It’s a common enough routine for most of us: it’s morning and the daily calendar on my phone pops up to remind me of what’s on tap for the day.
But some mornings, I start to feel a twinge of overwhelm.
This is one of those mornings.
My calendar is stacked. “More,” I think, “It’s like there’s always more…”
More stuff to do. More priorities and obligations. More emails. More client work. More words to write. More edits to make. Can I handle it? Conquer it? What if I can’t? There’s always more, more, more…
My stress slowly starts to creep up.
My heartbeat beats faster.
My breath falls short and shallow.
…and I haven’t even gotten out of bed yet.
As a writer and creative entrepreneur who’s worked for himself for the last six years, feeling overwhelmed by everything I’ve stacked on my own plate isn’t a new feeling. But the more recent hat I’ve put on — as a yoga teacher — has pushed me to really deeply see, understand and challenge unhealthy thinking patterns that don’t serve my soul, regardless of my To Do list.
Then I remember what else I’m supposed to do today.
Write a piece about “abundance.”
What is abundance, and why is it so popular these days?
Originating in the mid-14th century from Old French abondance and Latin abundantia meaning “fullness” or “plenty,” the word abundance has found renewed popularity in the common tongue.
Yielding over 90 million results in a Google search today, the… abundance… of the word abundance seems to be a sign of the times.
In this atomic age, we understand that matter is not matter at all, but energy. More and more, society is looking more deeply into the mysteries of metaphysics. And scientific research is shedding light on the incredible effects that thought have on the physical world, like one’s health.
And it’s the word abundance that has come to represent a desired mindset through which we might manifest, acquire, achieve and embody good things.
Abundance also represents an ideal for many of us self-starters and live-well types.
From creatives and yogis to coaches, artists and writers, living from a place of “plenty” promises that there is much to be shared, given and served–not to mention, more than enough to be enjoyed without guilt, fear, worry or anxiety.
It’s easy to see why “abundance” is a prism through which we aspire to see our abilities to give, create, work, love and relish life while we can.
And yet, you may have a bit of a strained relationship to this trendy buzzword.
I know I do.
Look no further than my pattern of stress-induced thinking before I get out of bed in the morning.
Where does it come from?
The yogi in me has recognized this thinking habit as nothing more than a mental script.
It’s a story, a habit, a subconscious pattern.
It’s a narrative that replays itself in my mind on mornings, just as often as my iPhone calendar pops up with its reminders.
The thought pattern is like any other: partly learned, then made my own, and now it’s a deeply grooved track or samskara (in yoga, a habit, track or mental pattern) that I tend to slip into subconsciously.
This mental script says, “There will always be more coming…” and it triggers a sense of overwhelm in me, if I don’t catch it and put a stop to it.
More work. More to worry about. More to feel “out of control” over…
It’s abundance. In all the wrong forms.
This script is not how I want to spend my time, thoughts and energy: stuck in a deficit-oriented mindset of lack, fear, insecurity and worry.
It’s a disservice to all the good things I’ve been given in my life. Living deficit-minded puts me in the wrong mindframe for giving to others as deeply as I desire in the work I do as a writer, teacher and creative.
Yup. This worry-script threatens to undo all the love, generosity and well-being that I desire, and hope to share.
If you’re stuck in the wrong mental script, you can switch to a script of abundance, instead.
It begins by making a subtle, but powerful change to the old “There will always be more coming…” script.
By tweaking the subconscious narrative — redirecting it from deficit-minded thinking and toward abundance — you can discover an ingrained thought-pattern that can help you consciously attract more of what you do want.
Think about it.
The thinking groove is already there.
The habit of noticing “more” exists in our minds, as it is.
If we can just start to shift from lack and onto abundance, we shed light on the good things, and invite more of them.
This mental script? It tells a very different story.
This version of “There will always be more coming…” is one of gratitude, acknowledgment, faith, trust and joyful celebration.
It honors money coming in, and plenty of good words to write and express.
It screams Thank you! for the amazing foods we get to enjoy, and new and exciting clients to serve. It honors each and every wonderful reader whom we get to write for, great things to get excited about, new ideas and philosophies to learn, and books to read, and places to visit and sights to see….. all of it!
That is the narrative I choose.
That’s the relationship that I want with the word abundance.
“There will always be more coming.” Good things. Great things. Kind faces, opportunities, joyful moments. More.
That’s how I want to feel when I hear “abundance.”
That’s what I want to live by.
Abundance, my mantra of plenty.
Redefining your relationship to the word abundance holds great promise.
With a simple change of an old mental script, you can start to satiate that feeling like there is “never enough,” and instead focus your thoughts and energy toward the good things you want more of, and deserve..
As a creative, a writer, a giver and a yogi, I’ve come to truly believe that the Universe–whom we may call God, or Oneness, or Spirit, or simply the energetic field to which we all belong–is overflowing with fullness and always-providing by its nature.
The nature of the Universe is abundance. There is only fullness. Nothing is lacking.
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And when we receive good things–money or love or food or joy–we’re not taking from the Universe, but creating in conjunction with it. Hand in hand.
That’s exactly how I want to use my “There will always be more coming…” mental script.
As a passageway to deepening my personal relationship to abundance.
All so that I can live, work and create art from a place of “plenty.”
Tell me, do you have this same mental script available for some “editing,” too?
Can you use it to redefine your relationship to the word abundance?
How can you begin to tweak your mindset and shift your thinking toward that “whole Universe of plenty”?
Here’s to your abundance, and our world of possibility.
Dave Ursillo is a writer, yoga teacher and creative entrepreneur from Rhode Island who helps self-starters make their stories shine. An exile of the political world who once walked in the West Wing of the White House, today Dave is a 10-time author, most recently of I am We: Poems, who runs The Literati Writers, his online writers’ group, and leads yoga classes and creativity workshops in the U.S. and Europe. Dave believes that self-expression is service, and that words are what move us. Find Dave and more than 400 essays on writing, creativity and more at DaveUrsillo.com. You can follow him on Twitter.
Image courtesy of Blake Verdoorn.
