Kate Allen

Assessing changes to your life- COVID 19 Lockdown

Written by Kate • May 8, 2020 •
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Have you taken the time to assess your life and all the changes the pandemic has brought to your life?

My partner and I made the decision to self isolate as a family in mid- March so we’re coming up on two months of a radically changed lifestyle.

To be clear, my partner is able to work from home, my business is internet-based, and we have young kids so for us the self-isolation doesn’t mean that much change, for which we are thankful. We aren’t having too much about worry about a loss of income or at all about getting our kids to finish their school year.

For us, the biggest changes in our routine have been stopping the kids from going to playgrounds (indoor and out), no camping, no more hiking the Appalachian Trail because apparently it’s a mob scene out there, and no more visiting family and friends.

The other big effect for us has been the mental and emotional stress of worrying about the health of everyone in the world, the financial impact of this on our friends and family here and abroad and on societies in general, and when will this end.

I took a big emotional hit personally when I heard – in early April- that Virginia was extending the lock down through June 10th. It took me a week to recover from the stress of that, imagining that I couldn’t cope with such an extended lockdown. And I find myself worrying about whether school will open in the fall for me kids to attend school and what we’ll do if it doesn’t (and even if it does). So much fretting about the future, over situations I have no control over and knowing that worry doesn’t help.

But like most changes, we slowly begin to accept the new normal. And in looking at the data, we’ve made the decision to continue with our own personal lock-down for the foreseeable future.

I’ve been ruminating recently about what this lockdown has shown me about the way I’ve been living my life, in automatic mode.

I see that:

1. I set myself such a busy schedule that I’ve been rushing to to get my kids to playgrounds, to visit my Dad, to make sure the kids’ lives are enriched. So much rushing and all of it unnecessary.
2. My kids love being home with us, getting our attention. They don’t always need more stimulation. They just want attention.
3. I miss people and hugs and human interaction.
4. My habits needed a spring cleaning so that I’m spending more time doing what I want to do rather than feel overwhelmed by all the things I’m not doing, in order to meet my busy schedule.
5. Planning food for the week, including a menu and buying to the menu at a once weekly trip to the store, is easy, efficient, massively reduces food waste, saves time and trips to the store, and enables me keep to my plan when I’m tired.
6. I spent way too much time on my phone/on apps.
7. I love routines that support me and I can build routines from nearly any new change.

Now that we’ve nestled in to our new normal, I’m so grateful for all of the positive aspects I’ve learned and insights I’ve gained from what I call the Great Pause.

We almost always fear great upheaval. In this case, I wouldn’t wish the deaths and financial stress on anyone anywhere. I know this is hard for so many.

I am, by nature, an optimist and I always try to see what good any change brings me. For me, this Pause has given me many gifts and I’m grateful for them.

What’s Your Relationship With Money?

Written by Kate • May 5, 2020 •
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Lately, I’ve been focusing on my relationship to money. I was listening to a podcast by Brooke Castillo (who’s amazing!) and was talking about money and how you feel about it.

I later sat down and wrote about money: my beliefs, my feelings about money, what I taught about money, my feelings when I spend money, my future expectations, and my past, my stuff, all of it.

I was intrigued with what I learned. Probably the most important belief that I unearthed is that somehow in the past decade or so, I changed my belief about money is that it is something I want because of what it can bring to me, not something I want in and of itself. This was fascinating to me as I was unaware of the effects this change in belief would create.

Consciously, I don’t want any more stuff. I’m tired of having much of the “stuff” in my house and I’m constantly trying to downsize what I have and what I buy. So having money for what it can bring to me doesn’t align with a core belief I now consciously have.

I also want money in and of itself. I want to have money in my savings account and in my other accounts. I see now that I allowed myself to have ideas that money isn’t something to save. And that’s crazy! Of course I want more savings. Lots of saving!

Taking A Look At Your Beliefs

I always think it’s a good thing to take another look at your beliefs, especially if you notice worry or negative feelings arise about the subject. That likely means conflicting beliefs or unhelpful thoughts are swirling in your mind about it.

I find writing down an uncensored stream of consciousness allows me to start to unearth what I’m truly thinking and believing about it. Sometimes, I first come up with questions about the subject to ensure I unearth all that is there.

Re-Decide

Once you know what you’ve allowed into your subconscious, you can re-decide if it’s something you actually want to believe and think. And if it’s not, start to work on a different thought and upgrade your belief about something.

Upgrade Your Beliefs

You can quickly upgrade your belief by deliberately changing your belief to original belief’s opposite. And then start to look for evidence that the opposite is true. Your mind is constantly searching for evidence to support your current belief system- also known as confirmation bias. So you can start to look for evidence of your new belief.

For example, if your current belief is that you can only earn money by working hard and long hours- and you likely have plenty of evidence of that because you’re working hard and long hours- then replace that belief to attracting money is easy and effortless. Then set about looking around for evidence to support that- from your own life or from that in the world.

Ask yourself empowering questions. How can I prove to myself that attracting money is easy and effortless? What are some examples in my life that show me how easy and effortless it is?

Good luck. Have fun blowing your own mind by choosing to believe better more empowering beliefs and seeing the results in your life.

How To Manifest a Million Dollars by Inviting in the Sacred

Written by Kate • March 12, 2020 •
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Want to earn a million dollars? But feel icky about it because it doesn’t feel spiritual? Feeling super selfish about your desire for more money?

This is often a tough one for people who are looking to make the world a better place,who want to slow down and make a soulful connection with others in their community and the world.

But wow, a million bucks would really be helpful. The lure of money continues to pull at you. I get it because it’s true. Money does solve a lot of problems. Need to eat? Money helps you buy food. Need some health care? Money helps you afford the care you and your family needs. I’m sure not many are conflicted about that level of income. It’s the idea of more many than you “need”. But here are a few different viewpoints on money to consider.

New Idea #1: In order to feel selfish and icky about money, you have to believe at some level that money and abundance is a zero sum game. In order words, for you to have a million dollars, someone else wouldn’t have it. This doesn’t have to be the case. By allowing for true abundance, you can intend for all beings to feel and have abundance as well. As they say, you can’t help others be and feel abundant by intending a lack of abundance in your own life.

New Idea #2: Be a conduit for abundance. Recognize that you can earn and give away some portion of your income. Let’s say you decide to give away 20% of your income. The more you make the more you can give away. You can also set up “your number” that you want to make each year and then give away the rest. So let’s say your number is $1M. Each year you will keep $1M out of all you make. And if you earn $10M a year, you’d be giving away 90% of your income. It’s definitely a different perspective.

#3 Commit to being an amplifier of the Divine’s abundance. For me, intending abundance in my life, especially about large amounts of money, feels wonderful when I also visualize all the good I’ll be doing with it. For example, the jobs I would be providing by hiring people to work on my house, hiring people to work with me, giving money away to charity, and following my intuition about how to save and spend it.

I follow Tosha Silver and she has a great book called, It’s Not Your Money. And she helped me to really understand the concept that money is just energy that comes and goes. But it’s not my money, it’s the Divine’s. I can’t take money with me when I do and it’s not something to horde. Abundance comes to me when I’m aligned with it and it falls away when I’m not.

It’s ok to have money. Choose to be a force for good and use it wisely and lovingly.