I want to add something here at the start. This post is about lack vs. abundance. It assumes you have a roof over your head, food on the table and are protected from violence and fear of abuse. If you do not have enough to eat, a clean safe place to live or if you are living in fear please don’t do it silently. Please reach out, tell your religious leader, your family or your postman. Tell someone.
If you have food, shelter and safety read on!
You may have already heard the concept of a scarcity outlook or living from a place of plenty. Whether or not you have been able to cultivate an outlook of abundance or not many of us have at least been exposed to the idea.
Checkout this chart from Destiny’s Freedom. I think it is a great illustration of the concept.
I didn’t grow up with a world understanding that made me think there was plenty for everyone. In my family the men seemed to have plenty, and they would support each other. On the other hand, the women in the family were given completely different training. The women (like the men) were taught to work really hard, to scrimp and save and get by. They always seemed to do just that – just get by.
I was all set to work really hard and just get by. But then my course changed. I was so curious about how the other half lived. You know the educated, well off people who clearly had family support and wealth. It seemed to me that the people with money or “good families” didn’t fight or struggle or have permanently furrowed brows and I wanted ALL of that. As I ran my own teenage social experiments and observed and studied, I knew there was something…. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I had figured out that give-and-take somehow always came out even. I had discovered that I could be happy, and fake-it-till-you-make-it and it really works!! << faking it long enough taught me that I could cultivate happiness from the inside. I KNOW – MIND BLOWING!
So, I set out to make sure that my daughter and everyone I knew and loved knew the secret. Happy, content and at peace is an inside thing – you can’t buy it or make it or sell it. It’s free and it fits everyone!
Some people were just waiting for permission… like somewhere in their being they knew joy and contentedness was just waiting for them to accept the gift. But others laughed me off. Those that know me, know, I can’t be laughed off easily. My strategy was to be generous enough, long enough, that they would start to get it. Here it is a decade later (that’s not an exaggeration) and some people still feel like there are the haves and the have nots, that the situation, they find themselves in, is done to them. I couldn’t figure it out. How have I been so ineffective? How have I not been able to explain how things really work? And then it dawned on me…
This isn’t my lesson. I am not supposed to teach – and all of my efforts have stretched out the process for this person. I have prevented or hindered their ability to feel the impact of their choices. I have lessened the blows that were supposed to teach and shape them. I was the bowling lane bumpers, padding the score and inevitably dragging out the hard lessons. And I already know that every time a lesson is presented it gets harsher and louder and more dramatic.
You can’t teach an abundance perspective. You can be a living example but each person has to experience abundance. Each person has to choose abundance over lack for themselves.
As I sit here writing this, I have countless stories running through my head of people I know who have catered to the unreasonable, enabled helplessness or dependence and fed the egos of those uninspired or unmotivated loved ones.
For me the answer is to continue to live in this place of wonder and awe, knowing that all is possible and that there is plenty for all who choose to have plenty. I know I used the word choose; I know that when you live in a place of lack it doesn’t feel like a chosen reality. But for those of us who have tried both we know that it is a choice. I didn’t have any more family, support or resources when I chose to live in a place of plenty. But as I continued to live in this place, I am more and more certain that the reality is that there is plenty for everyone. That you can have joy, fulfilment and abundance. I also know that I can’t give it to you. I can’t make you comfortable or ease your pain enough for you to be convinced. Abundance, fulfillment and joy are an inside job.
If you are looking to make the shift or reinforce a shift you have already made, here are some things that have worked for me… they are also fun.
Gratitude journal or other activity
Smile
Backbends
Volunteerism
Silence
As the Summer rolls in, many of us are starting to bounce back. I am so excited to hear about all of the changes that the group is making. So many of us are getting life back on track, moving forward on life-long dreams, and taking advantage of having time at home. If you are bouncing back, I would love it if you would share your wins on the CAYA Yoga Facebook page or inside the Community so that we can celebrate your successes together!
Tell us what made your resilience possible. Did you take advantage of family time, pump up your practice, or shift your diet? Or maybe you and I are working on Bhavana or prayer, and you experienced a WIN?! Share your story, and just perhaps you will inspire someone else to follow your lead and achieve their dreams today!
Some of us are still waiting for a shift. If you are feeling emotional and financial fatigue, you are not alone. I know it might seem like things are getting worse, but as the heat turns up, the choices become more straightforward and comfortable. The timeline of some tough decisions that you have been waiting for or wanting to make start to move to the top of the list. In fact, you might even find that COVID has made some of your long-term goals fast forward to the here and now!
If you are ready to have the career, lifestyle, or relationship, you have always dreamed of… Now is a great time to shift direction or correct your course.
Through a structured meditation/prayer/Bhavana, you can clarify your vision and pave the way for realizing your dreams. No matter what you wish for, a better living situation, to live and work with purpose or to find “the one,” you can have it! Check out my calendar and schedule a day and time to get started!
As for me, I continue to be amazed at how my vision for the future has a way of falling into place. I continue to work hard, and I am so thankful for you and the Come As You Are Community. The online community continues to grow each week. We are diversifying the offerings and making them more accessible. Watching my dream for my family and for Come As You Are LLC continue to materialize has and is the most immense joy of my life.
I can’t wait to hear about what you are working on.