How to be An Abundant Thinker
The first step is to take a good honest look at your current and past attitudes, and assess whether your thinking has been based on the abundance principle. Do you routinely evaluate how your life is faring? If so, do you accomplish what you set out to do? If you have mixed results, do you know what is working and what isn’t? Which areas need to be improved? In what way does your attitude need adjusting to create a better life for yourself?
One thing to be particularly aware of is your inner monologue i.e. how you talk to yourself. This can reveal a lot about how healthy your thinking really is. How many times do you think that you “could have”, “would have”, or “should have”? Although you may think that these are useful correctional phrases that mean you have understood your mistakes, they are nothing to do with abundant thinking. They are dealing with the past, and giving power to the things you feel you failed at.
Such reflections are inherently self-critical and full of regret. They remind you of the lack in your life; the chances you should have, would have, or could have taken. They are linked to feelings of entitlement or lack, and this is the enemy of abundant thinking. All these should be replaced with “I want” or “I expect” – thoughts that bring our desire into the present moment, and that is the only way our brain can register that some kind of action needs to be taken.
People who habitually think in negative terms make themselves victims; it is self-perpetuating, especially when other people or outside circumstances are blamed for the hurt. Whenever you blame, you simultaneously remove your responsibility to improve the situation. You are saying that there is nothing to be done to make things better because it is out of your control, and you have thereby denied the abundance in your life.
Here are some ways in which you can become an abundant thinker:
- Identify your biggest bar to abundant thinking. Analyze why you have not embraced the concept before. Have years of negative conditioning made it difficult, or did you just not know about it?
- Decide now that you will start to think abundant thoughts.
- Count your blessings right now, and start being grateful for all the good things you have in your life.
- Stop thinking of what you believe you don’t have; you are concentrating on empty space. Instead, begin to focus on creating the circumstances that cause abundance to fill that empty space. Develop your interests, knowledge, and skills in areas that will help you to achieve more.
- Exchange “could’ve”, “should’ve” and “would’ve” for “I want” and “I expect”.
- Don’t feel guilty for wanting. It is your personal choice to strive for happiness for yourself and others.
- You can want, but don’t create specific expectations (especially for material things) for yourself.
- Better still, create zero expectations of what you will receive. Do not automatically assume that you will receive anything. Just know that anything is possible and invite that abundance into your life.
- Be mentally prepared for the worst-case scenario. Think positively about receiving what you want, but do not take it as read. If you meet your goals, it will add to the happiness you already enjoy; if not, it doesn’t matter because you are happy with what you already have.
- Stop thinking the world owes you a living and that you deserve to receive what you want. Everything you receive in life is a gift. The world doesn’t owe you anything, but its abundance is capable of giving you anything.
- Stop feeling cheated, and like a victim. Take control and take responsibility for your own happiness.
- Know that your past does not equal your future, and your current unfavourable situation does not have to last if you choose to make it better. You are not your condition.
- Accept that you will make mistakes. Don’t beat yourself up when you do; regard that mistake as a moment on your learning curve that will help take you to new heights. Learn from it and move on. Don’t dwell. Some of our hardest knocks teach us our most important lessons in life.
- Think of a physical reminder that will help you keep your thoughts on track. Every time you feel you are drifting back to thoughts of scarcity, perform your little physical action to realign yourself with abundance. You could click your fingers, snap a rubber band on your wrist, or simply join your thumb to your forefinger as people do in meditation.
- Develop a mantra that you repeat every morning and evening out loud, and in your head whenever you need a boost. You could try: “Abundance is mine right now and always.” Remember that whatever you say, keep it in the present tense. Saying that “Abundance will be mine” causes the brain to keep abundance in the future.
As a starter exercise, think of one situation in your life that you believe should have turned out better. Try to find a way to see the positives in it, how you may have learned from your “failure” to meet your expectations, and then let go of those expectations. Rephrase your expectations into a statement of gratitude such as ‘I am grateful that X occurred in my life because I learned Y’ or ‘I accept that X occurred in my life, and from it I was able to learn Y’. This is one piece of deficit thinking that is now abundant thinking.
