I want it All!
Abundance is kind of a thing right now. There are books, classes, videos and sermons teaching us how to increase our abundance, how to live abundantly and how to have unlimited abundance. Here’s the thing though-focusing on abundance blocks us from what we truly need or want because it unnecessarily fills up space and blocks the unlimited flow of good that is trying to come our way. This time of year it’s especially important to release thoughts of abundance and to focus on having just enough.
There is enough of everything in our world. There’s no reason anyone should ever have lack in our lives and there is abundance beyond what we can imagine, but focusing on abundance breeds lack. Here’s why.
How much is Enough?
Imagine you have a pantry in your kitchen with five shelves. Those five shelves provide you with exactly enough room to store all the food your family needs. When you get fearful that you are going to run out of tea, and you stock up by buying 12 boxes of tea, you take up valuable shelf space that is needed to store pasta.
Suddenly, by hoarding tea you have brought a lack of pasta into your life. The next day, being fearful of your lack of pasta, you head back to the grocery store (which has an unlimited supply, just like the universe) and you stock up on pasta because this sudden lack of pasta scared you. Suddenly, you have no room for canned fruit! And so on and so forth, until you are storing food in your cupboards, giving you no room for pots and pans.
Which you then need to move to the hall closet, meaning you need to move the coats to the bedroom closet… This cycle breads fear, increases lack, causes hoarding and ultimately results in unhappiness and imbalance for everyone. After all, if you hoard all the pasta, I can’t get what I need either.
How much is Too Much?
It doesn’t matter if it’s clothing, furniture, books, dishes, or DVD’s. Having too much of any one thing takes up energetic and physical space that is allotted for something else. This applies to eating as well.
Our bodies, minds and spirits know how to maintain balance, but we are in a habit of buying into advertising and the culture of materialism and of talking ourselves out of a state of balance.
I recently had an exchange student from Germany stay with me. He wanted to see Wal-Mart, because he had heard so much about US mega stores. Upon leaving, he turned to me and said, “Wow, you can’t walk through a store like that without thinking that you need something that you never wanted before!”
How right he was. And you know, had bought a bunch of things he didn’t really need, he wouldn’t have had room in his suitcase for the things he really wanted. The extreme abundance would have bred lack and brought him unhappiness.
This season, release thoughts of abundance. Focus on having exactly what you need and exactly what you want, nothing more. See where your quest for abundance breeds lack, and choose to trust that what you need will be there when you need it, but not before.