Do you ever find dimes in your jewelry box, pocket change piled on your dresser, or damp dollar bills crumpled in the washing machine?

This weekend, I walked around the house gathering all the bits of abandoned U.S. currency I could find. Then I got the kids to help me sort the coins so we could take them to the bank. It’s a new year and tax time’s coming; I want to be on top of my money. I still have some old health insurance claims that I’m oddly incapable of processing; what is it with me? Why does money seem so hard to claim and control? Why do I fall back on a belief that there’s never enough, or that financial management is beyond me? Are you like this too?

In a prosperity workshop that I took last fall with Nancy SantoPietro, I realized that I’m living in a scarcity mindset due to a belief (common among public-interest types and liberal bloggers who work in bedroom slippers) that if I were to ever pull down big money, I’d turn into some kind of jerk. On some subconscious level, I struggle with the fear that mega-dollars will make me materialistic, superficial, egotistical, or worse.

Would it be so terrible to be Oprah, or Donald Trump? Or even a highly-paid New York healthy lifestyle magazine editor? (Oh, I think: I’d have to leave my kids, wear angular glasses, and carry a Blackberry. But how bad would it be to eat arugula daily for lunch? What a devil’s bargain!)

SantoPietro says money is energy; it has nothing to do with how smart you are or hard you work. If you raise your vibrational pattern and make more money, starving refugees in war-torn countries won’t be further deprived. As your consciousness is lifted to attract abundance; you can become more, not less, helpful to those in need.

Pastor Joel Osteen and many others have been preaching prosperity consciousness for a long time; some folks find this kind of talk obnoxious. What do you think?

My absolute favorite author on this topic is global activist Lynne Twist, whose Soul of Money Institute does all kinds of good work connecting philanthropists to the right groups, and emancipating folks like me who battle with scarcity. Twist recorded an audio course for Sounds True called “Unleashing the Soul of Money–Finding Sufficiency, Freedom, and Purpose Through Your Relationship with Money.” I listened to it today to get my prosperity consciousness raised while I kneeled on the floor sorting 40 dollars worth of quarters.

At least I won’t have to root through my purse for the right coin at a parking meter for a long time!