What is abundance and scarcity?

In this blog, we have a look at abundance and scarcity.

(Spiritually, abundance is the enlightened mind, and scarcity the ego)

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Abundance is usually thought of as material abundance, and from the mindset of scarcity consciousness, abundance represents the ability to endlessly consume. Different forms of consumption include food, money, power, love, and the consumption is driven by an underlying sense of emptiness and deficiency.

Abundance, as we use it at www.connected2success.com represents a story that we tell ourselves. The story has some key principles

· There is enough for everyone and more can be created

· You exist to contribute to each other and to the planet

· Everyone has unique relevance so there is no need to fight and compete.

· You are connected to Spirit and to a context much greater than yourself

· Spirit is infinite and is your true source

· Life is intelligent, there are no accidents and everything is fortuitous

The advantage of being in abundance consciousness is a fearlessness, because Spirit, your true identity, is eternal and indestructible. This allows you to face scarcity, see it, and transform it through staying present to it. Abundance doesn’t mean always feeling good; it means being willing to face whatever arises, and if you keep doing that, you eventually start to feel really good. Because abundance feels connected to Spirit, in its mature form it is full and overflowing, giving and loving.

Scarcity is driven by survival needs. It’s felt as an emptiness, and someone in scarcity consciousness never feels they have enough. Scarcity always wants more, for example money, more achievement, more love and more food. Scarcity feels disconnected from Spirit, and so tries to attain fullness through consuming and controlling the world. As scarcity places its wellbeing in the material world, it is prone to being a victim when conditions change outside its control.

Scarcity is accidental and arose as a survival mechanism in a world of physical threat, where it was necessary to fight of predators, other tribes, and hunt for food. In a world of few humans, abundant rescources and limited technology, scarcity was an excellent survival mechanism, and didn’t threaten the environment.

As technology has improved, and the number of humans has increased and demands on natural resources rocketed, humans can no longer fight, compete, and accumulate and expect to survive. What is needed is a new way of being, one of contribution, connection to Spirit, care and relationship. Abundance is the spiritual solution to the limitations of scarcity.

The implication of moving into abundance consciousness is a life of creativity, wellbeing, spontaneity, and most likely increasing financial and material abundance. Abundance relationships are open, supportive of growth, trusting and accepting of difference.

The implication of staying in scarcity, is one of increasing struggle, limitation, desperation, and eventual annihilation. Scarcity relationships are manipulative, controlling, cold, and resistant to change. In a world of change, inability to change becomes a threat to survival.

What can you do to begin to move into abundance? Learning to be present to challenging emotions, and not identifying with their story, is the golden key.

How do I know if I am in abundance (enlightened self) or ego (scarcity)?

Learning to recognize if you are in abundance is scarcity is essential, because when you act from scarcity, scarcity is strengthened and manifested in your life, and when you act from abundance, abundance is manifested and strengthened.

Your outer world is a reflection of your inner world. When circumstances are difficult, it is easy to blame them for your discomfort and your powerlessness. When life is tough and not going your way, it’s easy to fall into the victim mode. Yet, the assumption of abundance is that we are intimately connected to our results in life, and you can always change your response. Instead of being a victim to circumstance, you can change your circumstance.

The scarcity response to difficult circumstance is to try and exert power over the world, and to try to take control to avoid further discomfort. The scarcity response is a reactive response, driven by fear, doubt and anxiety, and is experienced as ‘work harder, try harder, be more disciplined’ and in getting others to do what you want. The scarcity response is seen when you are caught in the rat race, racing against everyone else and against time to get ahead in life.

The abundance response is to know that your results in life are not divorced from your inner consciousness. The moment that this is recognized, the movement into abundance has happened.

The first thing abundance does is to stay present to the inner tension of discomfort. There is a willingness to be with the feeling of discomfort, and to not allow the feeling to drive the stories of scarcity that so easily result. As the tension is stayed present to and felt into, sooner or later it will liberate, and there will be a felt release of tension.

After the release of inner tension, a feeling of openness follows, and from this open space, you can freely engage with the world, giving your gifts, receiving the gifts of others and engaging in authentic relationship. From the place of openness, there is no sense of being threatened or having to survive, and there is a sense of there being enough for everyone. From abundance, there is a confidence in your unique relevance, so there is no worry about becoming obsolete. You simply commit to learning and continually doing your best.

I have found this time and time again. When I can open up, my world opens up and abundance flows us. When I am closed, my world closes down and I experience scarcity.