneha

  • CLIMATE CHANGE TRAUMA VS ABUNDANT MINDSET!

    Photo clicked in Kodaikanal, this was my workplace 😉

    Disclaimer: All that I am sharing in this post is purely from my own experience and my own realisations for my own good and for Mother Earth’s good-in simple words, Just my Perspective. You all know now, how connected I am to nature and how protective I was too! So, Climate change was something that always questioned me about the existence of Humanity. In the year 2016, I watched the movie The Revenant with a friend, I had just quit my job and was about to start travelling. Right after the movie, they were 2 things that were clear to me:

    1. I was sure that my love Leonardo is gonna win Oscar.

    2. I told my friend, that “We are all gonna Die”; exactly in the same tone as to how Jennifer Lawrence screams in the recent movie “Don’t Look Up”!

    Although I always did my bit as much as I could to keep the environment around me safe and clean, I just could not come to terms with the carelessness of others. Every now and then, the Big news of climate change always put me off; to an extent where I had once decided that I will not have any children. Watching so many Environmentalists, always blaming the existence of Humans on Climate Change, and also as my experiences matched with theirs, I developed hatred towards Humanity-which means I developed hatred towards myself!

    In my first remote job, in Kodaikanal; the job was to manage the place that involved running from one hill to another. I met so many incredible humans, who became such good friends later on. My mornings were filled with beautiful sunrises amidst mountains and the whole day dancing around with the rains and leeches. Although the work was hectic, the people who worked around there made it all so simpler and easy.

    I once mentioned to our cook there, that I don’t like washing clothes and she took it from me and washed it in the river for me; how much ever I denied not to! Who does that, my goodness! And another help, cooked this delicious meal and invited me to his house, that meal tasted exactly like how my mother cooked.

    You see, the nature all around was beautiful, I had everything that I craved for. One of the main reasons for me to start travelling is to be away from humans, all that was satisfying. But, I also deep inside craved for that connection with other Humans is what I realised there and that’s what  I found in all of those beautiful people.

    I remember, telling a friend over there. You know, I always hated humans so much coz I thought they are the only reason for climate change; now I have realised that Humans are Nature too!

    Fast forward, to many years later; this Sneha decides to start a Sustainable brand because why not, Environmentalist, travels sustainably, lives sustainably; It’s all perfect, right! This is where it all brought up my Climate Change Anxiety again. I would not throw any Plastic bag that comes with groceries, how much ever I carry my bag there would be some groceries that I would have to buy which would already be packed with plastic.

    Also, my family members would not listen and that would give me another set of anxiety; I also live in the suburbs of Bengaluru and didn’t even have the option to send the plastic bags for recycling and the covid situation wasn’t helping either.

    I would store sacks of plastic all around my house, I would wear torn clothes coz I didn’t want to buy more and be a burden to the environment and I would avoid eating chips as they would come in plastic bags. I basically, was stressing myself to all of these in the name of saving Mother Earth, not even realising, how will the Mother be happy when her child is suffering.

    Since I was new in the business, I was also trying to fit in in the Sustainable industry and I wanted to be part of the community. I was scared, that I was contradicting my lifestyle and the ethics of my brand.

    At the same time, I was also awakening, rather my soul was awakening hahaha! I was reading a lot about Money as I had to prepare myself very well in my business. Money is Energy, Rich people are not evil, Limiting Beliefs around Money, how Money is divine Abundance; it all made a lot of sense to me.

    This was definitely a clash because every sustainable business owner I was in connection with, would always Bad mouth rich people and most of the sustainable bloggers/practitioners did too. This is not to blame anyone, coz I was that person too one day. Just that my mindset shifted so my beliefs shifted too and I was not syncing with any of them. Now, this Sneha who is trying to be fit in the sustainable industry and also who wants to be Abundant, got into a soup! Hahaha

    I use to promote my products saying it’s affordable coz in the sustainable industry there was always this notion that sustainable products are expensive. So I was basically pleasing everyone by putting my worth down, in simpler words repelling all the abundance I was meant to receive.

    In the beginning, I even sold most of my products at a very lower price coz I was in fear that nobody would buy it. It’s not possible to keep each of my legs on two different boats and row ahead for a longer time right.

    So long story short, I chose to be Abundant, why not! The universe is Abundant, Universe is Expanding and so does all of us.

    Now that Sneha had the realisation that stressing herself will not make her Mother Earth happy, trying to fit herself where her values were not seen, will not make her Mother Earth happy, Bad mouthing Rich people will not make her Mother Earth happy!

    If you are a business owner reading this, whether you charge 5 Rs for your product/services or 5 crores for your product/services; you are bound to attract people at both levels. So it’s all in You, to decide your worth, it’s not about whether people will buy the products/services are not, it is about whether you feel worthy enough of receiving that Abundance.

    And I would say when there is an infinite amount of Abundance, why do you want to choose the path where there is Scarcity. That reminds me, having learnt sooooo much about Wealth Mindset, I am having a 1:1 coaching session to expand your Abundant Mindset, Click here to apply for it.

    Whether you want to be Rich or not, it’s your choice but there is no point in stressing about not having money. It does not make sense if you have to think more than once when you really want to buy that dress or eat that pizza, and if you are not happy deep inside, it is bound to show up and that creates stress.

    So finally, I threw those sacks of plastic bags/garbage I had collected for months, I gave away most of my old clothes,  I cleared my house from all the stagnant energy and then I sensed a bit of calmness in me and all around the house.

    Right after that, I started to receive more orders; speak of clearing the stagnant energy eh?

    I still carry my bag wherever I go, I carry a box if I have to buy chips, I make Bio enzymes, I separate my waste, I do whatever I can, that is in my control. The ones I can’t control, I don’t try to!

    Also being open to Abundance gives me more freedom and do more work towards the environment. Who knows, I might get to work with Dicaprio’s Foundation. hahaha

    Long ago; a friend had asked me if I have a role model. I told her, I don’t have any but I love what Dicaprio’s foundation does towards Environment and Animals.

    Speaking of him, I watched his latest movie Don’t Look Up, of course on the first day when it was released as I was really looking forward to it as it was about climate change.  Looking at the movie, from an Artist’s perspective, mind-blowing- a good cast, great visuals, amazing script. Looking from an Environmentalist perspective, well you will be surprised to hear this not even one chord in my heart was struck.

    It was supposed to scare people to take climate change seriously, but somehow that message was disconnected. I may have healed from the Climate Change trauma but it definitely still worries me when I see the news about glaciers melting. Recently, NASA shared a post on how Earth’s temperature has increased over the last few decades and that was a little triggering. But this movie, not at all; the only scene that made me emotional and cry- was the last scene where Timothy prays to God-speak of being spiritually awakened eh? Anyway, if you guys have watched it, I would like to know your perspective.

    To wrap up this episode, what I feel is, when it comes to Climate change we all look at nature as separate from Humans, yes we have caused the destruction but if we have the power to destruct, don’t we have the power to create them all too! Somewhere in the process of growing, we have lost the connection of ourselves, that connection to ourselves can be regained by healing within first.

    That’s when we connect to the Universe, by that I mean our highest self, that’s where we get into the feeling of us being Nature.

    We are Nature, We are creators and We will flourish and Nourish; the change is happening and I am positive about it.

    As the disclaimer stated at the beginning, all of this is all my perspective; but I also do believe that most of you could resonate with it so if you did, do send me a message on Instagram or drop a review or whatever you feel like doing.

    If you would like to listen to my Podcast, click here.

    Yours Consciously

    Sneha