Jun 17, 2021
Alright, this week we are going to talk about the elephant in the room. This is the difference between an abundance mindset and a lack mentality. I’m going to spell it out so that it's clear and so you can see where LACK (my least favorite 4 letter word) is creeping into your thoughts and manifesting more of itself to your determent.
First though, let’s give you some research facts for your professionals out there who need them. The quote unquote “Abundance Mindset” is a term coined by Stephen Covey in his 1989 best seller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People ( a book I highly recommend and its accompanying workbook. Both are linked in show notes.
The definition is simply the attitude that “there is plenty for everyone” aka plenty of wealth, plenty of prestige, plenty of food, plenty of optimism, plenty of success, etc. fill in the blank. AND this definition also includes the WILLINGNESS to be OPEN to the option that there is in fact PLENTY to be had.
So, this is a very active thing to hold an abundance mindset. You must cultivate a belief that there is in fact plenty and remain always open to that fact, willingly. You can’t force yourself, or trick yourself, or co-dependent yourself into believing there is enough for everyone (in fact MORE than enough, there is plenty!) Plenty connotates overflowing cornucopias of whatever the want/need is for humans. You must work on being open to the idea - this openness is the KEY to holding the attitude, and one of the reasons gratitude helps cultivate abundance is because it makes us more open to the belief that there is plenty.
Now let’s talk about lack. A lack mentality is built upon a scarcity mindset - which is also a belief. A belief that there is not enough for everyone and in fact there is so little that resources are scarce - to the point where we must fight to survive in this world. Scarcity believes there is not enough food, not enough money, not enough supplies, tools, things to go round - and thus if you get some of the scarce things you must hoard it. And this need to hoard just reinforces the belief that this is lacking. The energy of “there is never enough” just feeds on itself and thus the truth is “there is never enough” for that person, and the many other persons who hold that thought.
As an extreme example of this, think about a hoarder’s house. This literal abundance of stuff up to the ceiling comes from the person in every decision and every belief, believing that there is not enough. To such an extent that they save everything - fully stopping their flow and filling their house with garbage or unused things. And the lack and scarcity of belief is so reality consuming that they literally do not see that they have plenty of whatever it is that they are conserving. Not only do they have plenty, they have an abundance of stuck energy. It's like a magnet - the belief in lack fuels what they see and creates the reality around them, and it literally attracts more of the same.
OK, most of us are not hoarders but a lot of us hold scarcity mindset belief systems, which is simply this “if someone has something this equals less of that for me.” We need to look no further than the great United States Toilet Paper Disaster at the beginning of COVID 19 lockdown to see this at work, at least culturally, in the United States (the land of plenty) where I live and write this, and we suffer as a collective consciousness from Lack Mentality and scarcity mindset. So let’s go deeper - let’s look at what is happening in the scarcity vs abundance mindset.
- The scarcity point of view = You are a victim i.e. I have no choice
- The abundance point of view = you are empowered i.e. I always have a choice
Lack Mindset: I have no choice but to buy all the remaining toilet paper on the shelf because there is a shortage and I’ll be left without it if I don’t do this. I’m being forced to act and hoard because other people are hoarding. You see how this thought structure is feeding on itself?
Abundance Mindset: I always have a choice. I know that other people are buying more than they need right now. But I’m going to choose to just buy one package that serves my needs right now, and leaves more on the shelf for other people. So the next person can also have what they need and its toilet paper. There is plenty of toilet paper in the United States as we are the largest consumer of it and manufacture millions of rolls a day. Then the next person comes and finds enough toilet paper on the shelf. And you see how this openness shifts the energy and actually ensures there is plenty for everyone??
Scarcity/Lack mentality also has physical, emotional and mental connotations. If you are holding lack - you hold tension, clenched jaw, can suffer from shortness of breath (panic attacks).
Emotionally - you can experience impatience, anxiety, anger & overwhelm, mentally you are disorganized, confused and narrow in your thinking.
Abundance mindset is physically relaxed, grounded and present in the now, emotionally positive, engaged, inspiring to others, excited by challenge. And mentally you experience clarity, wide perspective, creativity, agency and flexibility.
Just thinking about these two juxtaposed which mindset is more comfortable and beneficial? More productive energy feeding versus draining? Lack mentality and scarcity mindset are poison to your body, to your dreams and your ability to create.
If you are going to start your own business or try to take on any new endeavor- if you have a lack underneath it all you are going to sabotage yourself so you have to diagnose what's going on and change/transform your thought process to ensure success. You might be thinking this is easy for you to say Angel - you’ve got a successful business, your needs are met, you are a beautiful human being, things just come to you naturally. And to any of this, I say - it took me many, many, many years of actively meditating, cultivating gratitude, and telling myself the truth through my Buddhist practice, through studying the Universal Hermetic Ray Kabballah, by facing my negative ego on many an uncomfortable ledge facing my demons to get where I am today. Over 20 years of effort - and it didn’t have to take this long, but I was stubborn, in denial, codependent, and in various states of self-medication for portions of it.
I spent 15 years of my life in a corporate job I hated 50% of the time because I believed there wasn’t enough, or that I could not make enough money on my own. But now I make 4 times what I did in that job on a monthly basis and enjoy it 100%. I spent 20 years of my life in really unhealthy or unsatisfying relationships because I didn’t believe I was good enough and thus, put myself in need of codependent relationships with individuals not worthy of my time and not working on themselves.
It took me a long time and a lot of work to be able to confidently say I am a goddess, I am beautiful, I am good enough to love myself, and by loving myself and believing that I create the reality I live in, I am doing just that. Which includes sharing this wisdom with all of you.
Our collective consciousness is a dirty river of lack and scarcity so many of us are hoarders and victims in our life. And this mentality feeds on itself. Your thoughts make the collective thought stronger and make it real in your and others consciousness.
So let’s diagnose where scarcity is at work in your life so you can change it. One way to diagnose is to ask yourself a series of questions:
- Where do you experience jealousy and spite?
- Do you compare yourself to others?
- Do you judge yourself and others?
- Do you have fears about the future?
This is not an exhaustive list of questions but these can help you hone in on where lack is at work. Where your negative ego is keeping you stuck. Because negative ego is all about the things in your subconscious that you are not looking at but are allowing to run your life.
Other questions to ask yourself
- Do you have the need for instant gratification? Aka fear of missing out?
- And where do you need this?
- How often do you complain? And about what? (is there something you can actually do about the complaint?)
- Do you say thank you?
- Do you use empowered words or victim words like “I don’t have a choice”
- When faced with the unknown do you tense up, become afraid, cry, drink, eat, smoke, buy?
The foundation of a lack mentality is fear.
- Fear of failure
- Fear of being alone
- Fear of missing out
- Fear of dying
- Fear of illness
But known F.E.A.R. = false evidence appearing real. If you are worried about what you are lacking you will never be free.
Now don’t start beating yourself up because you have diagnosed Lack mindset in your life. That is counter productive. We want to shine a light on it so you can transform it and be free of it. So you can be able to grow into a new way of being and experience the joy that brings. Everything about this podcast is about cultivating an abundance mentality in your life and creating intentionally from that space.
Abundance mindset comes with cultivation and practice, just like anything else you must learn and practice. As Yoda says, “we must unlearn what we have learned” in order to truly feel the Force, the energy that moves our life. When Luke tried to lift the X wing out of the swamp the first time, he said “I can’t, it's too big, it's too heavy” In other words, I don’t have enough power.
Then Yoda showed him that little and old Yoda could do it because Yoda was tapped into his power and had an abundance to create from. You all have an abundance mindset waiting to be activated. And we all have a proverbial X wing to lift from our inner swamp.
Let’s cultivate gratitude and become open to the belief that there could in fact be plenty of LOVE, light, time, money and energy to go around and we just need to start tapping into it.
Need help with any of this mentality cultivation or want coaching to start your business - I can help with that! Using both legal and spiritual tools from an ancient lineage.
Until next time, take a deep look at where lack and scarcity are controlling and undermining you and we’ll keep learning ways to transform that.
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