Manifesting abundance vs a story of lack
I have been thinking a lot about this subject lately as I’ve been constantly made aware of my negative relationship with money and the feeling that there will never be enough for what I want. I often tell myself that I’m not asking for much in that I would love to be able to buy healthy foods that nourish my body, some essential oils to create body products with, a few new clothes etc. I’m increasingly becoming aware that this is not really a helpful mindset to have and nothing good comes from that place, except for feelings of dissatisfaction and discontentment.
I listened to a few helpful podcasts recently (one of them being Jay Shetty’s podcast on the scarcity belief which you can watch here) and attended a course that covered this subject of abundance, manifestation and our relationship with money. I want to summarise what I learned to remind myself but also to share with you as I think I’m probably not the only one who struggles with this.
First of all, I noticed that being around people with a higher, positive energy felt really good. I felt inspired and motivated while attending the online course and listening to these podcasts and I could tell it raised my own energy frequency. I hadn’t realised what a big impact people can have in my life. I’ve been aware for a while that my current job isn’t aligned with my values and the energy tends to make me feel tired, drained and demotivated. So I want to try and seek out those higher frequency people that feel aligned with my values., encourage personal growth and are supportive, whether that’s through podcasts, courses or in person.
That brings me on to another theme I’ve noticed when it comes to manifesting abundance, and that is that you need to learn to generate feelings of gratitude and generosity within yourself and as you go out into the world with that energy, you draw higher frequency people to you. I had been working on that for a while last year through daily breathwork and visualisation, but I didn’t keep up that habit. During the brief time I had been working on this however, I found the case studies I needed to be able to complete my massage course and I also landed my Saturday massage job. I did create some good connections at the time. With that though, I learned it’s important not to go out with the expectation of needing something, but trust that if something is right it will come your way and if not, it’s fine if it doesn’t work out.
Generosity is another crucial quality for manifesting abundance. I’m not proud to say that I find it quite hard to demonstrate this. I wish I was naturally more generous, but mostly I feel like I want to keep things close to me without sharing. I remember as a child often not wanting to share my toys and being protective over my food, often craving more. Don’t get me wrong, I was lucky in that I grew up with my physical needs always met, but my scarcity mindset came from somewhere. Likely it started in childhood from my parents who received it from their parents etc. Listening to Jay Shetty’s podcast helped me think about what some of my beliefs around money are and how these are still playing out in my life now. Beliefs such as ‘people with money likely got their wealth dishonestly’, the feeling of self-righteousness that came with having no money, as if you were doing the right thing by having little. There was also the message of ‘we earn too much to qualify for state benefits, but not enough to buy any extras’. I can see those stories still playing out in my life now: I’m hesitant to spend money on myself, and yet I also overspend in an overindulgent way (seeking comfort).
The other point I picked up on was that it’s important not to avoid fears (I totally avoid looking at my finances for instance) but facing your fears makes them feel less intense. The same goes for internal blocks (thoughts such as ‘I don’t deserve to have wealth’, ‘I am not worthy’ etc.). These fears and blocks need to be acknowledged and accepted, rather than trying to get rid of them and pushing them away. There was also an embodiment/somatic exercise around this, where you embody the feeling or block that comes up, feel which part of the body it’s felt and then let it fade into the rest of your body so that it’s diluted. This is still something I want to practice more, I struggled feeling much in my body when I tried it at the time.
To summarise, although there were many more helpful suggestions, these were my main take aways:
Practice feeling and embodying gratitude and generosity. The less you have, the more generous you want to be.
Abundance comes from within first and foremost, and as you start to increase your own energy and engage with the world from that place, you draw abundance to you naturally. The point being that you could learn how to make more money, but if you haven’t done the internal work, you’ll continue to play out your old stories and it won’t make a difference how much money you have.
What you avoid, you attract, and fears and blocks need to be faced, acknowledged and embodied. I noticed that just by paying attention to some of my fears, and acknowledging them, I felt a sense of relief. It was as if that was all the fear wanted, to be acknowledged rather than ignored, as it’s only trying to keep me safe.
So, what does this look like in my day to day? I would like to go back to my daily breathwork practice, to help generate feelings of gratitude. I will continue my daily journaling practice to work on self-awareness and personal growth. I think practicing generosity and facing fears might be things to address in the moment as they come up. But I will definitely journal some ideas on how I could show up more generously in my life towards friends, family and community.
This is where the work is, in the day to day, building daily habits that are realistic and fit in with my routine so that they stick.
This was an early morning walk the day after the full moon last month - I have been so grateful for my early morning walks