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November 30, 2005
Letting go of scarcity
Some work that's up for me is really letting go of scarcity, the program/model that underlies every thought or feeling that boils down to "there's not enough". This applies not only to money, but also to love. (How convenient that one of my childhood lessons was that one is really the other.)
One of my next steps toward abundance is to acquire this workbook, the Abounding River Logbook. It's connected to a raw restaurant here called Cafe Gratitude, which kept coming up all week (synchronicity alert) leading up to my last coaching session, wherein the actual book (not just the restaurant) was recommended. Sidebar: apparently the owner of the Cafe is always checking in with the employees—"Are you having fun? You can't make good food if you're not having fun. If you're not having fun, go take a break."
Undoing the childhood lesson that expenditures are the supreme expression of love will require techniques other than the workbook, but I find it interesting that even as I move through the work of separating one from the other, the work of letting go of scarcity applies to both.
I want to find joy in my partner's joy, even when it's with someone else. I know that seems unrealistic for most people, but it's not for everyone. Some people are doing it, and I've experienced some measure of it. How can we feel otherwise, really? To feel anything but joy at the joy of someone we love requires that we believe that it takes something from us, that not only is love a zero-sum game (it isn't), but that there's not enough for all (there is).
If I believe it's possible to let go of the scarcity model around something like money, then it's simply not reasonable to think that love could be any less abundant.
Posted by Josh A. at November 30, 2005 12:07 AM