The Shocking Truth About Abundance

8 Tips to Shift from Scarcity to Abundance

As a life and wellness coach, I am often asked how to foster a mindset of abundance. So many people in the world are doing the best that they can financially — saving money, paying down debt, living within their means; yet they struggle. The struggle is very real and includes feeling things like — the budget is too tight, emergencies can’t happen or it’s all over, there isn’t enough money to eat healthy foods that nourish the body, along with so many other things. Having these stresses can leave us with feelings of lack and restriction with money.

This is the stuff that I love to talk about because feeling abundant is a huge part of having abundance as well as good health. Today, I am sharing with you my eight favorite tools for feeling abundant even when your bank account doesn’t quite reflect it.

1. Make a List of all the good things.

This can be things like your car, your house, your bed, your pet. List out everything! Even if you aren’t feeling too happy or positive about that thing. Creating a list like this may help you see that you have far more than you think! And you may even be surprised at how positive you feel!

Once you have your list, keep it handy. Anytime you start to feel like you have nothing or not enough, remind yourself of what you do have.

2. Start a Savings Practice.

One of my favorite ways to feel really good about my money situation is to stay consistent with saving. When I worked my corporate 9–5, I consistently put money aside every single paycheck into a separate investment account (separate from retirement). This account is what I lived off of for two years after quitting my job! I wasn’t putting thousands in every month, but I was putting in at least a couple hundred. Now as an entrepreneur, I continue that practice and have a savings account as well as a secret stash of mad money.

You totally don’t have to save that much to start to feel different about your situation. If you feel uncomfortable or it feels hopeless or impossible, ask yourself how much do you think you can feel good about saving every week or month. Maybe it’s just $1. Maybe it’s $5 or $25 or $100. Whatever that number is, start there.

In a month ask yourself the question again. You just might find the number increases. Woo hoo!

It doesn’t matter how much you make, you can always practice savings. Building that consistent habit is going to make you feel empowered and totally capable with money! And those feelings lead to feeling abundant.

3. Do Something to Give Back.

One of my favorite ways to foster feelings of abundance is by giving back. There is something really powerful in sharing of yourself, your time and your money. It helps you shift from that internal place to putting your focus on something external. When we do that, our own troubles lose power and we feel more abundant.

If you are having a day when you are feeling stuck and unhappy about your money situation, why not take a moment and come up with a plan to help someone else? You could do something like:

• Pay for the person in the lunch drive through line.
• Buy your boss a cup of coffee.
• Make a few sandwiches and hand them out to the homeless.

There are so many options for giving back! I promise that if you do things like this regularly, you will start to feel not just abundant, but rich as well!

4. Do Something that Gives You Pleasure and Joy.

Do something that gives you pleasure! Yes! The things that give us pleasure help us feel abundant. When we do something that we love, we begin to have feelings of joy, excitement, happiness, contentment, gratefulness or any number of other emotions. Those feelings are going to help us shift from a place of lack to a place of abundance naturally.

One thing that always makes me feel abundance is allowing myself time to read. Reading is a lifelong favorite hobby and if I’m spending time doing it every week, I notice that I am more positive in every aspect of my life.

If you want to foster feelings of abundance, then make sure you are spending time doing the things you love on a regular basis.

5. Take some action.

One of the BEST ways to shift your mindset to abundance is by taking action. Action makes you feel empowered rather than helpless. It builds confidence in your ability to change. And it also opens your mind to MORE.

If you are struggling with feelings of lack, then I recommend taking one small action step today. You can do things like:

• Put all your loose change into your piggy bank (Don’t laugh! I totally do this regularly!).
• Update your resume so that you can see all your latest accomplishments.
• Clean your house, so that feel the connection to what you have around you.
• Pay $5 extra on your mortgage or credit card or student loan (whatever debt is weighing on you).

Taking small actions just like this are going to help you see that you are blessed and also stretch your ability to see more and do more in your future.

6. Be happy for others.

Let’s be honest, we can all feel the green eyed monster pop up every now and again.

When we are feeling jealous of others, we likely are comparing ourselves to others and consequently judging ourselves. Remember, you are on YOUR journey and they are on theirs. That means you are comparing apples to oranges! And feeling jealous isn’t serving you in feeling abundant in your own life.

So drop the jealousy and focus on being happy for another’s abundance. Not only will you shift your own energy, but you will show the world that you are getting ready for your own abundance.

7. Smile and be friendly.

One of my favorite ways to shift my mood and feel a surge of abundance is to smile at people! Yes, really! It totally works. If you smile at others, more than likely they are going to smile back at you!

Smiling at other people changes the nonverbal expressions that we have. Non-verbal communications is often more powerful than the spoken word.

When you spend time smiling, you are likely going to feel better about your day and life. Those things lead you to stop feeling lack and feelings of abundance follow.

8. Enjoy your stuff!

One of the best ways to feel abundant is to enjoy what you have. I mean really spend time allowing yourself to enjoy your things. When you allow yourself to use and enjoy what you have, you are creating the space and energy for more things that you enjoy to come into your life.

Have you ever noticed that when you are happy, good things happen? When something good happens and you are reveling in it, you see more good things? If you haven’t test it out and see for yourself.

Here are a few suggestions for ways to use and enjoy your stuff:

• Wear your favorite dress on a Tuesday….to the office….instead of saving it for a special occasion.
• Use the good china or dishes for supper on a Thursday rather than using your every day pattern.
• Wear your expensive jewelry on a Monday because you love it.
• Use a generous portion of your expensive face cream, rather than skimping.

These are only a few examples. I promise you, that if you start allowing yourself to enjoy what you have, you are going to feel more abundant!

I use all of these practices regularly in my own life and encourage my clients to do so as well. Why don’t you test one or two of these out today and then comment below and share your experience with me. I’d love to hear from you!

Sherry Parks is a Wellness Coach who helps women escape feeling stuck and trapped by their finances, so that they find joy and abundance in their life. Check out her new money mindset program here.

To connect with Sherry, join her women-only Facebook group Lives in Balance.