How to Cultivate an Abundance Mindset in a Chaotic World
Today I wanted to talk about the art of abundance.
I truly feel like it is an art and something that needs to be reworked into every aspect of our daily lives.
If you feel like you’ve lost your way a bit and want to learn how to cultivate an abundant mind, keep reading!
Personal Reflections
With the state of the world in the last few years we’ve experienced so many losses.
Loss of experience, loss of travel, loss of time spent with loved ones and even losing them… the list goes on and on.
All of the practices that I thought I had nailed, got flipped upside down and having an abundance mindset went along with it.
I conjured up the solution to be that I simply needed more.
More time, more money, more materialistic items, more of everything!
But it is quite difficult to be appreciative of more when you cannot even appreciate what you have.
What is an Abundance Mindset?
Having an abundant mind is the ability to recognize that what you have is enough and the ability to be grateful for everything no matter how small.
Now before you exit out of this post because you may think it follows the simplistic solution of “just be grateful” to all of our problems… hold on!
Having an abundance mindset goes beyond writing 5 things your grateful for in a day.
This is a great start but I think it’s important to take it a step further and ask yourself “How am I showing my gratitude today?”
I know I’d write things out like “I’m grateful for my parents”
But when you say that you value your relationship with your parents or a loved one, I find it helpful to ask yourself “what am I actively doing to match those words?”
Do you spend time with them?
Do you call them?
Do you feel grateful for their presence during your interactions with them?
Do you embody this in the way that you speak to them?
I knew that if I wanted to rework the art of abundance back into my mind, I had to practice this intentionally.
How to activate an Abundance mindset?
Give yourself grace to mourn your losses
In light of all of the tragedies and losses we’ve faced throughout the past few years, it wouldn’t be fair to tell someone “just be grateful.”
Before you can even move towards gratitude you have to allow yourself the space to mourn the “should haves” and “would haves.”
Give yourself the grace to mourn these losses because as we’ve talked about in previous posts, the more you suppress your feelings, the more intense they become.
You want to put yourself in a position where you are willingly choosing abundance rather than resenting this type of thinking because it made you suppress how you really felt.
As time goes by you may find yourself not dwelling on things for as long as you once did, but go easy on yourself.
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Optimism
The core of adopting an abundance mindset is optimism.
Choosing to accept the possibility of things working out or the acceptance that there is still some good amongst the bad is the hallmark of optimism.
Being optimistic doesn’t mean that you are rejecting the idea that circumstances are unfavorable or straight up horrendous.
It’s actually the opposite.
When you are immersed in how much bad there is, practicing optimism ALSO allows you to see the good.
Not in place or in rejection of the bad, but it allows you to hold both true realities at once.
Pick someone that you look up to that embodies abundance
I first learned the true art of abundance from my parents.
My parents had a long journey of immigrating to Canada all the way from Eritrea and they had to work so hard for everything they have now.
My parents weren’t the richest and didn't always have the money to buy the newest games or enroll us in 20 extracurricular activities as kids.
But despite all of that my parents always made us feel like what we had was enough.
When you come from a war torn country where you’ve faced unimaginable losses and you still have the ability to accept that what you have is enough and be truly content, I find that incredibly admirable and courageous.
One of the pillars of abundance is the concept of enough.
Being faced with deprivation and loss but still being able to cherish what you have is why I look up to my parents so much.
So find someone you look up to that has an abundant mindset and try to take key lessons from them.
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Practice how to embody your gratitude
Lastly I mentioned this at the beginning but taking this one step further and asking yourself “how do I practice my gratitude” is key to activating an abundance mindset.
Being grateful for what you have and who you have is the first step.
But challenge yourself a little further to take deliberate action and have those words align.
For example, during a time when I was working a job I no longer wanted to be in and the only solution was to wait until I heard back from potential employers, I would find myself being very negative and miserable day to day.
So I’d journal and reflect on the fact that I am grateful to have a job at this time, but I would go to work and complain and be negative.
See where the disconnect is?
I eventually began to write realistic ways that I could show my gratitude at work.
I would write things like:
Be present in my conversations with my coworkers because I value them
Be more present in minor client interactions that I typically wouldn’t pay much attention to
Acknowledge one positive thing daily, no matter how small
Remember, acknowledging the positives in a negative situation doesn’t mean you’re invalidating how you feel, or that the situation itself doesn’t completely suck.
It just gives you an opportunity to focus on what you can control.
In Summary
Overall the point of this post is to get better at catching yourself when you get trapped in the cycle of dwell and I truly believe abundance is the back bone I can always lean on.
This post does not negate the fact that there are many things people have lost, maybe even loved ones that cannot be replaced, but having this mindset will surely allow for the state of the world to suck a little less.
How do you practice your abundance mindset?
With love,
Leah
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