Bandwidth is defined as the area between upper and lower limits. In systemic work it refers to what we are and aren’t allowed to accomplish in any given area of our lives. For the most part, our bandwidth, whether it’s our relationship bandwidth, our health bandwidth or our money bandwidth, is determined by family patterns and the rules we have inherited from our family system.  

Some of us embody inherited patterns—limited thoughts, feelings, emotions, choices. actions—that pretty much guarantee that we never experience healthy relationships. Others carry patterns that allow only limited health. In business, patterns and mindsets hold people back from getting into leadership positions. But the most glaring example of limited bandwidth is found within the area of money. 

Depending on our socioeconomic class, caste, culture, and upbringing, we each have a specific bandwidth within which we can operate monetarily, depending on the family and social patterns and the family conscience in play. I have clients who make it in the world financially, and then lose or give their money away because having a lot of money wasn’t allowed or achieved earlier within their family system. They unconsciously feel guilty that they have more than their father or mother or grandparents ever had. Which means they’re still tightly locked into the bandwidth of how much they can or cannot have or make.

If they don’t see the pattern and acknowledge the source of their limitation, they cannot make the transition and expand their money bandwidth. They will chronically lose all that they have gained in order to stay within the family conscience and return to their comfort level. 

Money is a strong teacher and mentor. It dares us to expand. But true expansion can only happen when we’re willing to move beyond the limiting thoughts of our family system. Part of the art of shaping our money bandwidth lies in listening to our inner voices and their messages. Are they telling us stories from prior generations or prior events? 

If you’re chafing under the limitations a narrow money bandwidth has imposed upon your life, good questions to ask are:

• • What is my biggest fear around breaking through my money bandwidth?
  • Is it a valid fear?
  • When did it begin?
  • What was happening in my life at the time?
  • What might happen if I pushed through this fear and expanded my bandwidth? Might money become an ally instead of something to be feared?
  • What could I do that I cannot do now if I busted through my limiting money bandwidth?
  • How could I better serve with an increased bandwidth?

Doing this kind of questioning can expand your bandwidth in any area of your life. Look at a place where you feel limited.  See if you can identify the limitations of your bandwidth and then ask yourself what one new thought, feeling, or action you could take that would allow you to expand—even just the tiniest bit. And then do it again.  And again. Pretty soon you’re going to discover that change and growth are not scary. They’re the place where you can finally relax and exhale.

I often ask clients to identify their various bandwidths by writing down on a piece of paper where and how they are limited. For example, say you can’t seem to break into the six-figure income bracket. Write “six-figure income” on a piece of paper. Or maybe $150,000 —whatever your upper money bandwidth limit says is “impossible.”

Place the paper on the floor. Then walk toward that piece of paper and notice the thoughts, feelings, and actions that arise.  Once you’ve done that, imagine one step beyond that limit. Write another, bigger figure on a piece of paper and place that beyond the current bandwidth limit of 150K.  Now, walk toward that, noticing what it feels like. 

• Is it as scary as you’ve imagined?
• What other feelings can you sense?
• What are your thoughts as you stand at that place beyond 150k?

Standing in this new space, you have literally, physically moved beyond your old bandwidth.  Now, new possibilities are available. Try it!

Join me at my live events to learn how to expand your bandwidth (including your money bandwidth!) and step into new paradigms.