Pillars of Our Shared Work #12
Author: Lamia Gibson
This month we harmonize with a pillar of financial sustainability as part of our collective foundations for health as individuals and communities. We have enough to share. We believe in engaged economics and have been thriving for almost 10 years with a sliding scale payment system, many work exchangers, an occasional fundraiser and zero funding from any government body or non-profit agency. This is a practice of living in abundance over scarcity, it is humbling, prosperous and possible for so many more to have what we all need if we stay informed and hopeful.
Individual Financial planning for self & community health aka: Metal Element offers us organizational strength
These days Six Degrees is an incredible integrative health hub, offering a multitude of health and wellness services at fixed and sliding scale rates. 10 years ago we began as a 2-room clinic offering only Community Acupuncture and private Acupuncture or Shiatsu. Susanda and Lamia co-build Six Degrees, with community, on pillars of believing, against all odds, in abundance. Informed through Buddhist practice, working class roots and a courageous relationship to money we continue to grow this shared sustainable practice.
Money is survival and thrival in this greed-driven society and, with whatever amounts of cash or energy we have, making informed choices means having a courageous and empowered relationship with the very force that can overpower us.
One aspect of our growth has been to generate a confident relationship to income, money and budgeting. In health and in finances we believe knowledge is power and knowing how to budget means being able to make informed choices and live in less fear of the almighty dollar. Working with the Lung Qi of this season we can align with the strength of Metal Energy and have that energetic support as we choose what to focus on for our own and our communities’ needs for organization.
As a business we meet with our financial planner and advisor (Shannon Lee Simmons) once a year. We know that working with professionals enhances our capacity and we need the guidance to make educated choices when it comes to sustainability.
This November, in conjunction with Shannon Lee Simmons, we are excited to offer all Six Degrees folks a 60% discount on financial planning.
We are very much aware that this video tutorial is pretty much designed for those with a middle class income and up. We have worked with Shannon to offer it at 60% off because it also works for anyone with a working class/student life income. Design for finances always speaks to those with finances…. but those of us without “extra” also deserve the information and knowledge. We too can be empowered and make informed choices. It could be a revolutionary opportunity to use the tools here as a form of resistance and sustainability.
Click here for Shannon’s video tutorial called “GET ON TRACK” and Six Degrees folks will only pay $40 incl tax. To access this Get on Track discount use the code SixDegrees60.
In addition to this November discount Shannon has offered any member of the Six Degrees community to receive 50% off any web-based program for months to come. Check out all Shannon has to offer here.
Six Degrees is making no direct money from this discount, we do not take a cut. We have built this into a working relationship because we all believe knowledge is power and shouldn’t be held by those with power, Rather, it needs to be shared with all so we all benefit. Of course if you budget for a weekly Community Acupuncture treatment and use this tool to make that happen, we will benefit that way.
We also hope to generate financial flow to community movements connected to and in Tkaronto. May each of us with enough to budget begin to donate even 1% monthly to any of the many community movements that need financial support. This financial sustainability pillar of Six Degrees is intended to support you, us and the community movements that (directly or indirectly) impact us all. In addition to the ways you may be supporting your own or local communities we offer some suggestions below:
To support local Water protectors: http://line9shutdown.ca
To support the Black Lives Matter – Toronto Haitian Relief fund: https://www.generosity.com/emergencies-fundraising/black-lives-matter-toronto-haitian-relief
To support Water Protectors at Standing Rock http://thefreethoughtproject.com/10-protest-dakota-access-pipeline/
We are intentionally making these connection as a way of offering healing back to the people and environment and because it is Metal Element time which is a great time of year to get our sh*t sorted.
I, Lamia, know from my life experience that it is so real to not have any extra to go around and I am aware that this offer to practice financial awareness runs a risk of inducing shame or anger about not having what we all deserve; enough to thrive.
In holding this risk, and with fierce compassion for the many communities we are connected to and a part of, I say this: If it is true that there is nothing left at the end of the month, that there is only more debt because credit card living is how you make ends meet, or a fixed income is how you get by, then may we feel the wave of empowerment in the truth that money is only one form of Energy to be shared and nourished.
All of us need to ask, we need to move away from the giver and receiver model that is so steeped in power over and invite the awareness that we have always been interdependent, and when I ask for help I make space for others to do the same. This is about sharing our Qi, Prana, energy and spirit while also living in this society which is dominated by those few that have a lot of cash. There are so many ways to give. May each of us include ourselves in the harmony of the planet, with any energy form available to us; may we offer that healing Qi to the earth and its inhabitants, to the universe and its flow.
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