This morning, I had poured my daughter some apple cider we had just bought the day before at an apple farm. Her little brother grabbed at her cup to try some and I heard her balk, “heeeeyyy!” I reacted with, “Don’t worry, we have lots more!” With that she handed over her juice and let him drink the whole thing. I witnessed in real time, the shift in her perception of abundance that directly impacted her level of kindness. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “abundance mindset.” It’s one of those new age-y terms I cringe at a bit, but there is something to this concept of abundance being something that is not what one has, but how one perceives. And that it could be the key to getting people to “share their juice” with the rest of humanity.
What abundance is not
The definition of abundance in the dictionary is simply “a large quantity of something.” In the more is more culture we live in, abundance is usually thought of as having accumulated a lot of stuff. However, the accumulation of things can make one feel less secure. The more stuff we have, the more we fear its loss. This results in fearful, hoarding behavior.
Everything we own pulls on a percentage of our attention. When we are drowning in our things, it’s like Kryptonite to our energy because so much is pulling at us.
Even our modern diseases, like obesity, diabetes, heart disease are the result of “too much.”
So what is true abundance?
We just interviewed my friend and colleague Light Watkins for the Being the Change Podcast, and he talked about how he made the consciousness decision to get rid of everything he owned that couldn’t fit into one backpack. It was fascinating to hear how he was seeking true abundance through letting go of material abundance.
True abundance is experienced not collected. It comes from drawing one’s fulfillment from within, which is the by-product of meditation, which is the act of going within. The one, indivisible whole consciousness field that is the source of everything is a well that never runs dry.
As I say that, I realize how inaccessible that sounds. It’s not like you can go there like you go to Target and pick up some “fulfillment.”
How it works is your awareness goes to that field in meditation, and over time the spectrum of your awareness increases until an increasing percentage of your mind is in that field at all times.
How it feels is you feel good regardless of whatever is going on. Nothing can make you and nothing can break you. And your material abundance? It’s basically immaterial.
Sometimes it's easier to access abundance when you're completely away from everything you own.
Such Beauty, This Sharing….🙏