I recently started reading The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist and was so moved when she talked about “the lie of scarcity”.
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She talks about how “not enough” is such a habitual pattern of thought that most of us don’t even notice it.
We wake up thinking that we didn’t get enough sleep. We don’t have enough time. We don’t have enough energy. “Not enough” is our perspective on nearly everything…
We see the world through the lens of scarcity: not enough. The alternative, of course, is a perspective of abundance. Gratitude.
When I read her perspective on “not enough”, I did something I do often. I closed the book, grabbed my journal and started to write about what this looks like in my own life and how I can begin to change it today.
See, I read and hear things that move or challenge me all the time. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is what I do with it. How I practice it. How I implement it.
For months I’ve been thinking about doing some “Inside EB’s Journal” posts and I guess this will be a bit of that.
Here’s what I wrote in my own journal:
Where am I most commonly thinking or feeling that something is not enough?
What do I feel like I don’t have enough of? More accurately, where am I choosing that perspective?
How does this show up in my romantic relationship? Not enough time? Not enough affection? Not enough communication? What’s an alternative perspective? What does it look like to think about this from the perspective of abundance? Where can I practice that?
How does this show up with food? Have I gone my whole life with a perspective of scarcity about food? Is that a huge part of binging or overeating?
What would it look like to choose a perspective of abundance re: food today? I will fuel myself exceptionally well today. I will choose the best I can give my body.
What about money? How can I practice an abundance mindset today?
Going through this exercise was huge. In fact, I’ve asked and answered these questions each day since and I will continue to.
When I catch myself thinking there’s “not enough time” I immediately reframe it. How can I see my day or my tasks from a perspective of abundance today? Right now?
So I want to challenge you to ask and answer some of these questions:
- Where are you in the habit of thinking in terms of “not enough”?
- What’s an alternative perspective? How can you choose an attitude of abundance?
- Is the scarcity you focus on even true?
- Where is fear of loss influencing your perspective?
- Where do you most need to practice an abundance mindset?
- How will you practice today?
- How does “not enough” thinking influence your food choices?
- How can you leverage an abundance mindset to improve your food choices?
What other ways can you implement this shift from “not enough” to abundance?
Thanksgiving week is the perfect week to put this into practice!