Money is my hot and cold lover.
Sometimes it comes on strong, stays by my side, and makes me feel super safe. Other times, it’s impossible to get hold of, keeps its distance, and totally blanks me.
I constantly used to ask myself, “I work so hard. I put intense effort into everything I do, and I’m motivated by a genuine desire to help people. So why am I still broke? Where am I going wrong?”
Then, somewhere along my healing journey, I had an epiphany: my broke ass is doing this the wrong way around.
I was expecting to be abundant, before allowing myself to feel it.
But that’s not how manifestation works. To manifest all the juicy abundance we’ve ever dreamed of, we need to believe it’s already here.
It’s all in the mind
Think of abundance as a lens we use to see the world.
As we know, any lens can become dirtied and discolored – in this case, due to our beliefs about money.
These usually drill down to one common underlying belief: there’s not enough.
When we think there’s not enough money to go around, we think we must compete with everyone else for it. We create unnecessary struggle for ourselves to justify the work we’re putting in. And we feel guilty about having it, because we feel like we’re taking it away from others.
This is a grade-A scarcity mindset.
Abundance is possible (if you believe it is)
If we believe there’s always enough money, this becomes true for us.
The tricky part is rewiring our brain to tap into a reality that may not be true for us yet. After all, it’s hard to feel abundant when you’re surrounded by a pile of credit card statements.
But our minds create our reality; our life experience is a reflection of what’s happening in our inner world.
And luckily, we have the ability to train our mind and to create the reality we want (we just need to learn how).
How to feel abundant when you’re totally broke
The key to attracting abundance is to believe we already have it. We have to consciously switch the lens we view the world through and see it as a gloriously abundant place.
1. Identify your blocks
Our beliefs color our lens. In order to change these, we first need to become aware of them.
If you’re not attracting abundance, you probably hold a belief that’s blocking it.
You might be thinking, “no way, I know I want more money! No blocks here!”—but our beliefs work on a subconscious level, and often cause us to unwittingly sabotage our own efforts (despite what we might say we want).
So let’s bring these bad boys into your consciousness.
Grab a journal and ask yourself:
How do I feel about money?
What did/do my parents, family, teachers, friends, or partners say about money?
What am I worried might go wrong if I become financially successful?
2. Create abundant beliefs
Once you’ve identified a few limiting beliefs, it’s time to rewire your mind. The best way to do this is to consciously create new, more empowering beliefs and use them as affirmations.
We can start by taking the blocks we’ve identified and writing down their opposite. For example, “money doesn’t grow on trees” becomes, “money is easy to come by.”
These may not be easy to believe at first, but the more you repeat them the more real they’ll become.
You could try:
Meditating on them, repeating them like you would with a mantra.
Keeping them somewhere visible (I have mine on my kitchen wall) so you see them often.
Setting an “affirmation alarm” on your phone at regular intervals (which displays different affirmations each time).
3. Tap into gratitude
The best way to tap into the feeling of abundance is to practice gratitude for what you already have.
Gratitude is one of the highest vibe emotions, and stops us focusing on what we don’t have (which, let’s face it, only ever makes us feel worse).
Remember to practice gratitude for all the things you have in your life, not just money; include also your health, relationships, or hobbies.
Again, grab a journal and ask yourself:
Who or what could I be grateful for, if I really wanted to be?
What could I get excited about, if I really wanted to?
What’s going well in my life right now?
4. Make tiny upgrades
This is an idea from Denise Duffield-Thomas; bring a taste of abundance into your life, one small piece at a time.
The way I’ve implemented this in my own life is to reward myself each time I accomplish a goal—for example, by buying new couch cushions, or treating myself to a new piercing or a fancy candle.
This also doesn’t have to be something physical; it could be that your love life’s a little stale and you want to be showered with love, or your career needs a serious makeover and you want to explore more exciting options.
Apply this idea to what feels important to you.
Ask yourself:
What areas of my life need an upgrade?
What’s my ideal vision for this?
How can I make small incremental improvements towards this vision?
Remember that feeling abundant precedes being abundant.
Keep the faith, do the work, and watch the abundance roll in, baby.
