A Journey to Abundance

At the first of the year, I told you my word this year was Abundance. I love the idea of abundance because I was raised with a scarcity mindset. Nothing ever felt secure; it felt as if there was always the threat of something waiting in the wings to take the security away from me.

In the first six weeks of this year, I have done the work to dig deep to discover what is truly behind my scarcity mindset, and rather than discovering some deep, dark forgotten corner of my life, I am learning that my scarcity mindset comes from a normal human brain that finds familiarity in fear … of losing, of failing, of being rejected.

It’s the same normal human brain that relies on imposter syndrome to keep it safe from experiencing a full life. This discovery brings me comfort and relief. Scarcity comes from fear, but I can accept the fear just as I accept the imposter syndrome. I can manage them both with courage and self-compassion, and so can you.

Sometimes people think that courage is the opposite of fear, but courage cannot exist without fear. A scarcity mindset would run and hide in the face of fear, but abundance knows that courage is just as available to us as fear. Abundance reaches down, picks up courage, and takes a step forward. Susan David tells us, “Courage is fear walking.”

Abundance also immerses itself in self-compassion. Abundance says, it’s okay if things don’t go according to plan, and it’s okay to feel sad or discouraged, but I am going to keep moving forward, even in failure.

I am not saying that these feelings are easy. It’s not easy to feel discouraged. It’s not easy to feel sad or disappointed or afraid, but the more we are willing to practice the negative feelings, the more the positive feelings open up to us. Abundance is all about opening up to all of the feelings and keeping self-compassion at the top of the list.

Until next time, much love!