An excerpt from Money, Manifestation & Miracles by Meriflor Toneatto
When women are empowered with money, they become “difference makers.” They transform not only their own lives but also those of their children, their families, and their communities at large. In her new book Money, Manifestation & Miracles: A Guide to Transforming Women's Relationships with Money, award-winning leadership and coaching executive Meriflor Toneatto empowers women to extend their limits so they can create the life of their dreams. We hope you’ll enjoy this short excerpt from the book.
In the book The Female Brain, neuropsychiatrist Dr. Louann Brizendine describes the differences between women’s and men’s brains in terms of structure and functionality. The female brain, for example, has considerably more connecting brain cells than the male brain. This means that women can hold more information at once and have a greater ability to multitask. Men’s brains, on the other hand, are wired to focus on one task at a time. Women’s brains are also more amenable to change and thinking about things from different perspectives to incorporate more information. For males, the emphasis is on linear thinking, facts, and figures.
Another interesting aspect regarding the female brain is that women have a larger capacity for emotion, language, communication, and memory. On average, women are better at expressing emotions, forming connections, being emotionally sensitive, and remembering details. Women’s thoughts and speech are informed by a sense of empathy, cues to body language, and intuition. In fact, according to Brizendine, during the first three months of life, a baby girl’s skills in making eye contact and mutual facial gazing will increase at a rate of over 400 percent, whereas facial gazing skills in a baby boy will not increase at all.
Baby girls are born already interested in emotional expressions. They take meaning about themselves from a look, a touch, and every reaction they receive from the people they interact with. Based on the cues they receive, baby girls begin to discover their sense of self and whether they are worthy, lovable, or bothersome.
So what does this have to do with money? Since they have more connecting brain cells than men, women do not see money in isolation. Rather, we see it as a part of a web of relationships. This means that you are more likely to take your strong feelings for others, as well as your relationships, into consideration when making money-related decisions. You are also likely to take into consideration how you can share what you have with others who are less fortunate.
For women, the motivation to have money is about relationships and how we can use money to express love — by taking care of ourselves or our loved ones, or giving money away to help others. This is a distinctive quality of the feminine connection to money.
For men, however, money often signifies power and position and can play out in scenes of competition and accumulation. Men may use money to establish their stature in society and to assert their masculinity and power, as reflected in business-page stories about deals, acquisitions, and mergers of companies. From my personal experience and my work with other women, I would say that the difference between women and men in regards to money can be summed up this way: men ask for what they want, while women ask for what they think they deserve.
Women have tried to conform to capitalism’s norms by adopting more masculine behaviors with money, behaviors that exemplify individualism, aggressiveness, and power. An example of this kind of behavior is the emphasis on profits alone as the primary measure of success, often at the expense of employees and their well-being. In the process, the feminine values of interdependence, connections, and caring have become less recognized.
The truth is that in regards to money, and indeed all other things, a balance of both the feminine and masculine is needed, since there are also some challenges with adopting solely feminine energy. For example, women’s desire for inclusiveness can lead to problems with setting boundaries and having appropriate limits. But never fear. The steps put forth in this book will help you develop a more harmonious and balanced relationship with money and with yourself.
A Turning Point
We are at a pivotal juncture in our history where there is heightened awareness and support of women’s empowerment, particularly with advancing women’s economic empowerment. I believe that each of us must be awake to our good. We must be ready to seize the opportunity when presented.
On an individual level, we can take action to fully stand in our power and own our worth. Women can also collectively seize the moment and leverage this wave of support to make significant contributions to creating a global sustainable future. And the key way to do so is to embrace our feminine connection to money.
Embodying the feminine connection to money can include the following:
Embracing the natural connection between women, generosity, and using money as an expression of love and a way to help others
Recognizing and promoting the potential of money to create a ripple effect to uplift humanity and the planet
Nurturing the connection of money to love, compassion, meaning, and cooperation, which can lead to personal and collective empowerment — a win-win for all
Leveraging money as a powerful force for good — generating greater peace, harmony, and healing in the world
By embracing the feminine connection to money as a source of strength, we can simultaneously equate women with wealth, empowerment, and success.
Meriflor Toneatto is the author of Money, Manifestation & Miracles. As the CEO and founder of Power With Soul, she specializes in helping ambitious women entrepreneurs, professionals and leaders reach financial prosperity and success while fulfilling their social promise to the world. Her work has been featured internationally in media outlets like Yahoo! Finance, Washington Post, International Business Times, Los Angeles Times, and more. Visit her online at www.meriflor.com.
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Excerpted from the book Money, Manifestation & Miracles. Copyright ©2018 by Meriflor Toneatto. Printed with permission from New World Library.