When life gets tumultuous (like during a pandemic, or when you find yourself in a quarantine funk), it’s easy to adopt a scarcity mindset where you feel like there’s not enough time, money, recourses, jobs and energy to go around. But this way of thinking can be problematic because how we perceive things directly impacts how we experience life. By shifting from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset, we can begin to change and improve our quality of life. So what are the differences between a scarcity mindset and an abundance mindset?
When you adopt an abundance mindset, you’re operating on the belief that there is an infinite amount of something available to you. Despite the circumstances, you trust that there are endless opportunities, time, money, resources and love that are possible to have. Basically, others’ gains *do not* equate to your loss.
On the other hand, when you operate on a scarcity mindset, you believe the opposite to be true. The foundational belief for this mindset is that life draws from a finite pool of resources, meaning if someone else has more opportunities and blessings, there’s less for you. People with a scarcity mindset believe they have to hold on to whatever they have now because it might not come back later. Focusing on what you don’t have or lack can trigger feelings of fear, jealousy and hopelessness, which can lead you to believe that you can’t change your life experiences for the better. Living in this fear-induced state of anxiety, stress and discomfort can actually result in missed opportunities, dissatisfaction and a compromised well-being.
Embodying an abundance mindset by believing there’s an unlimited amount of everything available to you, your mind, body and spirit feel safe – even if something gets taken away or not yet received. Your body starts to learn that anxiety and stress aren’t needed because there’s no threat to losing anything when there are always more ways to gain what you want or need. An abundance mindset also helps us stay focused on our long-term goals and motivates us to actually produce positive opportunities and experiences for ourselves. So here are 4 rituals to cultivate an abundance mindset!
Examine your beliefs
A scarcity mindset often stems from deeply rooted beliefs about yourself and how life works, so becoming aware of your beliefs can help you dismantle any ideas that may be negatively affecting your quality of life. When you start to notice scarcity-related thoughts or feel physically feel fear and anxiety, make a note in your journal or phone. about what you believe to be true in that specific moment and whether or not that’s empowering to you.
Recognize abundance in past life experiences
Cultivating an abundance mindset requires trust that there’s always more than enough for everyone and then some – but feeling this deep sense of trust can be hard if you’re not used to the idea. One way to strengthen your trust is to reflect on your past life experiences and recognize abundance. You might have had a situation that didn’t work out as expected, but the outcomes led to new opportunities and lessons learned (aka it was a blessing in disguise). Finding proof of abundance can make it easier to see change as redirection vs. a loss of something that’s scarce. It’s like connecting the dots backward!
Shift from expectation to detachment
When you really want something like money, a relationship or achieving a career milestone, there’s a tendency to get attached to the outcome and develop a sense of expectation. Then if things don’t work out exactly the way you envisioned it – which often happens because life is unpredictable – attachment can lead to thoughts and feelings of scarcity. So the solution here is to detach yourself from any expectations of the how’s, when’s and what’s that will happen in the future. Set your intentions for what you authentically want and then detach yourself from the details of how it’ll come to be.
Celebrate your accomplishments (and others’!)
Feeling envious of others will take away your own opportunities for growth. It’s a limiting emotion that makes us think about why someone else doesn’t deserve the good things that happen to them. Celebrating other people’s successes can be as easy as congratulating them on achieving their goals and recognizing the effort it took to get there. Of course, celebrate your own wins too, even the mini ones. It’s important to celebrate hitting goals, but it’s also just as important to celebrate yourself every time you take an actionable step toward your goals. This helps cultivate an abundance mindset by ingraining the idea that your efforts and worthy of being rewarded just as much as the outcome.
Which mindset do you often find yourself adopting – and if it’s a scarcity mindset, how do you like to get out of it? I’d love to hear!
