How many of us have decided to treat money differently: buy less of something, give more to charity, save more, or even spend more? We think there is something wrong with us if our money behavior isn't in line with what we decide it should be. But dealing with money is rarely easy. Much of the time money isn't the problem or the dilemma--it's our feelings about money that create the problem. And these feelings often pull us in several directions, without our being aware of the origin of our contradictoary desires.

Once we have enough money to meet our basic needs, money's influence over us comes mainly from what it symbolizes or represents for us. Money is never any single idea, meaning, feeling, association, or concept within ourselves. We each have a unique inner money life. And we can learn much about ourselves through exploring our relationship to money. It's my belief that an understanding of our inner money life--including what we may consider to be the "positive" and "negative" emotions, experiences, and attitudes--not only supports the changes we want to make and brings greater comfort with money, but also results in a richer life.