Creating an abundance mindset starts with the way you think about money. As Henry Ford said “Whether a man thinks he can or he can’t, he’s right”! If you think something is out of your reach, it is, because you won’t reach for it!
So if you think in terms of lack, limitation and scarcity, that’s what you’ll attract. Thoughts become things and what you focus on expands.
So, by changing the way you look at money, you can alter your money reality.
Creating An Abundance Mindset – Clarity
A good way to start changing your mindset towards money is to get some clarity on the topic. It’s much harder to change something if you’re totally unaware of it. There’s a few ways to bring your money consciousness into your conscious awareness.
- Your words – listen to the way you speak about money, particularly for anything negative about yourself, money, the wealthy/rich, for example.
- Your thoughts – how you think about money, the attainment of money, the rich and your self worth are all clues to your ideas about it. Limiting thinking produces limited outcomes.
- Circle of influence – Your closest friends and family members. Motivational speaker Jim Rohn said “you are the average of your 5 closest friends”.
- Your story – your story is what you typically tell people about yourself, your situation and your excuses! Listen to your story when you tell it. Is there anything negative in there relating to self worth, limitations, or “poor me”? Listen to your sob story when you tell it!
Creating An Abundance Mindset – Awareness
Take a notepad and pen and whenever you notice something you say about yourself which is negative, take a note of it. The stories of limitation and lack are our way of lacing our lives with lack and limitation. Excuses, lack of self belief and “poor me” story telling are keys to a limited view of yourself and what you can achieve. You need to turn these around and create a new self image and story of success and abundance.
This is much more difficult to do if you’re unaware of your hidden success and abundance blockers. Of course you might not fully believe in your “success story” yet, and this can be the reason why you perpetuate the story of lack or limitation.
Get to know yourself by paying attention to your story, words and thoughts. A simple practice you can do is 5 minutes of meditation on a daily basis. Simply sit comfortably somewhere and pay attention to your mind without judgement. Focus on your breath. Notice only your breath. As you notice thoughts appear, just observe them gently and bring attention back to your breathing. The more you practice this exercise, the better you will become at observing your thoughts in a detached way.
You will also notice some limited ideas in your thoughts, as pertaining to money. This is a major break though when you can see it as it truly is – a limited thought, rather than your actual reality.
Creating An Abundance Mindset – Future Pacing
Future pacing is where you set an intention for your future. It’s almost like turning your old story into a new abundant one in which you get to write our what you would like to happen.
For example, “In 5 years I am living my perfect life, earning from multiple income sources by the sea”.
You can then change the timeframe and bring your story closer to the present day. Make your future pacing believable for you, and also stretch yourself a bit going for what you really want. Whenever you catch yourself telling your old story (of woe), change it for your new one. And make that your story instead.
Future pacing is a little like visualising, only you can create a story out of it to remind your subconscious mind what your intention is for your future. Learn more about how to create a Meta story with Stuart Lichtman’s cybernetic transposition.
Creating An Abundance Mindset – Trauma & Forgiveness
If you’re carrying old wounds from the past, and reliving some old trauma, this can hold you in a negative mind space, and limit your ability to create new and better outcomes. Do you find yourself reliving old scenarios which were unpleasant? If so it is vitally important to clear your old “baggage” so you can create a much more happy and pleasant outcome in your live and live more abundantly.
Make a list of people who take up space in your mind in a negative way. Or old traumas which are still controlling your thinking. Come to peace with them and let them go. This can take some time and you can also ask the help of a counsellor to talk this through.
When something negative comes up for you, make it a practice to offer forgiveness, so you can move on with your life. Holding resentments, and bitterness to people in your past is a very negative vibration. And unless you can release these old ways of thinking, they can be very damaging to your ability to create more abundance.
Beliefs About Money
Any negative beliefs you might be carrying (even unconsciously) towards money, abundance or wealth can hold you back. Make a list of the things you believe about money and go through the exercises on the article how to change your relationship with money.
These will help you to bring unconscious negative ideas about money into your conscious awareness. When you shine a light on limiting beliefs about money, you’re in a much better position to create new outcomes without these blockers getting in the way.
Write out a list of all the good reasons for having more money and how you will live when you are more abundant.
Gratitude
Conflicts over money are often internal and unconscious and gratitude is one of the best ways to change your vibration to a higher state of being. When you are feeling good, you seldom worry about money or think in thoughts of lack and limitation. Start noticing when these kinds of thoughts arrive and use a gratitude journal to focus on the good when it happens.
It’s easy to think in terms of abundance when you are living it. But it’s much more difficult to think abundantly when you’re living in a financial crisis, or lacking money. Gratitude is a good antidote to your old tendency to think negatively and focus on lack.
Start a gratitude journal and make this part of your daily practice. Gratitude can work miracles if you’ve ever struggled with a mindset of scarcity.
Saving & Spending
To help you create an abundance mindset, you can set up your finances so you will always have money. To do this, some people recommend setting a budget and sticking to it. But others might say budgeting and saving brings about a scarcity mindset. There are practical things you can do to help avoid over spending or wasting money, but too much of it might drive you to thoughts of not having enough, or scarcity.
With an abundance mindset, you are creating new pathways in your brain which help you find new beliefs about money. When this new software is “installed”, you will think differently about it. Cutting back, limiting spending and saving might have connotations with lack, but they are good groundwork to build a more financially prosperous future if you constantly in the red, or have a habit of focusing on the lack.
Focus On Money, Income & Wealth
If you’re struggling with money, it can be difficult not to focus on what you don’t have. But this is the opposite of an abundance mindset. When you fall into debt, you find yourself worrying about money, looking at what you don’t have. As you do so, you fall into a negative mindset towards money and you may even find yourself falling further behind.
Panic and scarcity are rarely the mindsets which will attract more abundance to you. More likely, they will attract more of the same energy. So if you find yourself in this space, it’s important not to panic. Take care of your finances and consolidate debt. Just don’t spend too long focussed on it. Then take the time to change your mindset and vibration with money mindset exercises.
Focus on money coming in, the wealth you are ready to receive and make a daily practice of visualising money coming in. Learn to feel good about having money, even if it’s only a little in the beginning. Here’s a good money magnet mantra you can use.
If you struggle with this exercise, learn to focus on what you are grateful for already, and the money and resources you already have.
