We live in times where a scarcity mindset is dominant and an abundance mindset is largely absent. Once you recognise that the media is full of statistics and news on the subject of scarcity you sense just how important it is to focus on thoughts of success on a daily basis. This will gradually banish the scarcity mindset from our life.
It is important to develop a highly proactive approach and daily focus on staying out of fear mode as cognitively your creative thinking is impaired. Your focus is often spent re-running the past or catastrophizing about the future. This impacts people’s mental health over time and their ability to nurture an abundance mentality.
Yet we all deserve an abundant life and without an abundance mindset this will be difficult to obtain.
What is an abundance mindset?
An abundance mindset refers to the belief that you are worthy to receive what you desire. Those with an abundance mindset tend to learn to get out of their own way and do not self-sabotage themselves because of feelings of unworthiness or scarcity. They do not feed the scarcity mindset and scarcity mentality and instead cultivate the abundance mentality.
In my own life, the absence of an abundance mindset meant that I was actually repelling opportunities and money ecause of deep seated beliefs in my own lack of self worth, re and beliefs in what was and was not available to me and this created a scarcity mindset. I have seen this pattern repeat over and over again with clients. The scarcity mindset will keep reappearing until one uproots the hidden and self-sabotaging beliefs causing it and allow the law of attraction to work and the abundance to manifest.
Why is an abundance mindset important?
When you start to feel abundant and think like a worthy and wealthy person you focus on the opportunities and good fortune that you already have. You start to live in the energy of what you want to receive already having happened, thus avoiding the scarcity mindset and offering gratitude for the event before it even happens. You start to develop an abundance mindset and start to see the opportunities hiding in plain sight. Our brains are hard-wired to expect and remember the worst, it’s called the negativity bias, so this change of thinking is actually creating new neural pathways in the brain, changing our personality and making us more positive and ready to receive.
For instance in relationships and goals you don’t settle for less because you believe in your own worth, because you know you deserve better through the cultivation of your abundance mindset. In your work you understand that a scarcity mentality will counteract a desire for abundance and so you remain ambitious and optimistic in line with your goals while expecting miracles to happen. There is no place for a scarcity mentality and without a desire for personal development a growth mindset is impossible. An open and curious mind, preferably non judgemental will assist in having a growth mindset. After all in the mind of the expert, there is very little left to learn. Once again a fixed mindset here is not a helpful one.
How can you develop an abundance mindset?
Here are some tips people to follow to cultivate an abundant-feeling lifestyle:
i)Become the ‘gatekeeper’ and observer of your own thoughts. Watch the self-talk and the scarcity mentality. When you get that thought coming e.g. ‘this couldn’t possibly be for me’ turn it around to ‘I am worthy to receive this’ or ‘I already have received this, it is done’. Basically notice when you are having persistent and unhelpful thoughts.
ii) Visualise daily the life event already having happened, see it in detail, then feel the feelings that you would have when it happens, it fires off the same neurons in the brain as though the event has actually happened. This is a technique athletes routinely use before a race.
iii) Learn how to meditate, that is if you don’t already, learn how to sit in silence for 10 minutes minimum a day, it will help you focus and make you a more positive and less stressed person strengthening your abundant mentality.
iv) If there are quotations or daily affirmations that move you, then have them nearby and read and repeat them often.
v) Write down, commit to paper what your heartfelt desires are, they are much more likely to succeed once you start seeing them in written format.
Consider that negative thought patterns keep us in fear and often go completely unnoticed and impact on professional success.
Remember that your expanded awareness arising from these practices will show you that we all deserve to live a fulfilling life and you may find as a result that you gain clarity around whether it is time to re-assess and make changes.
How do we draw abundance to us?
It is true that we create our own personal reality from the inside out, i.e. our focus on our own thinking and nobody but ourselves is in control of that. Once we start to recognize this and spend time on our personal growth, less fear and more happiness is a direct result. Success is often just a change of perspective. Once you recognise this the added bonus is that outside circumstances affect us less.
The best selling book that Stephen Covey wrote in 1989 entitled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has empowered and inspired readers to transform their lives and continues to do so. It remains arguably one of the most compelling books ever written with a focus on personal development and success habits.
What does having an abundance mindset mean as opposed to a scarcity mindset?
It means that success is never further away than your own thinking. For instance you recognise that good jobs and opportunities always exist and that you are worthy of having one. There are resources available for you to help you and you just go forth and make things happen because you believe in yourself more.
And even when you are dating, you can create an abundance mindset, knowing that ultimately you will meet the right person for you because you simply deserve to, this mindset is applicable to just about anything one desires.
What is the difference between an Abundance Mindset and the Law of Attraction?
i.e. “If I think I’m rich, I’ll become rich”? Although the law of attraction if allowed to work is very powerful, it is hard for it to work in daily life if one’s own mindset is not ready to receive or recognise obvious opportunities. The Abundance Mindset must come first and acknowledges that you are a powerful spiritual being with access to help from the quantum field, some might call that God, the Universe, Higher Powers, but you have to learn to quieten the busy mind, in a way get out of your body and head, and start to emit a type of ‘wifi’ signal to the Universe etc. in a way you have to lose your ‘self’ and become more energy and less matter. For some people that can involve quite a personality change.
What’s the difference between a Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) and an Abundant Mindset?
A positive mental attitude and embracing change helps one cope with day to day challenges at the surface level and being more resilient in life. Cultivating new and stimulating learning experiences may be helpful to increase a PMA. An Abundant Mindset operates at a deeper level in oneself and expects the best possible outcome at all times no matter what happens. A fixed mindset can often be unhelpful here in terms of the need to go with the flow when obstacles appear and a change of direction is needed.
Why is your own opinion the one that counts when you are manifesting?
I have worked with so many clients who in their lives had simply deferred to the opinions of others, often to their own emotional and financial detriment because they didn’t feel confident or worthy enough to receive something out of their comfort zone, something great. Instead they were told and believed that it was not ‘for the likes of them’ in some cases by their own partners and families. Loved ones often offer the worst advice in these cases. A person can actively repel abundance unconsciously.
How does cultivating feelings of gratitude help?
These feelings help increase resilience and happiness and deter the scarcity mindset . Training the mind to look for the good, the positive, particularly last thing at night before sleep, may induce better sleep which is why writing a gratitude journal last thing at night can be particularly helpful. Over time you will see that your growth mindset has been increasing with the work you have been putting in.
How do you maintain an abundant mindset and a positive attitude when things aren’t going so well in life?
You can maintain this mindset by maintaining a healthy amount of growth and avoid getting in a rut and a state of stagnation. Seek out resources to support you e.g. read motivational articles, continue learning and personal development, find mentors and coaches who you admire.
Life experiences such as limited opportunities can predispose one to negative thoughts. Likewise mastery experiences both positive and negative can either increase confidence or reduce it.
When you create memorable experiences and learn new skills this is a good example of a mastery experience. You have the sense of being more successful.This will help you maintain an abundance mentality.
Why it is so important to build resilience and stay positive for your future success
In order to maintain the positive mindset required in testing times try keeping a gratitude journal and learn to incorporate gratitude into your life every day. I recommend writing this at night before going to sleep, even on the most trying days, finding something or someone to be grateful for really does help shift a negative mood and recognize that self pity is not helpful. It also aids sleep.
How can you sustain an abundance mindset when you’re struggling financially?
There are times when you’re not making as much money, are in debt, lose your job, can’t pay the bills, etc. it happens to us all.This is when you really need to focus on your Abundance Mindset. During these times, as always, it really helps to think that what you want is already here, living in that energy, thinking as though it has happened. Know that indisputably you will never be able to control the outside world, but with practice, you can control the inner world and then you will simply vibrate at a higher level and the sayings that like attracts like and what you want wants you, start to make a lot of sense and increase resilience. Keep going and celebrate what is already here.
What if you are wealthy already, do you automatically have an Abundance Mindset?
An abundance mindset refers to a belief that there is sufficient abundance in the world for everyone and the need to be grateful for whatever the Universe provides. Some have more than enough money in life but can’t convince themselves to spend it. They hoard it because “they may need it in the future.” There is a deep-seated belief that they don’t deserve the abundance and that it will be taken away. This thinking nearly always goes back to ideas of scarcity installed in us often before the age of 8. Recognising this out-dated thinking is helpful in moving forward and letting go of past disappointments, failures and resentments, often changing the trajectory of a person’s life and allowing more joy and fun in.
Why is Thinking Big a good idea?
This is part of abundant thinking and having an abundance mindset and an abundance mentality wards off feelings of scarcity and helps you develop win win situations in your life.
Your big idea should scare you and get you out of your comfort zone.
The corporate world needs big thinkers with big visions and the ability and imagination to instigate them.
BIg thinkers know that the victim mentality is futile, they relish the failures and thus automatically feel more empowered. If at first you do not succeed, try, try and try again.
An abundance mentality understands that instant gratification is a fool’s game and that daily observation of one’s thoughts and the practice of remaining present and focussed with a big vision for the future is a way of life.
When you are thinking big, you see the destination you want to reach and are flexible enough to understand there may be a few detours along life’s highway.
Recognise that creating abundance is rarely based on logical steps but more so that you are in partnership with Source, The Universe, God, however you care to name that invisible force that we can tap into in the Quantum field once we free ourselves of our own limiting thinking.
The bigger the thinking the better it is, you are not here to play it small.
Why should you take charge of your own wellbeing?
First and foremost because you ARE worth it and without you any plans for your future do not work!
Get out in nature to nurture yourself, and remember to breathe deeply in nature’s clean air where possible. Learn to be mindful of your present surroundings and experiences. That is the NOW and wherever you go there you be.
Once we start focusing on our wellbeing regularly other possibilities and more resources soon come onto our radar, simply because we are focussed on creating a better feeling inside ourselves. Sometimes you have to think better to feel better. It is the thoughts that create the feelings. That is how we draw abundance to us from our inside out thinking.
How do I work with you and why does it make sense?
It is hard to recognise, let alone change, a persistently negative and scarcity mindset alone and having enough resources in life, e.g. a great life coach will pay dividends to you in the longer term. The thought patterns that a person forms over a lifetime can take some time to recognise and alter when one is stuck in a rut. A great Personal Development Coach can support you while you make these fundamental changes in your life. They can help you change your perspective to see that there are endless possibilities if one can shift one’s own negativity bias and prioritise your own well being. Gradually an abundant mindset makes one believe that anything is possible, there are infinite possibilities and limitless opportunities presenting themselves because you are actively looking for them and indeed expecting them.
Take advantage of a free 30 minute chat with me here.