I am able to recognize that I am now, in most areas and aspects of my life, coming from a place of abundance consciousness and awareness as opposed to coming from a place of scarcity consciousness and awareness.
This work is extremely tricky. It is so easy to self delude and fool oneself in this work. It is so easy to essentially give lip service in this area and not follow through with real, measurable action. There are so many extremely subtle areas of life where scarcity consciousness can slip in and completely take over. That is because scarcity consciousness seems to be the predominant consciousness on the planet currently, even among spiritual people and communities that strongly acknowledge the importance of having and practicing abundance consciousness.
Currently, I would say that in my average day I am confronted with the choice of coming from abundance or scarcity consciousness at least 50 times each day, at minimum. This includes scenarios like choosing to make or avoid eye contact with someone I pass on the street, to how I engage in difficult conversations with my partner, to how quickly or slowly I respond to an email from a friend, to how I respond to someone who has attempted to shame or guilt me, to how I respond to others who respond to me clearly out of a place of scarcity consciousness themselves to who I choose to sit next to on the bus. Its almost completely all consuming or at least seemingly so.
One of the ways I can accurately gauge whether or not I am coming from a place of abundance or scarcity consciousness is by frequently asking myself, "What would love do" in this situation and then absolutely and fearlessly answering that question in as brutally honest a way as I am humanly capable of doing...
A little more on this topic...
Generosity with what I call "strings attached" or with a "safety net."
Basic definition: Generally speaking these are acts of generosity toward another that make the act of generosity be primarily about the person extending the apparent generosity and not about the person in need.
Classic Examples:
(A) Seeing a panhandler or presumed homeless person asking for money and rather than giving money to the person, choosing rather to buy the person a meal or taking him/her out for a meal and having the acceptance of "our way" of providing help be a condition of providing any help at all to the other.
(B) Having a hard and fast policy of never giving anything to anyone, especially money, without some sort of exchange of some sort taking place. Often this is justified by strongly adhering to the belief that if someone receives something; anything, for "free," he or she will not really "appreciate it." And believing there are no or very few exceptions to this whatsoever.
Apparent goal: To allow one to feel extremely generous while simultaneously maintaining ultimate control over as much of the interaction and situation as possible and while also attempting to reduce the agency and self determination of the other, while also essentially viewing and treating the other as someone who is required to buy into our own philosophical stances, regardless of the efficacy or accuracy of them, in order to receive assistance from us.
These are but a few of the ways in we which we can engage in scarcity consciousness while believing or engaging in an unconscious (perhaps) masquerade that we are really participating in abundance consciousness. These two examples illustrate just how easy it is to fool ourselves about all of this.
Basic definition: Generally speaking these are acts of generosity toward another that make the act of generosity be primarily about the person extending the apparent generosity and not about the person in need.
Classic Examples:
(A) Seeing a panhandler or presumed homeless person asking for money and rather than giving money to the person, choosing rather to buy the person a meal or taking him/her out for a meal and having the acceptance of "our way" of providing help be a condition of providing any help at all to the other.
(B) Having a hard and fast policy of never giving anything to anyone, especially money, without some sort of exchange of some sort taking place. Often this is justified by strongly adhering to the belief that if someone receives something; anything, for "free," he or she will not really "appreciate it." And believing there are no or very few exceptions to this whatsoever.
Apparent goal: To allow one to feel extremely generous while simultaneously maintaining ultimate control over as much of the interaction and situation as possible and while also attempting to reduce the agency and self determination of the other, while also essentially viewing and treating the other as someone who is required to buy into our own philosophical stances, regardless of the efficacy or accuracy of them, in order to receive assistance from us.
These are but a few of the ways in we which we can engage in scarcity consciousness while believing or engaging in an unconscious (perhaps) masquerade that we are really participating in abundance consciousness. These two examples illustrate just how easy it is to fool ourselves about all of this.
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