You Are Cordially Invited to Abundance

I recently watched this 1979 interview between music legend, Bob Marley, and an Australian reporter, and all I could think was….cheekbones. This man is living in cheekbone abundance. The dictionary definition of abundance is “a large quantity of something”. I like how vague this is. It isn’t necessarily good or bad, it’s just a lot. That’s why it’s so important for each of us, personally, to understand what our own idea of abundance is. Right away we may think of “a large quantity” of money or financial freedom, just as the reporter in the interview did. But is abundance just a quantity of something? Is it a quality? We’ve got to know what it is that we seek, so that when it arrives, we will recognize it and can receive.

There is a parable in the Christian Bible about a great feast. In it, a rich man (always a dude in these texts, am I right?) sets out an abundant banquet and invites all the VIP’s in town. But they all have stuff going on; work and assets and relationships that require their time and attention. All the busy VIP’s make their excuses and skip the banquet. Then the host invites everybody else; all the “have nots”. They show up, and the table is full, and they receive, and all have a good old time. I wonder, if I got the invitation, would I show up, or would I have an excuse? Would I recognize abundance when it presented itself, or would I be too busy looking for it?

“The world is full of abundance and opportunity, but far too many people come to the fountain of life with a teaspoon instead of a steam shovel. They expect little and as a result the get little”, Ben Sweetland. This quote refers to the paradigm that there is enough for everyone and even more, as opposed to a fixed and finite amount that has to get distributed between all of us. Stephen Covey explored this phenomenon in his best-selling book, The7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and gave us the terms “scarcity mentality” and “abundance mindset”. Scarcity mindset is born of the fear that there is not enough to go around, and therefore we should cling to, and grasp at all we can. If we fail to do this, we not get our share, and we will suffer. In the yoga sutras, we would recognize this idea in the Yama, Aparigraha, or non-grasping. People in this mindset feel that when another person does well, they themselves lose something. They may also feel that when they succeed it is the result of diligent effort and ability, but the success of another can only be attributed to luck. In his article, “Get Rich Slowly”, J.D. Roth explains, “Fear is always at the heart of scarcity: fear of failure, fear of the future, fear of missing out”. By that rule, love would be at the heart of an abundance mindset. And there are many major studies that offer measurable proof that positive thoughts and feelings do, in fact, have positive effects on careers, relationships, and overall quality of life.

But is this psychological practice or just magical thinking? Let’s look at it through the familiar lens of the marketing algorithm. Even if you don’t partake in social media, you have probably used technology to look something up at some point- lyrics to a song, a news article, cat memes (meeee), a recipe. That data gets eaten up by the algorithm which now recognizes that I like cat memes, and therefore sends me more, “Oh, you like videos of cats doing fashion shows, Emily? Here have lots more, have so so many”. This is a very real and practical example of how the “magical thinking” concept of the Law of Attraction works. When we give our attention to a thought, the Universe will send us more variations on that thought. Or perhaps it is our own psychology recognizing a pattern of thinking, and rejecting any thoughts or energies that don’t align with the established pattern. Either way, our thoughts become our experience. Perhaps magical thinking and psychological practice are not mutually exclusive? 

Gratitude is another powerful practice in our exploration of abundance. It is very difficult to feel fear or sadness or anger at the same time that we are feeling gratitude. Remember that fear is the root of scarcity mentality. But how can we possibly be expected to feel grateful when we experience scarcity? I am not being sarcastic here. The consequences of being human include true suffering and loss. When we experience trauma or injustice, or witness it in the world, are we really expected to somehow magically transcend that suffering and feel thankful? C’mon. We need to experience and process suffering so that it doesn’t become a permanent resident in the bodymind. We might recognize this type of self-awareness as Shadow Work. And it is work; it is a practice. Gratitude, like Shadow Work or like yoga, is a practice that we have to interact with and cultivate every day. On the mat when we cannot achieve a pose, we study the situation almost scientifically. What is the obstacle? Is there physical or mental resistance? What steps can be taken to move through the resistance? Where, in this present moment, is there Love? And once we come into Love, we also come into gratitude. BKS Iyengar said, “If you can stand on your mat for yoga and you have available at least fifteen minutes, you are truly a lucky person. That alone is a priceless gift and a tool to improve your life, which not many have. With these thoughts, have a sense of gratitude for what is available to you, you get to practice.”

Something else that Mr. Iyengar said is that, “There is only one reality, but there are many ways that reality can be interpreted”. The same is true of abundance. It is personal and it is fluid, but it is always there for us. We are living in a material world and we are material girls and boys and women and men and non-binary folks. In our material world, abundance is often is recognized as “a large quantity” of someTHING. But abundance is also a feeling; an experience. We can have an abundance of creativity, an abundance of unscheduled time, an abundance of intimacy, an abundance of fierce cheekbones. In science class we all learned about the “building blocks of the Universe”, and looked at drawings of atoms with all their labeled parts. It’s easy to think of the Universe as being made up of labeled things. But subatomic particles are not “things” at all. Rather, they are bundles of energy. And these energy bundles are in constant relationship to, and with, each other. The building blocks of the Universe are not a thing after all, but a relationship, a feeling. Ask yourself, if you had no restrictions of money or time, and there was no chance of failure, what would you be doing? What feelings or experiences would you seek? This will reveal what you truly want. When your invitation arrives, may you recognize it for what it is, and may you take your place at the feast. May you receive in abundance.