Trust Economy: Beyond Money

Have you considered that fostering your inner transformation can support the emergence of new paradigms and pathways to creating regenerative and equitable economies? Alice Wells recently facilitated a workshop at the Good Work Institute, along with Sandy Wiggins and Biriu Panya from RSF Social Finance, at The Watershed Center that explored engaging and reimagining a financial system that works for all.

The workshop explored our relationships with money and the economy from the inside out. The Good Work Institute is working to create a regenerative and equitable economy in the Hudson Valley. This gathering fostered the inner transformation that supports the emergence of a new economic paradigm that allows for this shift in the region and beyond.

Topics explored included:

  • How we subconsciously and consciously relate to money and participate in the economy
  • Possibilities for transcending a broken system – envisioning and creating a new system grounded in self-discovery
  • How to build ‘Beyond Money’ as a community of practice in the Hudson Valley

Read more about Beyond Money:

Each of us has a purpose in life, a journey of discovery and recognition.  When we act on that purpose while also recognizing one another’s gifts and needs, then money can move in ways that liberate human capacity.  Money becomes a form of energy that connects us in relationships of service.

This vision is at sharp odds with the current financial system, which is primarily transactional and focused on maximizing personal financial gain.  It is a system built on deep foundational paradigms that are grounded in fear, the illusion of separation and a belief that we are part of a dead and mechanistic universe.  Effecting change to this system requires that these foundations be exhumed, examined and replaced.  Every person committed to changing the current system understands this at some level, and the more explicit and conscious we are in this work, the more fearless and effective we become at transforming the way that we and others work with money.

Unearthing and understanding these paradigms requires a willingness to see them, which leads many of us to embark on an inward journey that transforms the mental models that underlie our view of the world.  Often this inner work is an adjunct or supplement to other, more central parts our lives – work, relationships, family, money – that slowly works on the way we show up in those parts.  Beyond Money is grounded in the idea that to accelerate change, we must make inner transformation the priority.  We are putting the inward journey at the center.

Systems change when pioneers with a common vision are networked and appropriately nourished.  Then the network’s synergy can seed a tipping point where their pioneering practices suddenly become the norm.  We believe that consciously supporting the inner work of individuals as a shared journey can exponentially magnify the transformational potential of an emergent network of pioneers, radically transforming the way the world works with money.