In a world that’s evolved to support digital currency and self-made artists on platforms such as Etsy, you’d think that most of our money problems are gone by now. But as is true for many things, many of us haven’t learned how to balance money and spirituality – we are often picking one over the other. I’ve been doing this myself, in many ways, which is why I want to talk about the abundance mindset.
Let’s explore how you can experience more contentment on your journey back to self, while embracing your wealth.
What does it mean to have an abundance mindset?
To explain the mindset of abundance, I’d like to first talk about the scarcity mindset. Here are some subtle examples from day-to-day life:
- Buffet systems where we eat more than our body needs;
- People rushing to get ahead in the line, on a plane where your seat is already booked;
- Buying “limited edition” items just because they’re not available to the masses or after a certain time, and not because you genuinely like the product.
In all the above examples, the mind lives in its most primal state – the survival mode. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s good to want to feel safe. But hyperactivity of the survival brain is a sign that we’re unable to see safety even when it’s here.
So what is the abundance mind thinking?
It’s not just about thinking “like the rich do”, but it is definitely about shifting our inner orientation to be able to recognize life’s gifts.
We may have never been modelled to think in this way that suggests abundance isn’t just about money. Sure, money is the means to many of the treasures and travels of the world. But through that money and the purchases you make, what are you truly trying to fulfill?
When you experience true abundance, you are no longer putting money on a pedestal because you begin to see that your desires are about something deeper. What could that something deeper be? I love the definition that Ashlynd shares in her podcast, which is “abundance is not only what you have, but your relation to what you have, how you feel about what you have”.
So let’s start there. Let’s explore your relationship to what you have and why it might never feel good enough, by investigating some of the “blocks” you might be experiencing with money (and abundance).
Different Ways Your Relationship With Money Might Be Blocking Your Growth
Note that you may not relate to all the ways of thinking below, but if there are areas which stand out to you, focus on those as potential spaces to heal your relationship with money. And as a result, develop a more abundant mind.
#1 – You might think money is BAD.
Of course, nobody admits it. But we may have been rewired to believe this. How?
This will subconsciously appear in your behaviour as feeling guilty every time you spend ‘too much’ on something that wasn’t essential. Or, being unable to charge a fair price to others for your services and giving discounts that aren’t true to your offering (something even more common in the spiritual space).
While growing up, many of us are taught to believe that wanting money is materialistic and shallow, and we begin to act out of that mindset. Example, you might hear your parents talk about the neighbor: yes, she has a lot of money but no brains.”
Or finding yourself repeatedly hearing beliefs like: “money can’t buy love“, “money doesn’t buy happiness“, etc.
For a child, that can be internalized as: smart people don’t earn money. Or, if money can’t buy happiness, money and happiness don’t go together. Or in a similar fashion, money and love don’t go together, and so on.
A dear friend also shares her story to the same effect:
I personally have internalized the belief “money hurts”. Because when I was a child, my mother repeatedly cancelled my dance courses and I went deeply ashamed to the dancing teacher telling her that I would leave the course because we can’t pay it any more.
Up to today I prefer watching youtube dance videos than going to real workshops because I feel uncomfortable and guilty for spending money on it, instead of proud and grateful. In addition to that my mum applied for financial support for an excursion in school and I was the only one who needed to do this. I was also the only one who couldn’t go to the cinema or steak house with the other kids.
My mum always told me “We are different from the others. You can’t go because we don’t have money.” So money made me an outsider and I still associate it with the feeling of exclusion and pain. This is a strong pattern that blocks me nowadays in earning more money because I fear becoming an outsider because of envy, gold diggers etc.
However, the idea that money is bad for us for whatever reasons we’ve thought it to be is dated. It is also a winded-up interpretation of why spiritual seekers renounce their lifestyles and set up such stringent self-restraint parameters.
Money and all material pleasures are temporary in nature. They’re just as essential as we make them to be.
For instance, the recent turn in events because of the pandemic has taught us that we can still adapt and thrive with less parties, less shopping and less traveling.
However, most people act throughout their lives on autopilot. In such cases, it’s easy for us to become too tunnel-visioned and look at the material world as our only reality.
At the end of the day, money is energy, just like the things you buy with that money. And energy is neutral. It’s what intention we apply to it that makes energy beneficial or counterintuitive to our growth.
Are you using that money to consciously take care of your needs? Or living on autopilot with some of the dated notions and potentially fueling the endless flame of wants (called vasanas, in Sanskrit)? Take a moment to see what comes up for as you reflect on the answers to these questions.
#2 – You Might Think It Requires Hard Work To Earn Something.
We’ve already established that just like everything else, money is energy. Many of us humans are willing to spend a lot of energy in the form of time and labor, but sometimes become unwilling to open up to receiving the energy back.
How? Here are some examples.
- You feel shy or say no to people when they give you a “gift”,
- Random acts of kindness towards you make you question “what did I do to deserve this”,
- Compliments make you awkward (but secretly happy),
- Relationships require a lot of hard work, and the easy ones are probably not going to last so you end up sabotaging them,
- You’re constantly putting in blood and sweat to make things work in your life.
Money is just one form of abundance. And just like money, at the receiving end, we often question whether we worked hard enough to really deserve something (or someone). This is a simple way to realize that we are imbalanced and have an unhealthy relationship with money.
If we keep questioning our efforts, we will automatically become workaholics, trying to overcompensate by putting in more energy than we allow to come our way.
As you do this, you end up working twice as hard as everyone and (usually) being low on time, low on satisfaction and low on self-esteem. You are basically fighting against yourself, and blocking your own destiny.
So, ask yourself why you deserve so little, and what would happen if you really gave permission to live a more fulfilling and abundant life. You may consider questioning what happened as you were growing up that made you believe money requires hard work or that you need to “deserve” abundance. Was there a caretaker or loved one that modeled the idea of hustling to you?
If we can use our past as a mirror, it can help us access greater depths of financial and energetic freedom.
For me, a shocking revelation came through during a past life regression session, showing me where my fear of poverty was really coming from. In the same way, I encourage you to reflect on your money story through different healing modalities and really open your aperture to healing.
#3 – You Think Money Is The Deciding Factor For Success.
This is me. Or rather, it was. When this blog began to kick-off after a few years, I started worrying more than I should have, about the success of it.
Ironically, I wasn’t doing any of this for the money, but for some reason, I was ingrained with the belief that I wasn’t successful if I wasn’t earning six or seven figures. Every day, I would show up at work, fearful and terrified that if I wasn’t “successful enough” soon, I would have to “give up” my passion and go back to my corporate job.
This did more harm than help me. Here’s a short video I where explain this block and transformation in more detail.
As the belief came to my awareness and I began questioning it, my goals became more aligned: impact versus income.
And I’ve noticed that in many people that I’ve worked with who are stuck with their money blocks, it is never really about the money. It’s about something deeper rooted, like success (in my case) or a sense of independence, etc.
Abundance means identifying the real reason you’re seeking money, and breathing into the ways life is already showing up for you right now. So, as a reflection question, you can ask yourself what other ways are you growing and receiving life’s gifts that may or may not be directly associated with money?
For me, some of these looked like –
- More and more people trusting me with their stories,
- Amazing online mentors that keep popping up and helping the blog grow with their awesome advice,
- Higher quality collaborations and more diverse opportunities,
- Getting more genuine feedback for the work I was doing,
- Noticing a momentum in my own growth, as I continue to push through my limiting beliefs about myself,
- Being able to serve a bigger demographic from around the world and learning from such a diverse group of people,
- And so on.
If we take this further to a spiritual level, the truth is that our soul cannot be satisfied with merely financial support. It is beyond the needs of the human body. At a deeper level, we also crave community, we crave love, and we crave the human touch in whatever we are doing.
So another reflection question arises here.
If all your monetary needs were taken care of, would you still be so fixated on money as a defining factor for success? Or would you be able to sit back and appreciate all the other signs of growth that have followed you?
The abundance mindset encourages us to look beyond the green bills, and be grateful for every form of support that the Universe is sending to us. What are some of the ways in which the Universe has been cheering you on?
5 Practical Tips to Adopt The Abundance Mindset & Heal Your Relationship With Money
As the world progresses, some thing become simpler and other more complex. One thing that’s become more complex is the idea of success. As consumerism is rapidly exploding, it often feels like it’s imperative to run the rat race in order to fit into society.
There have only been a select set of people who could stay happy with very little. The others had become caught up, and chasing the material goods was so inherent, that we all forgot why we were doing this in the first place. The idea of pursuing a higher calling, being of service for the greater good became fuzzy.
Long story short, we’ve been living in a time where there’s an excess of all things, and a shortage of time. That’s why, once again, we are being asked to become picky about what our time is worth. Would you rather spend that hour watching a chick-flick, or reading the latest soulful book? Both choices are tempting, but the time to do them is limited.
Just like time can be an asset or a liability, so can money. The renunciate, a monk doesn’t want to bother about making everyday choices and handle more emotional baggage. And hence she frees herself of all worldly shackles.
How can you be a modern monk and renounce materialism in a practical way? By freeing yourself of certain decisions. Adapt the renunciate’s mindset with a win-win approach. Here are some ideas worth pondering upon.
Tip #1 – Understand abundance through minimalism.
Businessmen like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg have fixed wardrobes, wearing the same attire day-in and day-out to save themselves the hassle of worrying about what to wear, and how often to buy new clothes for their wardrobe.
This isn’t very different from what any monk does. The less you invest in shopping and picking your daily wardrobe, the more time you have to focus on your life purpose.
Also think about consumerism from another stand point – what you ingest. And I don’t just mean food. I mean information too. The more we input, the more we are forced to output.
Our ability to actually process information, digest and internalize it has become limited, thus robbing us from the present moment. It’s time we get off the hamster wheel of consuming and believing we need more, and instead see that so much is already being taken care of right now!
The less you consume, the more time you have to focus on what matters in the long run. You are no longer scattered, and you are able to concentrate your energy onto actually achieving the goals you have set.
And of course, you spend less.
Here are is another question to help understand how much you already have (and how you probably don’t need more, you need less).
If you have something, how long will it take for you to be able to tell if it’s taken away? For example, people take really long to find out about failing relationships. And many of us might take a day to find lost pair of socks or missing books (guilty).
So the next time you find yourself chasing “more” and being unable to nurture minimalism, you can ponder on the prompt – are you really taking care of what you have, or have you been focused on getting more?
Tip #2 – Understand the Law of Abundance.
If we have needs, the Universe will take care of them. That’s something that we need to grasp. How? Understand the law of abundance.
The first aspect of this law is that the Universe will find the shortest route to get something you need to you.
If you are not sure that something has been divinely sent to you, ask for signs. I always enjoy sharing this example about asking the Universe for parking space and noticing a car reverse to vacate a spot, the moment I arrive.
There are many such ways in which the Universe shows up for us. We only need to keep asking, keep trusting, and keep receiving.
The second aspect is that there is no lack in the Universe.
You don’t need to wait because it’s somebody else’s turn to receive today.
You also don’t need to want less so that the others can have a share. There is enough for everyone, including YOU.
And third, is that the Universe is always giving.
We only need to be ready to receive.
The resource may not come to you in the way you thought it will. It may not be instant gratification, but you will see instant guidance.
For instance, if you want a fancy car, the Universe may not give you the next lottery ticket. But it might land you in an awesome job that lets you comfortably afford that car. But, how will you get the car, if you don’t apply for a new job?
There are hundreds of ways in which the divine forces conspire to bring us closer to our dreams – keep your eyes and ears open and when you notice something, don’t hesitate to walk on those suggestions.
At times, our ego-mind will get in the way and make us think it was “by chance”. Don’t let such limiting beliefs sabotage your growth!
Tip #3 – Move away from money.
I’m not trying to be philosophical and suggest something like you attract what you don’t need anymore. But remember my example from before, being driven by numbers? It became obsessive and that’s how I would show up in conversations.
If you’re struggling with money, you’re likely to be doing the same. Finding ways to earn more, in every single thing you do. Even in the most basic conversations. No matter what we do to hide our thoughts, we can’t mask our mindset entirely. In some form or the other, it becomes evident.
Even the Warren Buffet of Japan, Wahei Takeda said that his first lesson about money is that “forget about money”. If you want money, you have to forget about money, because money is the end result what we get after serving the world. You need to focus on what you can give to the world.
So, observe the ways in which money limits your vision of life, ways in which you are not nurturing the abundance mindset. And then, ask yourself questions that can steer you in a different direction, such as,
- What are the ways in which I feel enriched and alive, independent of money?
(think compliments, opportunities, healthy friendships, and so on) - Who can I look up to and follow, to accelerate my growth? What are some of their qualities I can embody?
(you will notice that being rich is not a quality, perseverance or patience would be) - What do I already have that I am very grateful for?
(think, if something you didn’t count as a blessing was taken away from you today, how you would feel)
Do what you can, to bring money down from the pedestal and put it in its actual place. When we are able to move beyond the primal goals, we can focus on actual growth.
Tip #4 – Change your money story.
Over the past years, I’ve done a lot of deep, inner work around money wounds and what I realize is that it’s never really about the money. It’s always about something deeper, like success or safety, or freedom. There’s only way to truly free ourselves from the lacking mindset, is to change our money story.
To be intentional with how you see money, I recommend taking on a practice or program that can keep you grounded for the next several weeks. That way, you’re setting aside time to rewire and create new neural networks with money.
One way that helped me to rewire the mind to see the abundance that’s already present in my life, and clear the money blocks was taking on the Money Mindset + Miracles self-paced program.
This involved 30-days of being intentional with my money story, and using powerful tools shared by my mentor and coach Alyssa Nobriga, to first focus on “inner freedom”, and then taking aligned actions to manifest the income goals I had set out to achieve. I’ve done this course twice and find something deeper to clear and heal every time!
This course, paired with my training as a mastery method coach really elevated my understanding of how deep our money wounds run in the collective consciousness. As I started unpacking my stories, I felt so free from the deep-rooted idea that how much I made in my profession had anything to do with my self-worth!
Helping people elevate their money story has become an important part of my practice as a coach. And I’m also happy to hold that space for anyone that’s ready to do the work and accelerate on their journey of healing. Feel free to put in an application to work with me here.
Tip #5 – Explore the Zen way of evolving your relationship with money.
When I signed up for Ken Honda‘s course called Money EQ, the very first thing that intrigued me was the idea that money has emotions. He started off with a fun exercise, guiding a visualization to see if the money in our pockets is happy or not.
I was amused and pleased to notice that money felt very happy in my pocket, because it knew it could trust me! This was a different level of confirmation that I’m on the right path, aligning to wealth and not avoiding it. The teachings remain true to the ideology that we can be abundant and yet, our fulfillment extends to not just making money, but creating a wealthy life, encompassing things that money cannot buy.
I also like the question he put forward: “If money were a person, who would it be? Would they be kind and gentle, like a welcomed friend? Or, would they be cold, mean, and unfriendly?“
There were many powerful practices that liberated me from more of my money blocks. One of them being a brain training meditation, that rapidly unfolded a past life memory for me. Not only was I rich in a past life, I was very unhappy and the money around me was scared of me.
Having now seen that side of me, I could finally understand and release my otherwise unexplainable fear of being a “bad person” if I am wealthy.
Another practice that was deeply inspiring was tapping into the ancestral wounds that we carry in our energy field. I could see how my grandfather’s relationship with money had been transferred to me, unconsciously. And as I released that, another “shift” took place, both internally and externally. I finally started stepping into my power, claiming my right to an abundant life, and an abundant mind.
There were multiple trainings and insightful teachings over the span of 3 weeks that the wealth guru from Japan shared, that I’ve never heard of before! It’s definitely something I’d like to run through again in the future, fine-tuning on the teachings I didn’t fully integrate the first time.
I have a strong conviction that this work will deeply transform anyone that tries it too. He also has a free masterclass here, for anyone that’s curious to dip their toes into what his course looks like. If you do enjoy it and sign up for the program, you would also be supporting me through a small affiliate bonus, at no extra cost to you. Thank you in advance, for that! 🙂
Concluding Thoughts
Spirituality is not separate from money. The modern monk’s goal isn’t to live a frugal life, trying to immunize herself of the ‘maya jaal‘ (illusory trap). Rather to have intelligent self-control and to use these very materials to achieve deeper spiritual alignment.
For example, as my editor shares:
I need money to buy a laptop to take an online course of Computer Science. Here my end goal is not money per se, nor the laptop as a material thing, but my end goal is to follow my childhood dream of studying Computer Science. Same with being a writer: To become a writer, oftentimes I need money to be able to access the internet, create a blog and invest 24/7 into my dreams. Money to me is a tool to walk our life path; it helps us to grow.
Use money as a gateway to your inner and outer success, not as the end goal. Allow yourself to step back from societal notions, and look at the bigger picture. Focus on the real end goal.
Focus on attaining enlightenment. 🙂
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