Scarcity Mindset vs. Abundance Mindset // Part 1 // Peace Academy Curriculum
Scarcity Mindset vs. Abundance Mindset // Part 1
Scarcity Mindset
A scarcity mindset involves a deep belief that there will never be enough…..that there aren’t enough resources for everyone….and that life is a struggle…that we must constantly “fight” for resources.
This mindset results in fear, anxiety, and stress, which ultimately breeds more of the same.
Everything is energy, including our thoughts.
When you vibrate with low, negative energy, you attract more of the same into your life.
A scarcity mindset will not only negatively affect your thoughts and emotions, it can also impact your life on a physical and spiritual level as well.
If you are already experiencing scarcity, it is difficult to break out of this mindset, but it is possible.
We may not be able to immediately change our external circumstances.
But each of us has the power to change our external self…our mindset.
Shifting to an abundance mindset will result in positive external changes.
Abundance Mindset
An abundance mindset comes from a deeply held belief that there is enough for everyone……money, resources, opportunities, health, etc.
It involves not living in fear and instead taking risks to achieve goals by reaching out of your comfort zone in order to grow.
It is living with a feeling of gratitude for what you have and what you will have.
It is giving freely, knowing that there is always enough for everyone.
Energy is an input/output system.
It must flow.
The more you give, the more you will receive.
Different Viewpoints Bring Different Results
An abundance mindset sees someone else’s success in a positive way thinking…
“Wow, I can be successful too.”
While a scarcity mindset views someone else’s success with envy and might even see it as their own failure.
As if there is a limited resource of “success”.
But, it is important to remember that someone else’s success is not your failure.
We all have the opportunity to succeed in our own ways
Another key difference is that an abundance mindset vibrates positive energy which returns more positivity.
A scarcity mindset not only attracts more negativity, but it can also create self-fulfilling prophecies and a victim mindset where one may blame others instead of taking responsibility for their own choices.
A scarcity mindset might focus on how there aren't enough common resources for everyone. An abundance mindset focuses on how substitutes may be found.
Truly woo: You're probably think that the external world is what impacts your internal mindset. I can't argue it. What I've come to accept is that this is a holographic universe and what we think and feel will be reflected back at us. Some call this karma and others the law of attraction. While many think that what you think is secondary to the world at large I happen to think that what you think and feel is highly likely to shape the world around you. That's a hard dose for anyone to swallow that isn't familiar with this way of thinking, but if you're having trouble with it start by running small experiments with an abundance mindset over a period of a month or two.
A simple experiment is where you constantly say in your head "I don't have enough of X" I'd encourage you to think to yourself "I do have enough of X" try to get a sense of what that feels like to you and then try to hold that space spiritually and energetically. This is undoubtably woo-woo land, but if you're constantly finding yourself in a scarcity mindset never with enough and you're unwilling to change your mindset or beliefs my only question is "how's that working out for ya?"
Not sure if you buy into the technological concept of "The Singularity," but a few years back, the whole concept of "exponential technology" was taking off, and people saw each new technology (3D printing, DNA/genome mapping, artificial intelligence) as being "exponential" in nature. Meaning that instead of steady, incremental gains each year, we'd see 10x, 100x and 1000x changes each year. Anyway... a really smart guy named Peter Diamandis (of X Prize fame) built on that concept of exponential change in the tech space to describe a new world of ABUNDANCE. in fact, he even wrote a book about it in 2012 - https://www.amazon.com/Abundance-Future-Better-Than-Think/dp/1451614217/ - it's all about how all these emerging technologies will progress so fast and so rapidly that they will change the world of scarcity forever to create abundance. These "abundant" technologies will help to solve problems that have troubled humanity for centuries. It gives me hope that scarcity thinking will eventually change to abundance thinking.
Hopefully technology will solve our interpersonal relationships as people generally are awful to one another exclusively because of our upbringing or lack there of.
Edit
Rich people have plenty of money but not enough time to let someone cross the street, I can see it!
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=rich+people+cut+people+off+at+intersections
Actually it segued into the town where they did away with traffic lights and the commute time went down by half and everyone was much more considerate and kind to one another, which demonstrates that sometimes less technology is the answer.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=no+traffic+lights+town
Scarcity is hardwired into our human brains. Just like fear and doubt. Truly we must make a conscious decision every day to overcome these deep rooted beliefs. The best step is to identify the cycle you’re in and when fear, doubt and scarcity are the strongest, then consciously program your brain to think different. This can be accomplished by a few well crafted affirmations. We can never relax because as soon as we do we’ll revert to old ways of thinking. You have to build the muscle memory and over time it gets easier and easier to combat our limiting beliefs. Thanks for the post! Great stuff!
IMO the first step to overcoming these beliefs is to actually recognize that they are there and WHERE they come from. Religion, Political rhetoric, social programming are a means of Control over the population. When you can break the spell and actually SEE them for what they are, the next step of overcoming these beliefs is much easier to take.
d
Hardwired is a concept that needs to be uprooted, and a stroll down feral child lane will demonstrate that we have nothing "hardwired" and are as malleable as ever on a "brains" level.
Ultimately it's all about perception, because beauty is in the eye of the beholder, hence why pain is pleasure for some, why fear is courage for others and why doubt and insecurity is other's companions. Going to war with yourself is indeed grueling, so to flip it on it's head and to walk away from conflict is to accept and surrender.
It seems the hardwired concept is...hardwired! 😂 😂😂. Just joking with you. I totally see you’re point and yes most people choose to make misery their best friend. This is actually a natural state for the population at large. That’s why happiness is a daily decision, now today more than ever!
As my grumpy dad would say "What is there to be happy about?" LOLOLOLOLOL! Gawd why do other's suffering make me lolololol! (because punching their lights out hurts my handbonez)
An abundance mindset is a practiced habit. It also makes a difference with the background you grow up in. My family had more of the scarcity mindset and they were negative about success. It makes being around people who practice a wealth mindset and practicing an abundance mentality yourself that much more important.
I prefer the abundance mindset
We can offer as an excuse that people do not have enough money to invest in the things we want.
Scarcity is a way of sabotaging ourselves without knowing it, knowing it is past its mold.
If you are conscious of abundance, you believe that opportunities are everywhere, always. You can repeat your success and success, you will have a more creative, participative and sharing approach than competition and you can successfully lead most situations to yourself. If you are consistent with nature and respectful, you will not get more than you need, and you will not greed or stock up.
I like your writing very much. It was an interesting story. thank you :)
there is a promotional post on my page .. maybe it will attract your interest
I think this idea is important, when used as a way of personal development in order to get yourself into a mindset of positive self worth and hopefulness, so that from there you can take action to achieve a better future...
BUT, it can very easily lead to negative outcomes for some people and society in general. Like should I tell a homeless person they just aren't thinking positively enough... someone in dire financial straits, a child born into poverty, and that's just the economic issues. Some people have taken this kind of thinking and act almost like if you have cancer or some other medical problem you were "vibrating" in a bad way and attracting bad omens. I'm sorry but this is truly woo woo and despicable way of thinking and has hurt so many people throughout human history.
I know this is not what you are saying, but it is a very worrying sort of idea that constantly gets proliferated and never with the asterisk at the end of the speech that positive thinking and abundant thinking plus positive action plus a healthy dose of luck is what it takes.
It's always important to remind ourselves that sometimes the good fail and the bad succeed. Not to put ourselves down and in a negative hopeless place, but just so we aren't tripping into Oprah's "The Secret" "everything is vibrations mannnn" level of woo woo bullshit (which, again, is very detrimental to individual human beings and society in general).
Sorry if this is a bit of a negative reply, but this type of talk always
angers me(edit: perhaps I should say worries me or upsets me - more than it does anger me). Again, speaking about having a positive mindset and thinking in a more abundant way can be and IS perfectly healthy from an individual developmental standpoint, but unless you add some counterpoints I think it places too much onus and power on the individual to believe that everything is in their control....I hope what I just wrote makes some sort of sense.
I completely agree with what you've said here @thespacebetween. But I feel there is a subtlety in this that we need to really look at- and that is the difference between the very "New Age" thinking that everything is a reflection of ourselves/thoughts/desires- which quickly turns into the blame game of, as you said above "tell a homeless person they just aren't thinking positively enough" - and it's cousin "YOU are creating this reality", and the realization of the PROGRAMMING that is the CAUSE of "have not" mentality. We live in a "HAVE NOT" society that is programmed, very deliberately, for LACK. This is not a "choice" we make, it is a choice that is made for us by someone else.
As I said in a comment above, when we recognize this programming and realize that we actually CAN move beyond it.... that is the start of something amazing and new. And yes, even the homeless person, when s/he is given a hand up, regardless of social/political/religious programming, can move beyond this LACK . There are countless stories of "homeless" people making radical changes for their communities, doing amazing things to help others. In my opinions, these are the ones that are breaking the programming, and DOING something to create CHANGE. How? Because they change the way they think.
And THIS is the massive switchover in thinking, from concentrating on the foundation of "lack" (or negativity), to thinking about "abundance" (in whatever way that means to that individual) or "Positive" "optimistic" thinking.
d
Very, VERY well said, couldn't agree more:
" We live in a "HAVE NOT" society that is programmed, very deliberately, for LACK. This is not a "choice" we make, it is a choice that is made for us by someone else."
No, actually I'm pretty guilty of that exact train of thought.
The scarcity mindset by your definition is almost human nature
I think it's trained, but since we're not trained a different way when we start on this planet it feels like human nature.
Going by the way sound you obviously believe in the law of attraction don't you?
Humans have a bit of ingrained nature but much of what makes us us is malleable.
HA!
Great perspective..thank you for sharing ..thats def. a great question to ask yourself.
Very interesting topic!
Hows that working for you?
One question every one needs to stop and ask themselves as we all go through life.
Even those who learn to use the abundance mindset oftentimes find themselves in the scarcity mindset what we need to do as people is to make sure that we constantly renew our minds with the abundant mindset so that we don't find ourselves wallowing in scarcity mindset it's a dailly affair.
@aggroed
very intreseting! most people are trapped in a scarcity mentality, but the problem of scarcity is that it prevents you from seeing the abundance of money and opportunity available to you. This is the main difference of an abundance mindset vs scarcity mindset: abundance thinking allows you to see everything you could achieve
If you believe, you can achieve. I usually disagree with at least some part of what you write but you are totally on point with this one.