Archive for Abundance
Faith and the Law of Abundance
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Living life abundantly is the embodiment of our emotions, thoughts, body and spirit working in harmony.
It’s achieved through passion, clarity of purpose, focused pragmatic action, and faith.
When talking about living life abundantly some pundits suggest we solely focus on what we really want in life and stop concentrating on what we don’t want.
Great advice, but in itself that won’t get you your heart-felt goals and aspirations. Especially when positively focusing on what you do want doesn’t give immediate results.
That’s where faith comes into the equation.
The faith that I’m talking about here is what The Free Dictionary defines as:
- Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing.
- Belief that doesn’t rest on logical proof or material evidence.
“Faith is a gift of spirit that allows the soul to remain attached to its own unfolding.” Thomas Moore
The Toltec teachings suggest that most of us use faith to create or recreate the stories we tell ourselves about our lives. They say that any thought you have about the truth of your life is made in faith about the truth of that belief. That is, whatever you have cognitive faith in, you’ll feel able to create in your life.
However, as we see from the above definitions true faith isn’t based on logical proof or material evidence. Faith isn’t true when invested in what we think.
It’s true when based on what you know or feel from the depth of your soul. This unreasoned faith is faith in the moment, faith in life, and faith in yourself. This type of faith-awareness is powerful.
However, this doesn’t mean that just because we focus our efforts in living from a faith that isn’t based on logical proof or material evidence we can believe that we’ll instantly and forever be living life abundantly. Absolutely not! This soulfully fuelled type of faith is far from blind.
Thomas Moore reminds us that there is at least two dimension to this kind of faith – that of being a ‘believer’ and a ‘disbeliever’. Soulful faith is germinated in the richness of both wonder and questioning.
Initially you might think that being a believer and disbeliever in the same instance might dilute or even cancel the power of faith. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Robust faith requires pursuing living life abundantly by acknowledging both the light and shadow side of faith.
- Belief (light) that you will create whatever you desire in your life; or that someone will be what you expect them to be.
- Uncertainty (shadow) that life and others will be just as you expect.
In other words honing your soulful faith means holding both wonder in life’s creative nature and the strength of your faith, even while you question that wonder and strength.
If you refuse or forget to hold these seeming opposites in the same instance you run the risk of becoming cynical, when whatever outcome or person you put your faith in doesn’t come through in the way you thought they should.
As Moore reminds us “to the soul they are [both] necessary”…. “the creative shadow actually strengthens faith by filling it out and ridding it of its perfection”.
True faith isn’t blind to its shadow. It recognizes and realizes that if you don’t allow some uncertainty into soulfully practicing your faith you may, as Moore suggests, fall victim to neurotic excesses, feeling superior or cynicism.
What part has soulful faith played in you living life abundantly? I’d love to hear your comments.
Until the next time honour both the light and shadow of your faith in living life abundantly!
In the next blog we’ll explore what trust has to do with faith and living life abundantly.
Resources:
Theun Mares (1997), Cry of the Eagles, Lionheart Publishing, Marietta, GA 30060, USA
Thomas Moore (1994), Care of The Soul, Harper Collins, New York, New York
7 Key Elements of Abundant Success
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A few weeks ago I attended a WXN networking event in Mississauga where I heard Linda Fitzgerald, President of NCR Canada Ltd, speak.
She has spent 30 years working for the top names in the Information Technology industry. She is one of just a handful of females leading an IT company in Canada and understands the challenges facing women looking to make their mark in IT or any industry.
Linda is passionate about promoting IT as an excellent career choice and encouraging more women into the fray.
The following are the 7 key pieces of advice Linda had for women entering and staying in the career of their choice. Although her talk was specific to women and the IT world I believe the simple wisdom of her advice is applicable to anyone (women or men) following their vocational passion.
- Don’t let your perceptions of barriers stop you from following your passion
- Leverage your unique strengths e.g.
- Effective communication skills of which listening is an important component
- Relationship building
- Analytical skills
- Have passion for what you do – if you don’t have passion the journey towards you goals will not be sustainable
- Reach out for support e.g.
- Peers
- Team members
- Mentoring from a more life/work experienced individual
- Surround yourself with good people
- Develop your relationships in an authentic way e.g.
- Continue to network
- Maintain work-life balance – look at each challenge that faces you individually and deal with them in bit-sized bits
Linda, didn’t list these in terms of importance. She suggested you need all of them to reach optimum results, success and fulfillment.
Another thing I noticed about Linda was that in spite of the level of success she has attained she is one of the most down-to-earth people I’ve met in some time. So for me the 8th suggestion she made by way of example was that no matter what you don’t let your success go to your head.
What do you think are the key elements of attaining success in your life? I’d love to hear from you.
In the meantime have a great week and take care of yourself and others.
The Reciprocal Nature of The Law of Abundance
Posted by: | CommentsThere is a story of a farmer who grew award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won a blue ribbon. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it.The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbours. “How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbours when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked.
“Why sir,” said the farmer, “didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbours grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbours grow good corn.”
The farmer is obviously aware of the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbour’s corn also improves.
The lesson for each of us is this: if we are to grow good corn, we must help our neighbours grow good corn. For the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.[i]
For me this story illustrates the relationship between giving and getting. It’s an example of how, when we focus on authentically giving to others we receive in kind. In other words we attract abudance by giving authenticaly.
The key word here is ‘authentic’.
In a world where there are plenty of examples of a ‘me first’ mentality, giving to get feels like the accepted norm.
When we truly understand the connectivity of all life and live from that place we don’t give to get. Giving authentically to someone else means disengaging from our own story in order to hear, respect and acknowledge theirs.
When we give from the heart we realize that whatever we give to someone else we also give to ourselves.
When we shift our perspective from a ‘me’ to a ‘we’ mentality, abundance simply flows naturally to us all. We attract abundance by authentically giving.
The following questions assists when reflecting on the nature of our giving:
From what place does my giving mostly flow?
Am I giving what is easiest or what is needed?
Whose need am I fulfilling with this giving?
Generosity is a movement of the soul that erupts when you are pierced by the recognition of your direct connection to another soul. Dr. Alan Morinis
What do you think about the nature of authentic giving and abundance?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Until the next time, take care.
[i] James Bender (1994), How to Talk Well McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York
Has the Law of Abundance become a Law of Entitlement?
Posted by: | Comments“‘Entitlement’ is not only the opposite of achievement; it undermines incentives to do all the hard work that leads to achievement.” Thomas Sowell
When I was lecturing at a UK university a few years ago a student came up to me at the first session of the semester and said, “Can I get a distinction in this class?”
After clarifying exactly what he meant, that is, could he get a distinction just for showing up I said, “I don’t know. Are you capable of earning a distinction in this class?”
There’s quite a bit of literature out there suggesting that an attitude of entitlement is an affliction of today’s adolesence and individuals in their 20’s. Other literature says that this phenomenon is a predisposition of anyone born from 1970 onward. However, before thinking it’s a generational issue let’s look at some of the characteristics of an entitlement attitude?
Someone with the feeling of entitlement might think or make some or all of the following comments:
- “Everyone else has ‘X’… so I want it too and right now.”
- “If you really loved me….. you’d give me ‘X’ now.”
- “Why should I? What have they done for me?”
- “They, the organization, the government, life owes me something.”
- “I deserve to have it now.”
- “I want more and I want it now.”
- “Someone with my level of education or socio-economic status, should be entitled to ‘X’ (e.g. the best service – whatever the service – now, an abundant lifestyle – now, without having to put a whole lot of effort into creating it).
If these comments are indicators of having a feeling of entitlement (to have or get whatever we want, when we want) then I’d venture to say entitlement isn’t just a generational challenge but fast becoming a societal one.
Well this is all well and good but what’s it got to do with the notion of abundance?
If we believe we’re entitled to an abundant life, whatever that means to each and every one of us, then we may not be willing to put in the effort needed to create that life. If we want it all, then we’d better be prepared to roll up our sleeves and work towards achieving ‘it all’.
It’s about exploring what abundance means for us, whatever that means and then going out and creating it!
“A great source of frustration for people with a strong sense of entitlement is unmet expectations….”[i] Paul Harvey
Life doesn’t always turn out the way we planned on our first, second, third or hundredth attempt. Some individuals we meet along the way aren’t what they initially appear to be. Or we may feel that others, who seem to possess what we desire, have gotten it without much effort on their part; while we diligently persevere with little success.
Creating an abundant life isn’t about expecting any person, institution or windfall to make it happen for us. Life doesn’t owe us anything we’re not prepared to work towards.
Creating abundance in your life is about having a clear vision about what you truly want your life to look and feel like and doing whatever needs to be done to attain it!
For those of us who live in developed countries we’re already blessed with so many life-enhancing opportunities and resources. Unfortunately, because they’re so readily available we forget, in the first instance, to be grateful for what we do have. Instead we’ve a tendency to focus on what’s missing rather than the gifts of life that are already all around us.
I’d love to hear your comments about the notion of entitlement.
Until next time, take time to remember all that you have and reach for all that you desire!
[i] http://www.management-issues.com/2009/4/28/research/gen-y-still-think-the-world-owes-them-a-living.asp
The Law of Attracting Abundance
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Over the next few blogs we’ll be exploring the notion of abundance and our relationship to it. In the first instance let’s begin with what some see as the natural Law of Abundance.
I decided to tap in the phrase ‘law of abundance’ into google, coming up with 9,810,000 results.
Through the magic of google’s portal we’re offered the wonder, promise of miracles, ways of understanding, key influencers, visualizations, tools to attain and a plethora of 3, 5, or 7 steps to apply this Law.
The implicit promise in most of these references is that if we take the suggestions and practices on board it will culminate in us gaining the abundance that’s missing from – and that we crave in – our lives. Lives, which by implication are missing a depth of richness that can be acquired somewhere out there.
My next step was to access the online Collins English Dictionary to find out what abundance means. Abundance was described as “a copious supply or great amount.”
Abundance = money…. and lots of it!
For most of us in the western world the desire for abundance, at one time or another, has conjured up dreams of magically winning a copious supply of money via the lottery or being granted a windfall of one type or another.
If we’re honest when asked the question, ‘What comes to mind when you think about abundance,’ part of our answer would probably include money.
For some, abundance equates to money and money equates to a sense of freedom. However, the verdict is out as to whether or not new-found wealth, in the form of an abundance of money, does lead to a greater sense of freedom or drastically changes our relationship to ourselves, others and life itself or make us happier for that matter.
Who care you might be saying. Just give me the opportunity and I’ll change the odds. Having an abundance of money would change my life forever.
If you’ve honed a genuinely healthy attitude towards money then the odds are that an abundance of money coming into your life will in fact change it for the better, giving you a sense of freedom to pursue different avenues of exploration than some of the ones you’ve been traversing thus far.
However, for those of us who may not have honed such a healthy relationship with money we might want to take a few moments to consider or re-consider the purpose money has in our lives.
What does money mean to and about you?
Whether you lust after or shy away from excesses of money its allure has power over you.
For instance, there were times in my life when I believed living a consciously spiritual life meant giving without receiving a fair exchange of remuneration for my work. I now know that this was an attempt to avoid what I saw as the shadow side of money. What I’d really been avoiding was my own unhealthy relationship with money and wealth.
We colour money with light and dark shadows. Simply, we see both positive and negative aspects to having or not having a copious supply of money.
Your views surrounding money and wealth are probably pretty firmly embedded in your psyche. Until you reveal those beliefs through self-reflection you often will have no conscious awareness of them. Some, if not all, of those feelings and thoughts aren’t even of your own making. They were passed down by well-intentioned childhood caregivers.
Are you familiar with some of the following mantras:
- Money doesn’t grow on trees.
- I’m not made of money.
- What do you think I am, a money factory?
- It’s too expensive.
- A penny saved is a penny earned.
- Penny-wise, pound-foolish (in reference to the English pound sterling).
- Putting in my two cents worth.
How strongly do the ‘tapes’ echoing through the hallways of your unconscious affect your relationship to money and wealth?
Quite a while ago now, I went to an Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) practitioner with the hope of enabling myself to manifest more money in my life. In those sessions I finally allowed myself the freedom to truly explore my relationship to money. One of the things I uncovered was that I had no idea how the mantras concerning money, delivered in my childhood, played so strongly within my unconscious. I became aware of how powerfully I was allowing them to affect my relationship to manifesting not only money but richness and wealth in my life.
I began to ask myself if those mantras and any resultant attitude towards money was working for me in my life currently. In the most part the answer was a resounding NO. Finally I choose to begin a deprogramming exercise in which I replaced these outmoded and unhelpful ways of relating with ones that served me much more purposefully.
Exploring your relationship to money
Our relationship to money and what it means to be wealthy slides along a continuum from healthy at one end to pathological and neurotic at the other. If our attitude towards money, as Thomas Moore says, “is a defence against poverty”, then we may never experience feelings of wealth even though we have pot loads of money in the bank.
“It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven’t lost the things that money can’t buy.” George Lorimer
Having money does guarantee that your basic physiological and safety needs such as shelter, water, food, safety, and stability are met. However, it doesn’t guarantee happiness and feelings of meaning and fulfillment. Once your basic needs are covered the challenge surrounding money isn’t about having too little or too much. To a greater or lesser degree any unresolved challenges you have with respect to money has to do with your perception of what it represents.
For me the following questions have helped me in becoming clearer about my relationship to money and what it means to be wealthy.
- Do I see money as an end in itself or do I view it as a medium for energetic expression, a means to accomplish the things I’ve set out to do in and for life?
- Do those accomplishments revolve solely around me or do they also encompass family, community, nation or even the world?
“If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him.” Francis Bacon
Just some of the ways we’ll be exploring abundance in the next few blogs:
- Has the Law of Abundance become a Law of Entitlement?
- The reciprocal nature of The Law of Abundance
- Looking for abundance in all the wrong places
I would love to hear your comments and observations about what’s written here as well as your own experiences surrounding money and wealth.
Until next time take care and live the richness of your life!
