This is the 5th in a series of articles on changing our relationship with money.

Let's face it. We humans sure fight a lot.

We fight to be right. We fight over love. We fight in spite of it. We fight for territory. We fight for power. We even fight when we play.

Everywhere we turn there's fighting.

Some don't think of it as fighting at all. They call it competition. And to many, competition is a good thing. To the victor go the spoils.

Our system of economics -- capitalism, or as it is now euphemistically called, commercialism -- is built around this competition. Win. Get more. Lose. Get less.

So is our system of government where two parties vie for power to see who will feed first at the public trough.

Yet when you come down to it, competition is based around the conflict of wills set each other in a battle for primacy.

These energies of conflict are infused into all aspects of dualistic life in this 3D world. After all, in a world of extremes those who identify with one end inevitably will find themselves at odds with those gravitating toward the other.

Money or Peace - Which Will It Be?
Whether we like it or not, money is the fuel that makes our world go 'round. It causes people to engage in activity to get it and keep it. It allows them to obtain the necessities of life and its pleasures, too.

Alas, it causes them to fight as well. They fight over money. They get money for fighting.

Money and conflict. Conflict and money. In modern society, the two are nearly inseparable. And try as we might to think money can come without conflict, rare is the case that it does.

This interconnection between money and conflict is the bane of every soul who wants peace in its life and in the world. For so long as they are intertwined, that soul must to some extent sacrifice that desire in order to have the money it needs

It must choose which it wants more -- money or peace. And that choice inevitably comes down to the beliefs it holds about conflict, for that will determine how our priorities are set and action to be taken.

If conflict is something that is relished, then there will be little aversion to fighting to get money. In fact, the act itself is a win-win situation. More fighting. More money. A happier life.

However, to the awakening soul that values peace above all, linking the energies of money and conflict creates a dilemma not easily resolved.

The way our world is constituted money is needed to survive and prosper. But if that money comes wrapped in conflict, then we're forced to choose which is wanted most.

If we choose money, then we're forced to accept a certain amount of conflict in our lives. And the amount of money we get may very well correlate to the amount of conflict we can tolerate.

If we choose peace, then we restrict the flow of money so we can get the peace we need.

It demands a balancing act where the fulcrum may shift one way or another based on our ability to juggle the two in the moment.

This is no way to live, for it has taken the outer conflict and brought it within us. Or at least it appears that way.

Seeing Our Inner Conflict
The ability to recognize what goes on inside is an attribute that serves us well on the path of awakening. It allows us to see these conflicts as they are occurring, and to understand the inner tug-o'-war that threatens to rip us apart.

Engaging in activity to serve others can be a wonderful thing. However, that thrill can quickly dissipate when we expect it to return income for our livelihood. For then that inner conflict rears its ugly head and transforms our service from a joyous act of selfless giving into a business venture where money must be paid in return for our efforts.

Sure, we can try to see it as a mutually-beneficial exchange of energy, we giving of our service and they giving of their money. But in reality, those inner beliefs and perspectives about money and conflict poison the soil and taint our ability to act with unconditional love.

When that happens, our inner conflict rages within, denying us satisfaction and fulfillment from the service we long to perform.

Lightworkers and awakening servers are not immune from this. In fact, I've noticed that many carry forward into their affairs the same attitudes that are evident in the rest of the so-called unawakened mainstream.

They set a price on their services often unrelated to the value received, and even require terms that may not even be commercially reasonable. They write one-sided contracts to insure their ability to get paid and protect themselves from loss or liability.

Yet that's the way business is done in the real world. Why should they subject themselves to the risk of being taken advantage of by those lacking the means or intent to pay them what they want -- and think they deserve?

This article is not the place to engage in a long discourse on alternative ways of interacting. However, the outer impact is clear.

They know what they want to get for themselves and the potential that they won't get it by giving what they have. It triggers an anticipatory response mechanism that causes them to put up their guard and design their affairs for self-protection.

In short, the inner conflict within them was resolved in favor of conflict. They'd rather fight to protect themselves than provide the loving act of their intention. Money and conflict, deeply intertwined, rule the day.

It doesn't have to be this way.

Setting in Motion the Energies of Change
We don't have to allow our inner conflicts to rule our outer affairs. We can choose another way, the way of peace AND prosperity.

It's important to understand that the conflicts of our outer world are created in order for us to see those inner conflicts if we care to look. But rarely do we even try. It's so much easier to go to war than look inside.

These opportunities for self-knowing, if you will, are invitations to look at what's going on within us and root out the causal factors behind what we find. For if we realize there is a conflict inside us over whether we should charge or how much, that conflict will somewhere play out in a situation that puts us at odds with a customer.

The customer is not to be blamed but rather thanked for helping to create a circumstance to trigger our introspection. The next step is up to us to look for the causal conditions within and consider how they serve us.

When it's an issue of conflict involving money (or vice versa), then there is usually a corresponding inner conflict (and perhaps several) for us to find.

Resolving those conflicts may need only we recognize their existence and why, or it may require a complex journey of introspection to root out deep-seated psychological or spiritual causes.

Yet resolution may not be necessary in order to bring both peace and prosperity to our affairs. Rather, it may be enough simply to know we have a conflict over money, and choose to go about our affairs in a way that allows us to live our highest attributes.

What attributes are those? Love. Patience. Understanding. Acceptance. Allowance. And a whole bunch more.

But also something else is crucial to have within our intent. That is to make sure we go about giving of ourselves with the intention of allowing (and encouraging) a full and adequate exchange for what we're giving.

Not to give to get, but rather giving to allow.

This distinction is essential if we are to separate money from conflict. Sure, we may have conflict with those we serve. We may even fight over money sometimes.

But if we are truly serving, then somehow we must divorce the act of giving from the act of receiving. The only way to do that is to trip an inner switch that breaks the connection between the two.

We give. They receive. They give. We receive. But neither act is conditional upon the other, given with expectation of anything in return.

Just think of it. Giving without expectation while opening ourselves to receiving an exchange of equivalent loving energies.

Does this mean giving away our products or services and risking not receiving an equivalent exchange? Perhaps, especially when dealing with those who are caught in struggle and limitation.

But then, if we give from a place of opening our inner circuit so the energies can return to us, then somewhere along the line they will. Maybe not from the person before us at the moment, but from someone else.

What it really means is that we humans need to start communicating more effectively with each other about what we're really doing in our interactions, about how we perceive what we are doing, and what it means to us. And of course, how we see theirs as well.

That doesn't mean we should tell them we give as a gift out of love. Love itself is the gift. We give our love and allow it to return to us in spades. And when we disconnect money from conflict, money will more easily return to as that loving act.

Nevertheless, those who are struggling with money issues now may find such a perspective pretty far out and hard to implement. How can I ask you to give more when you're already giving everything you have and getting so little in return?

I don't ask. I only suggest that your inner conflicts about money are causing your outer reality to come with conflicts involving money. For if you force yourself to choose between peace and money, odds are good neither will come in the abundance that you desire.

This is a grand universe we are born into, living within a system of creation with virtually no limitation on what can be. Choice by necessity creates limitation when one option is favored over another.

Choose to be whole. Choose money AND choose peace. They are not in conflict unless you make them that way.

Don't allow the experiences of your past, and the collective beliefs of mankind throughout the centuries, keep you locked in a perspective that condemns you to endless lack of one or the other or both.

Then allow that choice to become your intention and watch it manifest in your reality.