I seriously think we have this abundance thing wrong.
We’ve confused abundance for material wealth and possessions.
We’ve confused it with having a house, or land – property, vacation homes, and investments.
And by doing so, we’ve confused abundance with survival.
They are nowhere near the same thing, although they sometimes exist within one another.
I suppose that may be where the confusion comes from – the world we live in increasingly becoming more interwoven in our capitalistic beliefs around survival, and at the same time decreasingly connected to the complexity and nuance that is the inherent natural world.
Maybe it started with this idea that mind and logic is somehow superior to the bane simplicity of our biology (which in fact is inherently illogical to any student of biology, of course. Maybe it’s rooted in the shift in power as the dominance of Christianity & Christianization of the “civilized” world took over the folkloric (and often referred to as outdated) traditions of many of our ancestors.
Wherever the origins, we were all left with an over-culture, it’s undercurrent teaching us that we are essentially apart or “other” from the natural world.
This is where the root of confusion sits nonetheless – the belief that we and nature are 2 separate entities.
Herein lies the roots of many lies and myths we carry in our bones.
Myths of belonging.
Of home.
Of nourishment.
And of course of abundance.
When we are praying for or “manifesting” for an “abundant life”, what exactly do we expect to get that we don’t already have?
I hear people manifesting a car, a new home, more clients in their business, money, a relationship.
I’m not saying that we don’t need or want these things.
But cars, homes, money, and romance have nothing to do with abundance.
I think the fundamental reason we don’t really “get” abundance is that we always seem to start with what we don’t have but we want.
Abundance simply means “a lot of”.
However, in my experience and practice, the underlying meaning we impose onto the word is a sense of “beyond survival”.
We’ve impressed upon this humble word and entirely different (and all be it loaded) meaning that sits somewhere between “feeling like I always have enough”, to “having so much that I couldn’t possible feel a sense of lack”.
Ay, there’s the rub.
This deeper and more nuanced meaning that’s been ascribed to “abundance” and the manor in which we think we will achieve it are entirely different beasts.
I think it’s commonly known that you can amass a large quantity of resources and still feel unsafe. It is a myth I see perpetuated particularly in the “abundance mentality” world that often points to a “lack mentality” to a lack of material wealth.
I assure you many rich people have a lack mentality – some of who are driven by this deep sense of insecurity to amass yet more material wealth.
Underlying all of the manifesting and praying for abundance is a desire to feel safe and at peace, and I think once we acknowledge this from a biological and spiritual perspective, will we really start to understand why an “abundant life” is so integral and important.
From a biological perspective, this is a simple (but often confronting) practice of simply seeing things as they are in this moment.
For example, in my own life, rather than focusing on external validation that is constantly measuring and judging me by my material gains, I can practice being mindful of the truth that is my own reality.
For me this means taking intentional breaks from media of all kinds and being intentional what I consume and how it impacts me. This means checking my self talk when I buy groceries, or otherwise spend money. This means reminding myself after a time of financial hardship that was extremely stressful and traumatic, that today, I can buy the ingredients of a comforting meal, then cooking that meal and enjoying it. It means that I let myself move at my naturally slow pace of existence. It means I read more books and watch less TV. It means I take an hour or two of my day to practice Continuum, pull tarot cards, and journal.
It means I make ugly art. Drink tea. Snuggle my cat. Do absolutely nothing at all except watch the way the light changes outside my apartment window.
It means I don’t work when I have my period. It means I place upon the sacrificial altar my (and society’s) expectations of what I have supposed to have done with my life as a 40 year old white woman from the privileges of being born in the Western World.
When I think about the meaning of the word “abundance”, I look to nature as the obvious definition and understanding.
In nature, abundance is always relative and relational. It is always referred to in relation to something else. The jungle may be relatively more abundant than the desert in respect to water, but the desert is incredibly abundant in both its biodiversity and ingenuity in its use and ecology of water. In nature, abundance is often attributed to diversity and capacity for adaptation. We see natural cycles and seasons that are inherently necessary to the health of an ecosystem as whole. This includes seasons of relative abundance of resources as well as resource scarcity or redistribution. In other words, abundance, like happiness, is not a permanent state where we can live forever, but rather a season, an experience, or perhaps even expression, and always in relationship to our perspective.
In contrast, the amassing of resources and material wealth and possessions is ultimately an extractive process, not fueled by a sign of spiritual evolution, but by deep biological and spiritual starvation. Literally. What is happening in our over-culture and society is a very rare occurrence in nature, and in biology, it is what sometimes follows a great imbalance and severe and traumatic starvation episode. In essence, our association with “abundance mindset” as amassing of material wealth should ring a massive alarm bell.
It is literally a sign that we are starving – biologically, spiritually, and culturally.
Animals do not inherently have an impulse to destroy the very resources they rely upon to survive – and we are animals.
Unless.
Unless they have gone through deep starvation.
Unless there has been a great imbalance.
I think this is comforting news actually.
It’s a reminder that just as we hold the creative intelligence to over-consume, so too we hold the creative intelligence to come back to balance. When the starved wolf finishes ravishing her over-kill that lays waste at her feet, when she notices her belly is now full, she can trust her own biology to come back to centre. Knowing she has survived. Knowing she is alive. Instincts intact.
She can digest, walk in the forest, and be part of the knowingness that is the natural order of things.
This to me is abundance.
Knowing in our bones. Dirt. Forest. The blood of our ancestors.
And the wisdom of the humility that arises when we live in alignment with Great Mystery.
And so it is.