SCARCITY MENTALITY

New Thoughts about What It Means and How to Get Out of It

Image of a clay piggy bank from Markus Winkler on Unsplash.

And by SCARCITY MENTALITY you mean …?
You’ve certainly heard the phrase. You’ve likely used it in sentences that made sense. You may have accused yourself of having it; it could even be that you’ve made way too much identity of it.

Let’s see if we can do something new with this topic here & now. We all know that scarcity entails small amounts of something, or a total lack thereof; it implies insufficiency. In scarcity mentality, we see NOT ENOUGH of whatever we’re measuring. Not enough food to fill the belly. Not enough health to feel vital and strong. Supplies that run out before more come in, or more money comes in to replenish them. Scarcity is often used with regard to money, but we have it with time (ah, do we have it with time!), love, freedom, good people, sex—any facet or version of well-being.

Say SCARCITY out loud, and take note: it sounds like SCARE CITY. Apt enough, as a sense of lack almost inevitably generates fear & anxiety. It implies or even screams not being okay. My needs aren’t getting met (or I fear they won’t get met later). What I need (or want) isn’t anywhere in my vicinity and I don’t believe it’s heading my way. Sometimes scarcity mentality includes a disquieting sense of the unreachable: There’s some code for me to crack to get this thing I don’t have, and I’m not certain I’ll figure it out (or I’m pretty sure  it’s a puzzle I can’t solve).

Scarcity mentality is super self-defeating, emotionally demoralizing, and even destabilizing. It sets you up to lose track of what’s possible, to feel incapable of getting what you want, to feel bad about your potentially and already beautiful life!

Here’s an important thing to understand: In a scarcity mindset, you’re focused on what’s missing, not on what’s already here or on what else is possible. You may be talking about what you want, but that’s really not where your focus is; you’re focused on the fact that what you want isn’t here. From there, it’s an easy segue to believing it won’t ever show up. Scarcity becomes a permanent condition, a chronic illness.
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Photo of the inside of a fridge containing only one can on its side from Enrico Mantegazza on Unsplash.

I love the teachings of Abraham-Hicks because they make some things crystal-clear to me that seemed hopelessly murky before.

What Abraham teaches about scarcity is that anything wanted exists on “two ends of the stick.” On one end, there’s what you want, what you need, what your vision is, what you’re after. On the other end, there’s the lack of it. The fact that it’s missing. The (undeniable) fact that you don’t have it yet.

Where you THINK you’re focused on what you want, I invite you to stay open to the possibility that you’re actually not. Of course, you mean well and you’ve done all that you’ve seen to do so far. You have your eyes on the prize. You’ve spoken the dream and written it down—it’s activated inside you, held clearly in view. You’ve set intentions or goals around it, you’ve written out steps to get there, you’ve made a vision board, everyone you’re close to knows what you’re up to—you must be heading in the right direction. Right?

Wellllll … if you’re still frustrated about what’s not here, look again. You’re probably on the wrong end of the stick. You’re probably thinking more in terms of what’s missing or what’s NOT HERE YET than about what you want. If you’re focused on what you want, it feels good, not frustrating. It may feel inviting, exciting, or activating in the best way. It feels like you can taste it already. It feels inevitable. It feels worth the wait. Most important, you let yourself feel happy already, because you’re not waiting for that thing to happen to let in some version of happiness that depends on it.

If you’re curious about which end of the stick you’re actually on, watch your language; hear how you talk about what you want. How many of your words are about lack? I’m not there yet, I don’t have what it takes to get it (whether you mean resources or connections or support or skills or qualities or anything else). It’s not happening. It’s taking forever. It’s still missing.

Sometimes, just asserting (again) how very very much you want the thing puts you in a focus on not having it. You don’t need to long for things when you know your needs are met; when you know the next iteration that includes more of what you want is in the works, on the way, a sure thing.

Usually, if you’re on the wrong end of the stick, it gets worse as you go (whether you rev it up in thought or speech or journaling or you name it). What’s not here becomes a character flaw or a failing: I can’t seem to … I’m not capable of … I’ve always and I’ll never … Your scarcity package could even include a victim theme, some catalog of advantages you’ve never had, or how the cards are stacked against you. (And, hey, I always invite my clients to find the victim vibe without judgment, because we all have it in some way or another. It’s just something to notice and move away from, not something to be horrified by!)
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I sent this collage card I made to a client in Europe and the mail let us down—they never got it. So I’m sharing it with everyone whose eyes land here so that a whole bunch of us get the abundant vibe instead of no one.

I do believe that we can change anything, heal anything, rewire anything. You can most certainly get out of scarcity mentality if you’re in it. You can also take further any work you’ve aleady done, and get more & more subtle with this (as most of us are in it some of the time, to some degree). If you’ll permit me this one sentence of inviting you to my program, I teach tools to transcend scarcity mentality in my Manifestation & Magic groups (scroll down for information on that, with next week start dates to pay attention to); since these are COACHING groups, we actively apply the concepts to what’s up here & now in participants’ lives, thus optimizing for effective application.

Speaking of here & now, a lot of the undoing, probably most of it, happens in the moment: you witness in real time where you find yourself to be (what you’re feeling, what you’re saying, what you’re doing), being or getting okay with wherever you find yourself, and stepping (speaking, choosing) into or toward where you’d prefer to be instead.

Rinse and repeat, practice practice practice, and notice the gains: you catch yourself ever more quickly; you do it the old way (the wrong-end-of-the-stick way) less frequently; and at some point … a new default is in place. What if you lived with a sense of abundance (fullness, plenitude, enoughness; current needs well met, future needs not a concern, past scarcity just an old, distant story that needs no review or retelling)? How about an ongoing focus on what you want (your delicious next vision), with a surety that it’s on the way and the ability to feel great in the meantime, right now (not waiting for anything to show up or increase or upgrade in order for you to feel good).

Once again, I invite you to BRING IT TO NOW. What you’re thinking, speaking, doing, and feeling here & now is what matters. As you know (and I’m inviting you to know it more fully), NOW is where your power lies—the power to change, the power to live into what you want, the power to create and feel the joy of life. Let’s move from scarcity to abundance, now and now and now and now and now …

Love & blessings, Jaya

You might take these ideas further with my post on focusing away from current conditions, another clear & super-helpful teaching from Abraham-Hicks. We keep ourselves from the rich, full life we might create by focusing on the lack we perceive in our reality here now.