By Holly Morphew, Financial Coach and Founder, Financial Impact

When I was little I would spend hours playing in the woods surrounding my house. It was my own little world, full of trees, foliage, creeks, and insects. Amongst the abundance of nature, I would imagine all the things I desired coming true in real life. There were no boundaries, no obstacles, and infinite possibilities. The excitement of creation encouraged me to dream.

As I got older I continued to dream. There were so many things I wanted in life. A job I loved, a home I enjoyed, relationships full of love and connection… and all the money I wanted and more. 

Unfortunately, at age 20 I ran into an obstacle I couldn’t ignore or dream away. I lost my health. I was diagnosed with a chronic illness, Ulcerative Colitis (UC), and told there was no known cause or cure, and that I would live with it the rest of my life. 

I spent the next few years hiding my illness and making excuses for why I couldn’t show up. At its worst, I only had the energy to stay awake five hours a day, and experienced periods of time when I could not walk at all due to pain. I remember trying to walk to classes my senior year of college and having to sit down on a curb, a bench, or anything that would support me, when I could not make it even one more step. 

Then, one day everything changed. Or rather, I changed. I woke up one morning, and staring at the ceiling, asked for help. I sent out an SOS to anyone up there who might be listening. Knowing in my core that there MUST be another way to heal besides medication and hope, I promised to open my heart and mind to discovering it.

Over the next few years I explored countless healing modalities and personal practices including food as medicine, acupuncture, acupressure, bachflower remedies, energy work, massage, psychotherapy, past life regression, alkaline water, chiropractic, adequate sleep, hypnotherapy, tapping, yoga, time in nature, meditation, visualization, vitamins, and eliminating skin care products that contain toxins. 

It took a few more years, many moments of putting one foot in front of the other, belief that I could heal, and a devotion to my personal practices, until I became symptom free. In 2017 I was declared a miracle by my doctors. I still practice the healing modalities I discovered, and 100% attribute them to my good health today. 

What’s interesting about my story is not that my recovery was a miracle. What’s interesting is that the practices I implemented to heal my body also made a positive impact on my finances and my happiness. 

Like most, entering the “real world” in my twenties was a shock. Always a “rule-follower,” I did all the things I was taught to become successful and happy. I got an education, a job, a house, car, and the things we are told we need. 

A few years into working long hours at a stressful job, I found myself living paycheck to paycheck with five figure debt. Feeling like there was no way out, I called my financial advisor asking for help. He listened, and then asked me how much more money I wanted to invest each month. But I didn’t have any money to invest! I was one paycheck away from losing everything. 

Once again, I knew there had to be another way. So I devoted myself to learning everything I could about debt elimination, personal finance, wealth building, and financial independence. I created a system, now known as the Financial Impact System, and eliminated my debt in three years. I kept going and shortly after that I had money in the bank. Then, in my thirties, I became financially independent. Today I am beyond blessed to teach others how they can do the same.

Building wealth is 20% strategy and 80% mindset. It’s about transforming into the person you want to be who has the life you want to live. Besides using the strategy, I also practiced many of the things I did when I was healing my body from chronic illness. You can get the strategy, system, and practices I used in my best-selling book Simple Wealth. 

I have heard it said that without health you have nothing. I’m not sure I believe that to be true, but I will say that health, happiness, and financial security influence one another. 

The origin of the word wealth comes from the English root “wele” which means a state of good fortune, health, and happiness. So to be truly wealthy, one much experience all of these together. My personal experience has been that when we focus on one, the other two improve as well.

This is because there is synergy between health, happiness, and financial security. Each one requires awareness and practice, and when we integrate practices that improve one, the others naturally improve as well.

Awareness is the seed of transformation. If you want to change, start with where you are now, do not judge your past, and simply become aware of what habits or behaviors are taking you away from where you want to go. Replace them with habits that take you closer to your ideal state and you will begin to see major shifts in your life.

Abundance is our natural state. I knew this as a young girl playing in the woods. Anything was possible! Looking back as an adult, I can see that it has only been my own limiting beliefs and distraction from what is true for me, that have ever held me back from good health, good fortune, and happiness. 

The personal practices of taking care of our mind, body, and sprit, are what tune us back into abundance, where there are no limits and no boundaries to the life we want to live.  

So here’s to your own wealth trifecta. All it takes is a little awareness and practice, practice, practice!