We spend so much of our lives striving and achieving. We focus on gathering, earning, and amassing. We work and save, plan and prepare. We live under a constant sense of pressure and sometimes even desperation believing that, if we could just get enough, then we could relax.
How do you know when you have enough? How do you know when you have enough money? How do you know when you have enough free time? How do you know when you have enough friendship or love? How do you know when you are enough?
We live in a culture of scarcity. We are led to believe that everything is in short supply. This is quite helpful in a capitalist economy. It keeps us working and pushing to buy more, save more, acquire more. It drives the economy to grow, but, as many of us know deep in our bones, it also wears us down.
We sometimes find ourselves struggling to celebrate the accomplishments and achievements of those around us because of our belief that their success somehow robs us of our own. If our friend gets a big promotion and a raise, then there must now be less opportunity and money available for us. If someone we know writes a bestselling novel, then we might as well stop writing.
We tell ourselves there is a limited amount of resources and success in the world. Then we live in a constant state of ruthless competition with no defined finish line. We live our lives believing that the race is rewarding those who run faster so we increase our own speed. We run and we run with no clear destination and then we wonder why we’re so tired.
There is a way out of the race. You don’t have to keep running.
Leaving that race was one of the easiest and hardest things I’ve ever done and I would be the first to tell you that there are days I still find myself right back in the middle of the pack. Then I remember what it feels like when I let go and rest and I leave again.
The secret of leaving the race is to change the way you think about the resources in your life. It is just as true and easy to believe that there is more than enough of what you need in life as it is to believe that there isn’t.
I know. I didn’t believe it when I first heard it either. My brain was so conditioned to believe that what I needed in life was limited. I was completely convinced that I needed to fight in life for what I thought should be mine. I couldn’t imagine living my life from a place of abundance.
The very idea that I could believe that I already had enough, that I was enough already, felt so foreign it was uncomfortable. It felt like a lie, but it also felt so calming. If I could really believe that life was abundant, if I could wrap my mind around that concept, then I could stop running. I could stop competing with everyone else for life’s limited resources and instead start celebrating everyone’s gifts and achievements knowing that they weren’t detracting from but rather adding to my own.
Embracing abundance has allowed me to slow down. It has allowed me to pause for a moment and listen to my heart. It has allowed me to rest. Believing in abundance is the foundation that supports all the other gifts I talked about that I give myself this month. I can freely say no, I can wholeheartedly trust myself, and I can fail because I am no longer afraid of not having enough, of not being enough.
This belief still doesn’t always come easily to me. As with many things in life, however, the reward is worth the hard work. I’d love to help you with this work as well. If you’re interested in learning more about working together, download my free course How To Feel Better On Your Next Shift. You can also email me directly at hello@unicorndoctor.com to learn more about available opportunities.
