Making Room For Abundance

Abundance.

Along with resilience, it’s something we strive for, especially in this complex world. How can we live an abundant life? How can we open ourselves to abundance? But what does it mean and how much abundance is too much?

As Americans, we’re big on the concept of more. Everything we do smacks of abundance. We like options. We like choices. There are millions of apps offering pretty much everything at the click of a few buttons. Grocery stores offer tens of thousands of items for our choosing. And don’t get me started on Amazon; I’m conflicted every time I login, let alone order anything. Which I shouldn’t.

So, I’ll ask again: How much abundance is too much?

Choices and options are clearly a blessing. But a person can drown in abundance. Endless options can paralyze us, distract us and keep us from focusing on what’s truly important. So how do we wade through the stuff and find the abundance that really matters?

We have to put things down.

Remember the Planet Fitness commercial where a muscled meathead repeats over and over, “I lift things up and put them down”? (Read aloud while doing your best Arnold Schwarzenegger imitation.)

We women are constantly lifting things up. We pick up our own work, responsibilities and burdens, and then, in our own version of muscled meatheadedness (yes, I made that up, but it works), we pick up everyone else’s stuff, too. Because, let’s be honest, no one can do anything as well as we can, right? Before we know it, we’re living in a state of abundance all right.

Abundant exhaustion. Plus, we’re missing true abundance where it counts.

The fact is most of us have enough. Enough stuff, enough worry, enough responsibility. In putting some things down, we make room for more—preferably more of the good stuff.

Start by putting down things that can and should be handled by other people. “That’s not my problem” is one of the most powerful sentences you can add to your vocabulary.  Move on to things you feel you “should” do but don’t want to do. “No” is also a complete sentence. And while you’re at it, put down guilt. Enough already. If you were as awful as you sometimes think you are, you’d be in jail. If you aren’t, put down the guilt.

Once you “put things down,” you’ll have more room for the abundance that counts. And it’s not more stuff, although, I’ll never turn down a great pair of shoes. Try to seek abundance in the areas that feed us in other ways like gratitude, simplicity, beauty and joy.

Imagine if, instead of filling up our days with more work, more responsibility and more stuff, we sought more gratitude for what we already have. Imagine seeking out more beauty. Imagine chasing joy.

As for simplicity, well, that’s the key to it all. Because seeking simple abundance in gratitude, simplicity, beauty and joy costs us nothing, and it’s quite easy, if we just take a moment, or several, throughout our day, and open our eyes.

Mindfulness about simple things—the opportunities we have, the people in our lives, the food we eat, the fact that we can turn on a faucet and clean water pours out—tunes us into the abundance we live with daily but take for granted. It’s all around us; we just don’t see it.

It’s time to put some things down and recognize the abundance we already have, before we start chasing more in a misguided attempt to fix what isn’t broken.

As for me and more shoes? I’m certain I haven’t purchased my last pair. But first, I think I’ll take a look in my closet and even if it’s just for a moment, be grateful for what’s already there.

Mary Fran Bontempo is an award-winning 2-time TEDx and Keynote speaker, workshop presenter, author, humorist and podcast host who teaches audiences to uncover their Brilliance and Resilience 15 minutes at a time. A sought-after speaker for ERGs, BRGs, conference and association events, Mary Fran is author of From Broken to Brilliant: How to Live a Brilliantly Resilient Life, The 15 Minute Master, The Woman’s Book of Dirty Words and co-founder of the life-changing program Brilliantly Resilient. Learn more at https://linktr.ee/maryfranbontempo

Go from Broken to Brilliant -- Order a copy of From Brokent to Brilliant: How to Live a Brilliantly Resilient Life today!