Using personal currency to get what you want

By Dr. Lisa Avila

Everyone moves through the world meeting needs, healthy or not. It is what we all do as human beings, using our greatest tools to influence the people around us to engage with us in a way that fills our needs. This subtle manipulation is very human, and we do it mostly unaware. But what happens when we become aware of the currency we move through the world with?

Many years ago, I went on a blind date with a man who spent most of our time together trying to discuss a friend of his who was getting a divorce. “She only wanted the lifestyle…” He said, and if he said it once, he said it 50 times. I tried to steer the conversation in a different direction following a few “oh, that’s too bad”s but my date would not budge. It soon became obvious that he wanted more commentary from me than that, and  I eventually realized that I was going to have to provide it.

Finally I said, “she must be beautiful.” My date became very animated, and proceeded to go on and on about this woman’s striking appearance, that she was the most beautiful woman he and his friends had ever seen in any of their lives…

To which I replied, “so your friend was going for beauty, his wife was going for money, and no one was going for substance. In that case, it is just unfortunate that someone fell in love.”

The deafening silence that followed my remark clearly told me that not only was this date over, but that I would never see this man again. (It was, and I didn’t.)

I had not thought of this situation again, but funny how it was the only thing that floated through my mind when told that the April theme on Mind Key was “currency”.

How personal currency works

For the story above, I can guarantee you that this woman knows full well that she is lovely to look at, and also how much many men will pay for that quality, on many levels. Similarly, the man with all the money knows that there are women who will look at his bank account as his greatest attribute, and whether he is overt or not, he will use that tool to get the woman he wants.

Another way to think about this is not what others consider your marketability, but what you consider to be your marketable assets. Is it looks? Is it money? Is it intelligence? Is it a broken wing that needs fixing? Or are you the one that fixes broken wings? This is your personal currency, and the very tip of the iceberg—a very surface way of going about diagnosing this in yourself. For a more in-depth look at these universal patterns, a great resource is Caroline Myss’ books on archetypes, Archetypes: Who Are You?

Currency and meeting your needs

The benefit of self-analysis such as this, is being able to clearly see what you are transmitting to the world(?). This transmission will, in turn, bring you the person with the vibration best suited to accept your personal currency.

For instance, if beauty is your major selling point, your transmission will attract someone who is primarily looking for beauty—and perhaps not much else. If you are beautiful, that’s a great advantage, but other attributes can also be developed and brought forward. If these other attributes are ones that you can consider strengths, you have just changed the way you project, and thereby whom you attract into your life.

This is what happens when we become aware of our personal currency, and how we can change that currency if the pattern of who you attract is not what you want to be attracting.

Discovering your personal currency

The key is in understanding what you project as you move through every day. What you project is what you believe about yourself. If you can’t get to it on your own, ask someone who knows you very well. What do they feel from you when you speak and move, what do your mannerisms say to them about you?

The next step is to ask yourself, do I like the message I project? Do I like the relationships that this message brings into my life?

If the answer is no, it is time to take a long, hard look at yourself as neutrally as possible and choose a new message to convey. Your external circumstances will slowly transform into new interpersonal dynamics and fresh opportunities. This is especially true for anyone carrying a victim mentality; the universe is all too happy to provide verification of whatever it is that you believe about yourself.

The final step in this process is to begin to transform the mental paradigms that at one time ruled you. That can be achieved with the help of a practitioner such as myself, emotional homeopathy, or as simply as hanging up signs around your home reminding you of your new transformation.

Understanding what you project about yourself can help in altering how you move your personal currency through the world. Art by Sean David Wright

Using this and other affirmations help me feel more empowered and in control of my circumstances. As a result, I feel I that’s it’s possible to change and attract what I speak. In turn, I  noticed how I now have more money at the end of each paycheck rather than scraping by paycheck to paycheck with only pennies to spare. So in other words, I do have more than enough. That was a powerful distinction between saying I had enough and changing it to more than enough!