Reminding us to practice…GRATITUDE
May is considered the “heart of spring” with nature’s return to life in full-swing.
Nature’s abundance surrounds us everywhere – and this visual display of abundance is a good reminder to reflect on the abundance present in our own lives.
Laurence G. Boldt, the author or “The Tao of Abundance” reminds us that: “Real abundance is about so much more than money. A ‘healthy bottom line’ does not equate with a healthy and abundant state of mind.”
I love that reminder!
And I also love his idea that: “The art of abundance is not the art of making money, but the art of knowing how to live.”
The art of knowing how to live. Think about that! Do we value that in our culture? Do we truly value knowing how to live?
I find I wrestle with this myself. During this first year of business since launching Moondance Wellness Coaching, people have often asked me, “how’s the business going? Is it doing well?” And I never know exactly how to answer.
Are they asking if the business is making any money, successful by our culture’s standards? Or are they asking me if I’m fulfilling my soul’s purpose, enjoying the stream of constant creativity, grateful for the opportunity to do what I love?
I find myself answering awkwardly and almost defensively, without even knowing exactly which question the person is asking me!
Because am I making any money? Ehhh not by our society’s standards of “success.” But the other things? The purpose, the creativity, the gratitude and opportunity? Yes, yes, and yes.
But I always assume the question being asked is the first one, the one about the money. It’s what our culture has taught us to value.
We want to know that everyone is making enough money so that everyone is “safe” and “secure.” It’s probably one of our biggest driving factors for staying in jobs we dislike – the fear of poverty, the fear of not having enough.
We know all too well the saying: “money doesn’t buy happiness.” So then why as a culture do we put so much more stock in having money than in having happiness?
Having money and material abundance isn’t inherently bad, but the question is…is it enough?
What if we’ve become so obsessed with maintaining a state of material abundance, that we’ve become blind to – or worse yet, simply accepting of – our state of spiritual poverty.
As author and motivational speaker Wayne Dyer says, “abundance is not something we acquire; it’s something we tune into.”
So how do we TUNE INTO the abundance in our own lives?
Well, we don’t have to change anything – except our minds. We don’t have to acquire anything – except a new mindset.
We must shift our mental state from the psychology of lack to the psychology of abundance.
For most of us, we aren’t lacking actual material things. That alone is a huge fact to be grateful for.
Yet we tend to exist in feelings of perceived lack, deficiency, SCARCITY. And not without good reason – our world moves fast, demands our constant attention, and leaves chaos in its wake.
It’s no wonder we feel depleted, it’s no wonder we hunker down in feelings of not enough – not enough time, not enough quiet, not enough relaxation, not enough deep and meaningful connection, not enough peace and ease.
So the question is HOW do we shift out of this widespread real and perceived sense of lack?
And the answer: one small step at a time.
One small step at a time we begin to cultivate a spirit of abundance in our lives. We begin to celebrate the smallest of joys and we choose to give thanks for the smallest of blessings.
We decide that looking for the silver lining isn’t cheating, it’s the only way to thrive. We believe that everything happens for our own greatest good – even if we can’t make sense of it in the moment.
And we keep our eye out for those tiny miracles and that undercurrent of magic that exists just below the surface of life’s mysterious unfolding.
Little by little we start to shift into a mode of celebration by:
- expressing gratitude and appreciation
- focusing on our blessings
- turning our attention to all that we do have
With time, we find we are no long focusing on the things we don’t have or the perceived sense of lack.
And eventually, our scarcity thinking starts turning into a deep-seated belief in abundance.
Everyone’s favorite talk-show-host-turned-
Keep that idea in mind this spring and allow every bright blossom, every unfolding fern, every birdsong in the distance, every ray of sunshine, every blade of grass – to remind you of the abundance that constantly surrounds us, if we just tune in and see it.
Let this be our 4th Lesson in our list of best practices for important journeys, as we travel onward this year on our Journey of Self-Understanding and Personal Growth: the lesson to Tune in to Abundance.
Gratitude is the tool that brings us this sense of abundance, and abundance fills our hearts and minds and souls – which is, in the end, more important than filling our wallets.
