EP53: Championing Your “Wealth” Being

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Hello, everyone. Welcome back to winning with wellness, the episodes that inspire the wellness in you. We are so excited today to be talking with the amazing guests. Christine. Christine, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

Oh, you're so welcome. So you guys, I want to tell you a little about Christine Clifton, she teaches soulful people sorry, she teaches soulful people of service, how to keep their inner fire burning. So many of you out there listening. I'm sure this is you, so you don't burn out. She is a dynamic speaker, trainer and coach as well as a three time author. With Her most recent book, get ready, get set flow, work life integration for soul power people with a unique blend of traditional corporate career and entrepreneurship. Christine has seen the emotional and financial toll of burnout. Amen, I think we can all relate to that. As a woman with a genetic chronic illness, she's learned how to be more, do less and make a difference in the lives of heart centered entrepreneurs and professionals. I am so excited to have you on the show to share your wisdom and experience. Christine again, welcome. Great, thank you. So Christine, you're obviously somebody that has, by your bio on what you've shared, you've kind of experienced you do what you do. Because you've experienced what you had done. Like your pathway has led you there. Do you mind sharing with the audience? What led you to your work?

Oh, I would love to I always ask if you want the nickel version or the dollar version, though, because as a as a woman raised in the south, we love our long stories. So I'll give you the shorter version. And you know, when I look at my entrepreneurship journey, it's been almost 15 years now. And I look at my corporate career, which was 20 years, the way I've moved through both of them are very similar. I didn't set out to be President of the United States, I set out to do things that I enjoy doing. And I would have an experience for some period of time, my personal cycle looks about like three years at a time before I'm ready to make another change. It's not true for everybody. But I do look at that with my clients as well. And what I do with those pivot points is kind of look around and say, What do I like less? What do I like more? How can I show up more in my sweet spot, then I was you know, currently. And that's how I moved my way from, you know, from gosh, I think my first job I made $15,000 a year. And I ended up making, you know, six figures in my last career and five figure bonuses before I left to make to my entrepreneurship. And so my entrepreneurship was similar. I am a woman with a chronic illness I just found out two years ago, it was genetic. And I've had 25 years of chronic illness. And so my first business was a coaching practice for women with chronic illness. And it morphed into a wellness studio because I was finding so many holistic modalities for myself and I was a dance teacher and a fitness teacher so I brought all that together. And then people were like, how are you marketing this so well and I started teaching people how I was marketing I happen to have been a sales coach in my last position at corporate. And so it was this combination of not only me doing more of what I liked, but also people kind of saying you know, I don't want to hear that in this realm very often. What is that thing you said? You do and and it just it's like a dance John Michael Montgomery as a country song likes to dance you learn as you go, sometimes you lead sometimes you follow? Yeah. So you know it likes to dance and so, so I moved through marketing consultant, then I moved into being sales consultant for solopreneurs because they couldn't sell their way out of a paper bag. God bless us. And yes, that was me too. And is, then I moved into wanting to know why they said they'd do something and then I wouldn't do it. So I started digging into belief systems and finding out what I call the BS was behind them not doing what they said they were going to do. And then I started doing energy work and deeper belief systems shifting so that they could move those obstacles out of their way. So today, I do a little bit of the woo a little bit of a how to, whether you're a career seeker change, or pivoter, or a entrepreneur, solopreneur, firm owner, and we roll up our sleeves and get started doing what you want to do, because that's the perfect platform for the the stuff the BS to show itself, is when you get started. So it's this beautiful blend of let's go do something and see how life begins to show the things that we want to clear, he'll shift change as we go.

When we think about you know, and this is like, there's a theme, obviously, when you think about overall wellness, and of course, being being whole at work being whole at home, you know, focusing and I love that you tap into the How to and the womb, because there's so much power in those two arenas, right? Because Whoo, was only whoop, because we gave it that name. It was very, you know, it was it was a common practice at one point, and then it'd be thing exactly, he became different, which is so unique. What does wellness actually mean to you?

That's a great question. I, I'm a root word nerd. And when I started my wellness studio, I was looking for the right name. And I ended up choosing healthy motion, the School of total wellbeing. And I chose wellbeing, because I felt that was accessible and tangible to people. They knew what that was, it wasn't some esoteric term. And the root of well being is wholeness, you know, the root of health is or is, is wholeness. And it's also about wealth, believe it or not, well being is about wealth. So I, when I think about wellness, to me, its wholeness, and its abundance, if you want to look at wealth in that in that way. And it isn't just abundance in a monetary sense. It's understanding that we are abundance. And the expansiveness that that brings, can help us show up in the world in the greatest way that we can most of us in our circles want to serve. And, like you heard in my bio, there's a lot of burnout because they are serving to the detriment of themselves, often unknowingly. And because their sacred calling is birthed from their sacred wound. They don't realize that service in that way is actually vibrating with lack, because they're serving others in a way they wish they had been served. But they haven't yet served themselves in that way that they had not been served yet. So wellness to me is if I can come back home and always touched my hearts, when I say that, I can come back home, and really pull together in this way. I love the word integration, work life balance is a myth. And I like work life integration instead. So it's about integration. Because wherever I go, there I be, and whether it's at the Starbucks or at work or with my family or volunteering, if I can show up in that full, integrated self, then the expansiveness of that the abundance of that the wellness of that is going to be much, much greater reach because I'm giving from overflow instead of depletion.

I love that because again, overflow is that abundance as well. I would love if you're open to just kind of tapping in I know, there's probably quite a few listeners, when they hear that word wealth. Two things happen for them, they get anxious, or feeling in lack, or they're like, Yeah, I got this iron tight, I'm good to go. But they're possibly burning the candle at both ends to create that. When you work with people or even maybe in your own personal journey. Have you hit Have you hit roadblocks around wealth? Or is there some tools or tips that you could provide with our listeners to kind of, you know, navigate or blast through the wealth? You know, it can be such a debilitating word for some and such a joyous word for others.

Yes, I love how you phrased it that way. And that's so very true. And what I often find is, especially people in the holistic community kind of throw their selves on the tracks and it's kind of a more Either way, like, I'm just here to serve, you know whether I rub two nickels together, you know, in that might be their path. There's no judgment, we all have our own paths to walk. So to answer the earlier part of your question, oh yes, girlfriend, I have had so many, like, I've had three periods in my entrepreneurship where I was close to bankruptcy. And literally fetal position on the floor crying. And it was a major experience. So that I can see now not been that it helps me really understand how the universe works in terms of wealth, energetics, money, whatever word we might want to put on it. And the the first thing that most people think is that money comes from working. And so a listener might be sitting there as having heard me just say that and go, Well, duh, of course, money comes from working. And so then I say, when was the last time you received money without working. And it might take them a moment or a pause, and they say, Well, my grandma sent me 20 bucks for my birthday, I found a $20 bill on this sidewalk, I won the lottery for, you know, whatever, last year. And so these are all, you know, Mythbusters, like, money doesn't come from working, you didn't work for that money. And so, so the wealth barrier, it's the word integration, again, it's that if I don't look at work and life separately, and instead recognize that it's an integrated way of being that can maximize and expand my opportunities for receiving, then that is a key component to receiving wealth. The other thing is that the limitation of of saying, for the entrepreneurs listening, that my business brings me money, it's a burden to your business, you're you're putting this, you know, I just see this huge rock on the back of my business, when I'm like you are responsible for caring for me. And my belief system is that the source of my understanding whatever name the listeners might put on it, God, Allah, tree, Bob, whatever is our supply. So if we believe that we're all one, and that we're here to all work together for the good of the planet, then isn't just being here enough. Like isn't just existing enough, because I was created to fill that space, in, in the universe. And so some of these concepts are very, it's a new paradigm for many people to consider that if I can change this belief system around money and recognize that. So for example, I'm here in South Carolina to be with my mom, who's ill, this is working, I'm working, right, because my being is with my mom, my brothers are here. And anytime we're talking about her care, and what we need to do, I'm working, my work is my sacred work, it is the connection to my purpose and my calling, that's my work, not my business, not my career. And so when we can take the burden off of that the attachment that we put on those things to make us money, the more free we we end up feeling, and the less attachment and heaviness there is around receiving. And so people of service are used to give, give, give, give giving, and they're like the fire hoses, and they're not so great at letting people buy him lunch, or receiving a coffee, or, you know, not only much less asking for help, but just receiving help. And so if you're not doing that you're interrupting the law of attraction, if you're not receiving you can't always be a giver, and have a law of attraction work, because somebody's got to receive. And that includes you, right? So these are some of the concepts that when I teach money, work to my clients that we begin to bring in and and see where we can bust some of these belief systems. Now, I've got an Excel spreadsheet for some of the stuff because it helps people see visually, of course, how these concepts work. But those are some of I think, the more unusual ones that I bring in to the talk about wealth and money.

Well, and I love that you are providing a visual perspective and a different perspective because two things like you say if we are constantly giving out we're never refueling and we're never filling up. So Again, that vibration is off. And we're then making decisions personally, professionally that aren't from a full cup. So we're in reactive mode, generally speaking, instead of that proactive state. So we're again, not serving ourselves, the people, we're connected with our families, all of those things at its greatest good. And money is a terrifying thing for a lot of people. And it's so beautiful to have episodes just like this in conversations just like this, because money is just the thing. You know, there was this, I grew up in a home that my parents were quite open in discussion about finances. I believe their parents were somewhat open, but my grandparents and their parents, that was like, none of your business kind of conversation, or Yeah, and the only reason I feel that my parents had an insight into some of the finances because they worked in the family company. I don't know that if it traditionally, if that would have been as common had they not been a part of the I come from a long line of entrepreneurs.

Oh, wow.

Wow, has been a gift. And it's also been much like you say a bit of a Bernal, I work, I work very, very hard in the past, I still get me wrong, I still probably work harder than I should. But I've been working towards curbing those habits like you're talking about. And, and that's interesting, too, is we inherit these histories, we inherit these examples. And we inherit those And absolutely, the work that you do by your description is you know, busting through some of those belief systems and the big ol BS,

which is so obvious.

I talked about today at dinner, okay.

And, you know, we're laughing about it. And I, again, another belief system I have is that Spirit works in levity and lightness. And it's we humans that put heaviness to things and attachment to things. And because of our family of origin, or our traumas, or whatever you might believe about ancestral, you know, wounds or whatever, we tend to put heavy energy around things like business and entrepreneurship and money. So I to bring it into lightness is to release some of the burden that we're putting on it. And it's a little easier to like, I always think of the old Atari game where we're, you know, we're just blowing up the battleship, and we're just taking all the charge out of it. Because why not? Let's make it as light as skipping down the street with an ice cream cone in our hands. Why is it any different? Yeah,

it's all perspective. And it's so interesting, because you see it, you see it, you see the you say the word money, and you can physically see how somebody feels about it the moment the word comes into the air? Absolutely. It's you know, so for those of you that are listening, I invite you to take stock of physically how this conversation is making you feel. And because it's going to give you a sign to determine what kind of work you need to do around it. This is this isn't necessarily going to be a tick in the box and all your financial woes are going to be gone. But what it does is it gives you awareness to how you can actually champion your financial wellness versus fuel the part that's not working for you. Would you agree, Christine?

Oh, I totally agree. It's that again, the constriction I'm I, I'm a bit of an energy worker, I'm a Reiki Master, I've got two other energy work certifications, and I don't use them in a traditional way. In my work, though, I'm an I call myself the energy tracker, I kind of see myself as like the the Indiana Jones, you know, have a cap on and I can, I know and I can track the energy through a session. And that's what happens is that when when I'm talking with something with a client, I can literally feel the energetics that are coming up for them at any given time. And it's really magical, when they're raw and open and willing to step in and be with that tension, so that we can kind of take it apart and say, How much credence Do you really want to give this in the future? So yes, to the listeners, listen, feel it. No judgment, please. Like we're so hard on ourselves. self judgment is self punishment. And many of us who've been to heck and back are more familiar with pain and love. And we will self inflict punishment and pain because that's simply what we are familiar with. And it's typically an unconscious thing. So give yourself Grace if you are feeling that tension around this topic.

So Christine, when we think about you know, we think about finances we think about well Less we think about trying to serve from a full cup. If we haven't touched on something that you would really like the audience to hear about, would you mind sharing what that is? I'm sure there's probably a question. You're like, Oh, I wish she asked that question. If I haven't asked it, you know, now's the time.

Sure, sure, is some, there's a connection between the somewhat linear connection between things. So what I like to say is, if you're not getting what you want, you're not getting it because you don't know what you're wanting, you don't know what you want, probably, because you're so in the service of others, that you haven't taken that time to really decide what it is that you want. And you haven't done that, because you've prioritized others over yourself. And so the idea of integration is that if I believe others are important, am I treating myself as important as others? And so people of service kind of teeter on this is, isn't that selfish? Like they the word I hear in intro conversations a lot. But that's selfish, is it? What's the different definition of selfish to me that serving self to the detriment of others, that's my definition. And so people of service can really benefit by understanding that their wealth comes from treating themselves as important as everyone that they're serving, and then prioritizing themselves along the way. And then as I mentioned before, if they're able to show up in their being this, in the same way, at school at work everywhere, then they're going to call in so much more expansive opportunities, than if I'm just wearing a myopic blinder and looking at work or business or career. So that's the concept that I would leave leave them with is to decide what it is you want how you want your ideal life to look like, what's a typical ideal day or an ideal week that you'd like to live, and then start filling that in and getting a really clear picture. Because if we don't know, the universe isn't gonna know. So let's help it help us. Right,

let me help you. Jerry Maguire. Every time I can see him in the bathroom is awesome. So, you know, and that is such a beautiful thing, too. Because again, it takes us out of that reactive state, and we start choosing things that are in alignment with our pathway. And it's so interesting, you know, we're very quick as beings to seek or see the negative because it's how it protects us, ironically enough, we're kind of wired that way. So when we can create pause and space, we can determine is it is that really a truth that serving me? Or is it making me be in a reactive state? And, of course, that's just just my perspective on that, and my own personal experience, I know, when I create more space in my life, the abundance is more readily available, and the creativity, and joy and being present is so much more profound. Christine, thank you so much for being on the show today.

Oh, you're welcome. It's my pleasure always to talk about flow and integration this way.

Now, I'm going to post this information in the shot chat. But what's the best way if our listeners like, oh, I want to have a deeper conversation? What's the best way for someone to find you?

The best way is my website, which is Christine clifton.com. And that C H r i s t i n e. Clifton CLI f t o n.com. I'd love to give your listeners a little free something. Oh, my gosh,

yes, please.

So I have, I have a digital guidebook called Your Spirit at work, bring more of you through what you do. So your vision comes true. I'm one part Mrs. Seuss. And if they go, if they go to your Spirit at work, book.com they can register to get the download of that digital guidebook. It's about 60 pages of instruction, concepts and worksheets, and some of these concepts are there so they can work through them themselves.

Fantastic. And we'll make sure that we get that link. And we'll put that into the to the show notes as well. So it's easy for those that are listening that want access. Thank you for that generous offer. I can't wait to look at it myself.

Well, I'm biased, because I think it's a great place to start and it's fun. I started out as a coloring book at a one day event that I hosted and then I turned it into a guide book.

That's amazing. So Christine, thank you again, so much for being on the show listeners. The show wouldn't exist without you. Thank you for sharing your time space and Energy and listening and putting into action or potentially being inspired into movement. Don't forget to connect with us at your holistic earth.ca. That is where you can advance more into the wellness warrior and step in and become inspired into your own health. Thanks again for listening. Can't wait to catch you on the next episode. And again, Christine, thank you so much.

You're welcome.