I was bought up to believe in scarcity ... one of my earliest memories is my mum going around a supermarket with a calculator (making sure she had enough money to pay for the shopping). Things did get more comfortable as I grew older and my dad got promoted at work, but even so the value placed on money and the sense that it could be taken away at any moment was pretty evident.
Last year, I joined a four part webinar with Ashley Turner called the ‘Soulful CEO’ and one of the areas she covered was this scarcity mindset. Ashley said to truly succeed as a soulful CEO you had to replace a scarcity mindset with one of abundance, so that is what I have been doing for the last 12 months or so.
As I have done some deeper work through meditation and self enquiry, I have realised that I have bought into this scarcity mindset which promotes a sense of competition (instead of collaboration) . This sense of there not being enough to go around so we have to fight for our corner of the pie. This mindset also promotes a sense of fear. I've seen so many people stay in jobs they hate as they cling on to this false sense of ‘security’ and survive counting down the days to their retirement!
I have been there, I thought that like too many years ago. It's not anyone's fault, it's just behaviour I was modelled by my parents and what society is constantly telling us - earn more more money so you can consume, consume, consume and then you will be happy!
Living with a sense of abundance and gratitude is not good for business! How are companies going to sell to us if we feel complete and abundant without that new iPhone!!
I believe that once you accept that we have no real security we can live with much greater peace and with a sense of abundance. It's not easy, but for me it seems that letting go is the key. And by believing there is enough for everyone, we don’t need to compete with others.
I am working daily to change my mindset, I don't believe in scarcity any more.
Every day, at the start of the day I remind myself I am already abundant (I have the blessing of another full day ahead of me, I have a roof over my head and food in my fridge) so basically I start with gratitude for what I have. I also express gratitude for my health, my friends & family, my jobs and my gifts I can offer to the world.
Abundance is much more than money!
I then do a japa meditation practice focused on Lakshmi (the goddess of abundance) I recite ‘Om Shrim Maha Lakshmi Namaha’ 108 times. Once I finish the japa meditation, I close with two affirmations which I state out loud. These affirmations are ‘I am worthy of abundance’ and ‘ I invite in abundance’.
It’s been really fascinating to do this practice daily as I do feel my scarcity mindset is slowly evaporating - don’t get me wrong some of it is still there, after all it's years of family and societal conditional I am trying to undo here!
I’d encourage you to read more about this if you are interested and witness your own behaviour and beliefs around scarcity and abundance.
I'm going to conclude by offering blessings to Lakshmi for helping open my eyes to a different way to live my life!