Embrace Prosperity

Noticing the experiences where your flowing energy is not guiding your actions is an important step toward noticing what really does allow you to enjoy the experience of having enough of what you want when you want it.

Enough Chocolate

Laurie: I have been playing with this idea for many years. I still practice this daily—with chocolate. My goal here is to enjoy chocolate when I really want it instead of eating it automatically whenever I encounter it.

When I started this practice, I usually ate any chocolate offered to me immediately—and I struggled with a tendency to gain unwanted weight. Now, I keep a drawer in my kitchen filled with an assortment of my favorite types of chocolates. I find that I eat a small square or two almost every day. I savor it and feel content.

If I’m offered a variety of chocolate that is not among my favorites, I usually say, “no thanks” without any regret. I carry some of my favorites when I travel. I know I will always have more than enough.

The only time I have trouble maintaining my desired weight is when, for some reason, I stop attending to my own inner signals about food. When this happens, a frozen energy pattern is activated: I see the chocolate or other comfort food, grab it and eat it automatically. Once I recognize this pattern, I can start paying attention to my healthy signals again.

Enough Pleasure

Willem: On a recent trip to Copenhagen, I noticed a repetitive pattern that won’t surprise you. My wife and I like art and design, so we tend to visit museums and beautiful shops. Because I’ve been focusing on abundance for a while now, I noticed something interesting: Every time we entered a shop and I saw something beautiful, I immediately looked at the price, before even exploring the object.

That was a useful habit in the past because it helped me to avoid frustration: It didn’t make sense to look at things I couldn’t afford.

I started to practice looking at things without checking the price ticket first. That gave me an opportunity to look closer and to decide if this was really something I wanted to take with me. It usually wasn’t, but the price didn’t decide from the beginning anymore. Finally, I found a beautiful, horribly expensive shirt—for half the price.

Too Much Isn’t Abundance Either

In order to experience abundance, you need to be able to experience enough.

When a group of workshop participants were asked what they experienced as scarce in their lives, answers included money, savings for retirement, time, space, help, education, appreciation, etc. In trying to define what enough would be, a new question arose—enough for what?

In the same workshop, answers to the question “What do you have too much of in your life?” focused on stuff. Paper, email, clutter, and collections of all kinds of things, were reported as detracting, not adding to anyone’s experience of joy and satisfaction.

Accumulating too much is one way of trying to compensate for an experience of or a belief in scarcity.

I am realizing more & more that my happiness is tied to my money, so I try to soothe unhappiness with things. I am realizing that spending is bringing me no joy, in fact it's making me more aware of unhappiness in my life. I don't feel like I have enough even though I make a solid mid-range salary. I just feel really disconnected. And that can lead to further destruction. I am hoping this search will lead me to abundance. PL

Accumulating too much may also be something you learn from someone else who experienced scarcity.