Beth Gillian Raps, Ph.D. from RAISING CLARITY reveals to MysticMag just how important mindset can be in regards to making changes in our lives. Time, money, focus and mindset are the four areas of our lives that Beth works on. We find out more.
How did RAISING CLARITY first materialize, and with what objective?
RAISING CLARITY was named by my branding specialist Kurt Bartolich in 2012. The positioning line has changed, but RAISING CLARITY came out of a study he did of my clients. The premium thing my clients said they received from me? Clarity.
At the time, I worked solely with the energies of money as a certified money coach and non-profit fundraiser. That led me to working with time as the source of all money, even when what we do with time is waste it or sell it cheaply and buy it back at a high price. I began helping my people change that equation. That then led me to the importance of focus when we want to make a change of any magnitude in our lives, which ultimately led me to the importance of mindset. RAISING CLARITY now works in these four areas of a person’s life, usually all together: time, money, focus, mindset.
Why is it important to time our life changes with the seasons?
It amazes me how many people use the stars to guide their life changes but don’t use the Earth’s seasonal cycle. I’m not a gardener, or farmer, and I didn’t even grow up in a place where the seasons were very strongly marked (San Diego). Yet it is clear to me since I began learning from Perelandra, Ltd. to focus on seasonal changes that our attention is repaid many times over when we understand what’s easiest to accomplish supported by the energies of Fall (starting something new), vs. allowing our something new to be nourished by the deep, quiet energies of Winter—and then when it is time to begin showing off our changes to the world (not til Spring), and when we can expect them to bear fruit we can harvest (Summer). I work within this cycle myself and use it for planning all my big changes and new offers. I also teach it to my clients, and use it to guide my social media presence, plus much more.
Why, in your opinion, do most of us struggle to balance our time and money?
Most of us inherited ugly ideas about ourselves and our worthiness that cause us to struggle. Time and money are some of the most precious resources we have, so naturally, when it comes to assessing how worthy we are of enjoying them, commanding them, using them, sharing them—we have a really hard time feeling “deserving.” Everyone is deserving! Deserving is not some special thing we have to earn; it’s our birthright. But the struggle arises when we want more and don’t yet feel we are worthy of allocating our time for it, or of receiving the money that will support it.
What are the key elements when it comes to money coaching?
These boil down to four, in my experience, although my views may differ from the founder of money coaching, Deborah L. Price:
- ancestral and family patterns
- archetypal “voices” in our minds around money, spending, risk, and worth
- understanding that money works best when it is embraced to flow in and out
- that what we think and vision about money impacts hugely on our actual money situation and changing it.
What would you say is the way in which you help others excel?
Ah! I definitely don’t help others excel. “Excelling” is something we do to compete with others. Once we see this, we can keep right on doing it, but it’s not nearly as important as quieting the voices within ourselves that get in the way of achieving our dreams and calling, which is where I can begin to help people.
Once someone realizes that what’s driving them from inside is far more important and lasting (like: it won’t go away! And they don’t want it to) than whatever was driving them from outside, they become self-initiating. They very often are dreamers who need the kind of structure and focus they learn with me. The reason RAISING CLARITY works on all four areas at once (see my answer to the first question) is that once people need one of the four (time, money, focus, mindset), they realize they need work in all four. They may be high earners or have lots of time on their hands—but they need focus and a healthier mindset to know how to use those assets. Or they may have very little time and money and a mindset tough as nails that has gotten them through this world—but now need a new mindset to go along with their new income and time-spaciousness goals So we coach, and I give them homework that is both practical and visionary/intuitive, and then we coach again until they own all my tools and are independent of me. And then they become what I call “soul-colleagues,” people in my neighborhood of the Beloved Community who go in and out of being paying clients.
What do you plan to achieve over the next 80 years of your life, and what can you tell us about this expected longevity?
It’s funny you mention the next 80 years. I’m 62 as of this writing, and plan to live to 150, so I have well over 80 years to go. I have achieved a ton (having a child at home as an “elderly primigravida,” an older first-time mom; homeschooling them for 10 years; publishing numerous translations from French; creating a successful coaching and book-coaching practice; speaking, serving, goading others’ achievements). I plan to achieve less and less and learn to Be, so that I can truly be of help to others by putting myself beyond need of help (as my mentor Nisargadatta Maharaj writes in I Am That). I have been useful; I expect to become much more useful as I enter the second half of my life.
If you would like to find out more about Beth Gillian Raps and RAISING CLARITY, visit https://raisingclarity.com/#about or follow on https://www.facebook.com/RAISINGCLARITY
