Generating An Abundance Mindset

This talk and guided practice is recorded from a live session on Insight Timer in the fall of 2021. The guided meditation begins at approximately 10 minutes into the session and guides you into the heart space to invite a process of releasing, creating space, and opening to receive, allowing you to release what needs to be let go, and accept all that is ready to come.

Transcript

So today we're going to be talking about abundance mindset and what that is. And I'm curious if this is something that you've worked with before. If this is new to you, Are you excited to talk about it? When you think of abundance mindset, What is it that really comes up for you? What are the first thoughts that move into your mind? What is the first thing you start to get curious about when you think about abundance mindset? I'm going to share a quote with you that is a quote that I really love. It's by a Zen Roshi, John Daidoluri. And this is a beautiful quote that I think really captures this idea of abundance. So I invite you to just pause for a second and just take in these words. But in a society that assures us that more is better, It's not always easy to trust that we have enough, That we are enough. We have to cut through the illusion that abundance is security and trust that we don't have to buffer ourselves against reality. If we have learned to trust abundance, We can learn to trust simplicity. We can practice simplicity. If we have learned to trust abundance, We can learn to trust simplicity. We can practice simplicity. So this is really at the core of what abundance mindset is all about. The last few weeks, We've talked about worthiness. We've talked about boredom. We've talked about self-sabotage, Jealousy and envy. And the way that all of these experiences and emotions can bring us into a state of contraction and really can feed this belief of not enoughness. And not enoughness is kind of a big thing. Like we get a lot of messages about not enough, About not having enough, They're not being enough. The bigger is better. That more is what we need. We always need more. Even the other day, I was just going for a walk with my husband and our neighbors. Like there's not many, There's not many good days left for running out. And I thought, I don't know that that's true. Like maybe we're probably not going to have a lot of really 70 degree days upcoming here in Minnesota, But that doesn't mean that we're running out. There are going to be more of them just in several months, But we're not running out. And we get this idea that because it's not here right now, This material thing out there doesn't exist here, That suddenly it's not going to be. And we, That feeds this fear. When we really pause and step back, We can see that nature moves in cycles. Everything moves in cycles. And we are part of that. We are part of nature. There has to be a release to create space for something new to come in. And abundance is really about flow. So we think about mindset. Mindset, You can think of mindset as an operating system. It's those automatic thought processes. It's the filter that we see the world through. And we get so much information about there being not enough, About scarcity, About not enough, You're not enough, You're not doing enough, There's not enough time, There's not enough resources, There's not enough, Not enough, Not enough sleep, Not enough, All the things. Even seeing that I can start to feel tension form in my body. When we pause and say, Well, Is that, Is that really true? There's a yes and, Like yes and there's also other things happening. When we step back and see this greater picture that abundance actually is out there, That there is enoughness, We can shift from that framework. Our mindset is, It's like the tea leaves that we steep our water through. The way we think and see the world colors the way we experience the world and colors how we feel. And here's the thing, And I've said this before, The body believes everything the mind thinks. Our body believes everything the mind thinks. So when our mind is telling a story or a narrative of there not being enough, Of us not being enough, Not being worthy, Not being good enough, Skillful enough, Resourceful enough, Smart enough, Thin enough, Wealthy enough, Whatever enough, The body will believe that to be true and will contract. And when we contract, Our breath shallows, Our mind narrows, And we can't see beyond that lack, We get stuck and it feeds fear. And when we're in fear, When we're moving in the world through fear, We move with it from a place that is not very creative and we get stuck and the world starts, Everything starts to feel like a threat. What happens when we shift into an abundance mindset, This element of trust, Of trusting that things are moving, Things are evolving, Things are shifting, Things aren't always as they seem, Things are evolving, Things are moving, Things are shifting, Things are moving, Things are moving. There's a natural order of creating space for more to show up. We start to soften, The body softens, Our breath becomes deeper, The muscles become softer, The oxygen flows through the body more easefully and reaches the brain. When we're in the space of trust, We become more creative, We become more skilled and innovative, We get better at problem solving. So the body believes what the mind thinks, If we believe that there are solutions available, We will find solutions. When we believe that we are enough, We start to retreat ourselves with kindness, With respect, And we start to feel more grounded and rooted in who we are, And we become more capable. And when we have those little gifts that we have, We start to be able to tap into them more easily. So one of the things we want to think about is that enough is not a static thing. Like enough is not, Boom, Done. It's something that moves through this dynamic, The zone of dynamic balance. It's always shifting a little bit. We need a little bit more of this today, We need a little bit less of this. We need to think about the conditions, That enough is not one concrete definition. And we actually have some say in that. We actually get to choose, Like, Do we get to open that valve and receive more, Or do we close it off? When we start thinking about the things out there that we lack, The things that aren't enough, Those qualities of being, The things, The things that we love, Whether it's time, These are some of the most frequent ones that come up. What we really want to invite in is getting more clear on what is the quality that we believe that's going to give us? What is the quality? So with money, Very often the qualities that we think having more will give us is power, Money, Security, Safety. It has different meanings for each of us. Connection, Belonging, Security, That sense of interpersonal safety, Of feeling seen, Heard, Valued, Recognized. These are human needs. We need these. Time, Freedom, Power, Acceptance, What are the qualities of being? As each one of us can start to step into those qualities rather than the external thing we've attached it to, We can start finding that we actually have access to those things in a different way. It might not look the way the mind is telling us, But we have choice. If we open our hearts, We can find love and connection. If we pause and really connect in, We can find a sense of security in the moment. And when we can feel rooted in ourselves, We can move back out in the world from that place of enoughness and create changes. We can act a little bit differently. So we get to play with this idea of what is it I think I'm lacking? What are the qualities of that? This idea of shifting and leaning into trust and recognizing that, Okay, I have everything I need. I have choice. I have the ability to creatively engage. I have everything I need right here that can help me navigate this out there. This is what abundance mindset is. It's trust. It helps us get into a space where we can respond effectively from our values, From a place of rootedness, From a place that is not rooted in fear. Our emotions and physical experience of scarcity is contraction. It's limited and we can't receive with a closed fist. We can't. The emotions and the physical experience of abundance is expansion. It's open. There's an experience of enoughness. And we can start moving into that place. So what we'll do in our practice today is we'll work with that idea a little bit. Like how do we move in that pulsation of releasing to create space for receiving? How do we release a belief, An idea, A perception to create space for receiving a new vantage point, A new experience, A new idea, A new sensation in the body, A new interpersonal experience or expression? So we're going to play with that idea a little bit and move into our practice today. So I will invite you to go ahead and get as comfortable as you possibly can. I'm going to spend a little time in this today, Probably about a good 20 to 25 minutes. So if you feel like lying down and that's what your body needs, Please do so. You can place something underneath your knees to take a little pressure off the low back or even place something behind the head to create support for the neck. Whether you're seated or lying down, I invite you to place a blanket over your head or a shawl over the shoulders. What that does is it invites the nervous system to soften. It gives it a little sense of comfort. And it also adds warmth to the body because when we practice, Our body temperature naturally drops. So adding that little bit of warmth helps you not feel like you're going to be jarred out of practice or that state that we get into in meditation from feeling cold. So going ahead and getting cozy, Making sure that your back and head are straight whether you're seated or lying down just so that the breath can flow easily through the abdomen without being hunched over, Restricting the breath or leaning back too far. Making any final adjustments and then closing your eyes. We close our eyes as this invitation to move inward, Releasing the input from all the external stimulus that's around us. Now we invite a nice full breath to come in through the nose. We pause at the top of the inhale receiving the gift of breath and then open the mouth, Exhale with a sigh, Softening through the forehead, The eyes and the jaw, Even releasing the tongue. Then inviting another full breath in through the nose, Expanding through the chest and the heart and then pause, Open the mouth, Exhale with a nice audible sigh, Releasing, Softening through the shoulders, Upper body, All the way down to the fingertips. One more like this, Breathing in full through the nose, Feeling the heart open and expand with the inhale, Hold for just a moment, Open the mouth, Exhale letting go and allowing the body to sink into the support beneath you, The whole body fully supported. Allowing the breath to find a natural rhythm here, Each breath flowing fluidly one after the other. Bringing the awareness to the top of the head, Allowing the top of the head to soften, The forehead to soften, Even sensing the eyes sinking a little deeper into the sockets, Softening through the ears, The jaw, Noticing the teeth separating just a little bit inside the mouth as the tongue softens, Softening through the neck, The shoulder blades, Upper arms, Elbows, Forearms, Wrists, And both hands, Softening through the chest and the ribs, Softening the upper abdomen, Lower abdomen, Hips, Buttocks, Upper legs, Knees, Lower legs, Ankles, Feet, And all 10 toes. Allowing the breath to be a little bit deeper, The whole body softening, Begin to bring your awareness to the flow of the breath, Moving through the central channel of the body, Following the breath from the base of the spine up to the crown of the head on the inhale, And gently back down on the exhale. Just following this breath, Gently moving up and down the spine, Finding ease. Bringing the awareness into the palms of the hands for a moment, The palms of the hands wide open, Fingers gently relaxed and open. And on the inhale, You might gather the fingers into the hands, Gently closing. On the exhale, Gently opening the hands, Continuing to breathe in this way. Inhale, Gathering the fingers in, Exhale, Gently releasing, Sensing into that feeling and experience of gathering, And then letting go, Releasing and creating space. Inhale, Gathering, Drawing in, Exhaling, Letting go, Releasing and creating space, Feeling the contraction of the closing, The expansive spaciousness of the release. And then the next time the palms open, Inviting ease as the fingers gently rest open, Open to possibility, Open to receiving, And sensing into the receptive quality of this posture. Hands open, Shoulders open, The body fully supported, The supports beneath and behind you. Noticing you don't have to do anything here, There's no effort. Simply resting in open receptivity as you gently return awareness now to the breath. Following the movement of the breath, Inhaling from the base of the spine into the heart, Exhaling heart through the crown of the head, Inhaling from the crown of the head back into the heart, Exhaling from the heart to the base of the spine. Inhale, Gathering from the base of the spine, The energy of the earth, Letting that rest in the heart, Exhale through the crown of the head, All that you don't need. Inhale, Drawing in the energy from above, Resting in the heart, Exhale, Returning to the earth, All that you don't need. Continuing to breathe in this way, In and out to the heart, Each breath flowing fluidly one after the other, Each breath soft and long, Fluid and steady. You might notice that you don't have to do anything here, There's no effort. Your body knows exactly what to do. It knows how much breath it needs. Effortlessly drawing in the breath that is needed and effortlessly letting go, Trusting that the next breath will naturally follow. Sensing into the natural emptiness at the bottom of each exhale, Noticing the space that creates for the warmth of the next inhale to naturally fill the body. Each exhale, An opening of the palm, Each inhale, Gentle gathering. Sensing into the natural ebb and flow of this breath, Each breath naturally informing and guiding the other. The exhale joyfully creates space for the next inhale to come in and nourish the body, Nourish the tissues, And each breath is enough. The breath is easeful, Effortless, Enough. All is well, All is well. Each breath is full, Effortless, Enough. Suddenly resting awareness in the heart. And sensing an image of yourself, Palms open, The body at ease, Fully supported. Sensing and seeing yourself in this posture of receptivity and ease and offering these gentle words. Let everything that needs to go, Grow. Let everything that needs to come, Come. All is well, All is well. I trust all is well. I trust all is well. Let everything that needs to go, Go. Let everything that needs to come, Come. All is well, All is well. I trust all is well. I trust all is well. Let everything that needs to go, Go. Let everything that needs to come, Come. All is well, All is well. I trust all is well. I trust, I trust, I am enough. I trust, I am enough. I trust, I am enough. I am enough. I am enough. Feeling the echoes, The vibration of those words moving through the body with each inhale and each exhale. Each inhale drawing in enough. Each exhale releasing enough. The flow of the breath, You begin to gently deepen the breath, Noticing the ability that you have to influence that movement. Drawing in a little more, Releasing, Emptying further. Drawing in as much as you'd like, Exhale releasing as you would like. Breathing into the points of contact between the body and the supports beneath and behind you. Feeling the body fully supported in the environment, The shoulder blades, The hips, The heels, The backs of the hands fully supported, The whole body fully supported, Breath flowing fluidly. You begin to bring the index finger to touch the thumb, Holding index finger to thumb, Letting go, Drawing the center finger to the thumb, Making awareness of that contact, That sensation and then releasing ring finger to thumb, Noticing awareness of that contact and then letting go, Opening the palms, Pinky finger to thumb, Awareness of that contact and opening the hand and again drawing the fingers in into a closed fist, Exhaling, Opening the hands, Letting the hands find their own pace, Their own rhythm, Their own movement, Closing and opening, Noticing how the muscles in the arms are also involved in this motion and letting go of that movement. And if you feel inclined to, You might feel a desire to reach the arms of overhead into a big stretch or you might choose to stay perfectly still. As you exhale, Releasing the hands and if you're lying down, A wonderful opportunity to bring the knees in and give them a big hug, Perhaps rocking side to side, If that feels welcome in the body. If you're seated, You might just find the desire to roll the shoulders a little bit, Keeping the eyes closed but inviting a little bit of movement as the body begins to awaken. The bow is lying down, Just rolling over to one side, Taking the hand closest to the sky and pressing it onto the earth beneath you in front of the heart to help support you to return to a seated position. We can all meet seated, Palms face up, Eyes closed. Then gently scanning the body from head to toe and toe to head and noticing what is present here with you right now. Seeing the sensations, The emotions, And welcoming and greeting them all. You might notice the quality of the thoughts that are moving across the mind. Just allowing that to be exactly as it is. You take a big inhale and if it's available to you, Opening the arms up wide into a V-shape, Palms open. And if this doesn't feel good in the body, Just visualizing this and keeping the hands and palms open on the lap. Just taking a few breaths here and noticing what this feels like with the arms open. And exhale, Gently drawing them together. One palm on top of the heart, The other hand on top of that. Just resting here for a moment. Feeling the warmth and support of your own hands. Staying there right now, You are in good hands. You take another final full breath in through the nose. Exhale, Taking the chin to the chest ever so slightly as you invite a soft grin to form on the lips. One that says, Ah, Thank you to you, To this body, To this breath, To be enoughness that's within you. And gently opening the eyes and turning your gaze up to center, Back into this space in this community. Welcome back. And in a moment like this, When we're transitioning out of a practice, There's a little bit of a time to acclimate, To readjust, To center. And it's a good time to make a quick note if anything came up, To write it in a journal or anything that you noticed or that came up for you. So when we do a practice like this, We did a few things to get ready. We let go. When we start letting go, It requires some energy sometimes because we're used to holding on. We're really used to holding on to our ideas, To our beliefs, To our identities, To our fears. And so when we start to let go, Sometimes there's this, We start to feel the fatigue of all of that. It's actually really common. It's easy to get into that space of contraction. When there's pain, Our body will tend to contract around the pain, Which intensifies it. When we can start to soften, Like, Oh, What can I trust? Even in this moment, We're not trying to change the thing, But our relationship to the thing. We change our relationship to the pain and soften around it. We can start to recognize that there are, In addition to the pain, There are other things. So it's not like saying, Oh, That doesn't exist, But it's like, Oh, Where am I receiving? Yeah. Where am I receiving? What is there to receive? Where am I enough? Like all this stuff out there, Enough starts here. We have evidence of it with every breath. We take approximately 21, 600 breaths in a day, Typical. 900 in an hour, Pretty average. That's a lot of breaths, 15 in a minute. Those are 21, 600 experiences or opportunities to experience enoughness and trust and the ability to just know what it means, That we know what we need and we have it available to us, But it's not out there. And the things that we do need out there, We have access to when we trust. We can tap into greater resilience, Creativity, Greater problem solving. We can engage with the world out there from a place of, Yeah, Enoughness, Our power, Our vitality, Our strength, Our resiliency, Our enoughness. It's here. It's accessible all the time, All the time. And so I'm curious what came up for you guys and if there's anything coming up that really came up and while we're doing it, I'm just going to walk us through why we did what we did to tap into this place. So the first thing we did was really center, Right? We created more a sense of safety in the body. It's always first. Like we have to create a sense of safety in our own body to go in and do work that taps into vulnerability or emotions and enoughness and abundance. That hits all our vulnerability buttons. Like, Yeah, Am I enough? Is there enough love for me in the world? Is there enough space for me in the world? Is there enough security for me in the world? Like that's, Hmm, We've got that, That's the root of human vulnerability. So we want to create safety in the body first. And so we start by just like, Get comfortable, Tune into what your body needs. Give it support behind you. Lie on the floor, Get a chair, You know, Back or a wall, A chair with a back or a wall, The blanket, The shell, Something over us that covers us, That signals to the body that we're safe and warm. We're okay. We start there. No idea those three centering breaths, Which, Wow, The mind can protest those sometimes. Like the mind can get impatient. Usually the first one it likes, The second one it's like, Can we get on with it already? If we allow ourselves to really slow down and get into that last one and really fully exhale, Opening the jaw, Opening the mouth, Sighing, We release the tension in the jaw. The sign vibrates the vagus nerve and activates the parasympathetic nervous system. The opposite of our stress response. It starts to waken up our ease and welcome us into a state of like, Oh, I'm okay. And then we went through and again, Just gave ourselves time to transition, Just checking in with the whole body bit by bit in chunks, Like, Hey, Body parts, I'm here, Let's soften. Because as we soften the body, We soften the mind. The body and mind are always talking to each other and the body responds to the mind always. And the mind responds to the body. So sometimes when the mind is really, Really racing or really kind of off in fear, If we go to the body first and say, I'm just going to bring my attention out of the story and into this and soften it, The mind starts to slow down as well and it creates space. So we spent some time getting in there, Like we really spent some time transitioning into the space and then following the breath. And then we worked with just this idea of the hands, Right? Just the experience of letting go, Like what does it feel like? What does that feel like to be in this exchange? Because abundance is that it's an exchange. We have to create space to receive, We have to create space to receive something, Things have been flow, We look at the seasons, The leaves on the trees outside my window are gone. They're no longer on the trees, They're on the ground. It doesn't look as abundant. It doesn't mean it isn't. Even now, As there are no leaves on the trees, The new ones are already forming deep within the tree. But they couldn't if the leaves were already still hanging on. Like we need to allow the letting go for the new to come in. And that's what we start to do. So then we went to the breath. We let go of the movement and found stillness, Rode the waves of the breath, Just following the fact that we're constantly receiving from the earth, From the sky, There's this fluid exchange that's always happening. It's always there. And we don't have to do anything. Like it's effortless. The body knows exactly what it needs. And we started to experience this and invite that sense of trust, Like, Oh, My body does know. There's enough. There's enough for me. That's exactly what I need right here, Right now. My body has exactly what it needs in this moment. That's where we start to develop and build and strengthen that inner trust muscle. Once we do this, We can go in and start playing with just some really gentle phrases. And we work with just really basic like, Hey, Let the things that need to go go. Let what we want to come in, Come in. We can sometimes get so attached to abundance looking like a certain thing. We can get so fixated on it, That we miss the opportunities that are already there. We're so focused on grasping this one thing that we miss other ways that it could appear. There's the story of the monkey trap. I talk about this in my Scarcity of Breaking Free from Scarcity mindset course here on Inside Timer. I love this story. It is the monkey trap. It's just a very simple barred cage and there's a banana inside. Very simple. The monkey reaches in. The bars are just wide enough for his hand to come in like this. Once he grabs the banana, He can't get his hand out. He gets stuck and the monkey will get so attached to this banana that it will sometimes starve like unless we find a way to invite it to release the banana. But it doesn't matter how much other food is around the monkey. It'll hold on to that one because it has the one. It doesn't want to let go of the thing it has because there's a fear there won't be enough and we'll get enough food that there might not be any more out there even though there's some right there but I've got this one. I don't have that one. So we get attached. We hold on and we do this to ourselves all the time. We hold on to ideas, To things, To ideas, To stuff that keeps us trapped, That keeps us stuck. Well, All we really need to do is open our hands and let go to soften the body, To exhale and let go. And when we do that, We establish a sense of trust in ourselves that, You know what, All right, I don't have that one. I don't have that banana. And it's still there but there's probably more out there and it might look a little bit different. They might be bigger. They might be smaller. They might be sweeter. Who knows? We trust that there's a possibility. We trust in the potential. So we let ourselves play with this idea of letting go what we need to let go and letting whatever needs to come in to come in. It might not be what we thought. It might look different. It doesn't mean that it's not valuable. It means that it's just different and that's all right. And then we trust that all is well. Right now, Things are exactly as they can be and things are flowing. Things are exactly as they need to be and we trust this process. We trust that things are moving, Flowing, And that this natural cycle, This dynamic balance that we move through of enoughness is moving at the pace that is right. This idea of finding our work, It's interesting, Right? Like it's really easy to get caught in fear of there not being enough work, Not being the right work, Not being enough pay and all these things. There's a reality to it. We need meaningful work. We need financial security too. All of that's true. And if we show up for these interviews from a place of fear, From a place of, I don't know if I'm good enough for this or I need this so much because I don't think I have enough behind me, We're blocking our ability to even connect with the person who we're interviewing with. We're blocking that flow of energy, That flow of exchange. We can't show up fully. We can't receive even the messages that the person might be giving us that are saying you're enough. I'm hearing you, I'm seeing you. We play with that. And if we come in with the I'm enough and then I'm here to see if this job is as good a fit for me as I am for it, Is there a fair exchange here? Suddenly we have more opportunity. We have more possibility. That's where the trust comes in. That's where the abundance comes in. We don't have to work so hard. The enoughness is already there, Which is contradicting to a lot of the message we get, Especially in media and marketing. There's a reason that we get some of these messages because they're wanting to sell things. And that's okay. We can come back to simplicity. I could go back to that first quote. Can we trust in the simplicity? The supply chain is different. There's things that are stuck in places. There's too much stuff over there and I can't get here and there's not enough of this because do we need that thing? It comes back to what are the qualities that are happening underneath that and can we lean into simplicity? Do we have what we need? And shifting from that grasping of there's not enough, There's not enough. I need to go buy 15 giant packages of toilet paper or whatever that may be. Can we be okay with simplicity? Where can we simplify? Where can we let go? Where can we let go and create space for things to flow? As we start leaning into our own internal sense of enoughness, Our own internal abundance, Our attachment to the external stuff, The need for it, It releases the intensity of it, Softens. And I say, Well, It would be optimal. I would prefer to have that, But it becomes a preference as opposed to a panic. I would love to have blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah. And here there's enough. There's enough. There's enough right here. And the more that we can do that as individuals, As cultures, As communities, As societies, The more we can do that, The more the distribution starts to happen because we're grasping less. We're not coveting as much that the distribution of things becomes more fluid because the enoughness is already there. We're not taking more than we need. We have enough. There is enough out there. The distribution is a little wonky. That's valid. And so we acknowledge it. It's yes and. There's a thing and. But there's so much when we're talking about abundance, Mind shift, Remember, We're talking about mindset and the mindset is an internal experience. And it's the way that we view things and respond to things from this lens. So if we're taking in this idea and really holding on to this, Like this belief that there is not enough, We see the world through that lens and we start to feel fearful because that hits at the very root of our survival needs. The need for love, For belonging, For connection, For security, For safety. These are very real. Like we want these. We need these qualities. We start to get attached to safety, Security, Belonging, Connection, Love, Being attached to these external things that aren't necessarily guarantees of that internal experience. When we find that we have that already, The external starts to flow a little bit more easily because we're not grasping for it. We're not walking around closed fisted and fearful or walking around saying, I have what I need. I can, There's simplicity and there's ease in that. I have this breath in this moment. I have all I need. All right. And from that place, I can move into the world grounded and open to receiving what is coming to me. I'm open to offering what I have from a place that I have enough as opposed to, I don't know if I have enough to share. I don't know if I have enough to spare. So abundance is the mindset. It's the internal trust that we have enough, That we are enough, That we can let go of things. That thing is no longer that that's okay. That it's maybe creating space for something else to come in, A new experience, A new thing that we haven't even thought of yet. We don't even know the potential or possibility. So it's playing. It's actually a lot of play involved in abundance mindset. It's opening the possibility. This idea of abundance and is there enough, It creeps in and when it creeps in, It feeds all our self doubts. So have fun working with abundance mindset. Remember that you are enough.

Reviews

Insightful and lovely practice. Really helped to widen my perspective. Thank you Patty.

Simplicity, spiritual perspective and I am enough. Excellent thank you.