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Banning lack
I think I now understand how abundance (having enough of everything that matters) and want (lacking money, necessities, etc.) really works.
However much one is admonished not to think lack but to think abundance, it does not work because the method given seldom actually works, or else one thinks one understands how to practise positive thinking and that everything that could have been said about it has already been said by people like Norman Vincent Peale, Dale Carnegie and that Frenchman who, very early in the 20th century, started the whole trend of positive thinking by telling us to say to ourselves, each morning on waking, that we are faring better and better, every day. Left to oneself, one usually goes about positive thinking in the wrong way or does it ineffectually or only sporadically and gets discouraged when nothing comes of one’s attempts at it.
Now, at last, I have noticed in my own life how it works – at least, how negativity or thoughts of lack works. There are several steps to start thinking abundance and counteract thoughts of lack, and, in short they are:
Step 1: Become a conscious thinker.
Step 2: Observe and monitor your thoughts and learn to recognize a thought of lack.
Step 3: Think the whole recognized thought of lack through, deliberately examining and analyzing it, carefully.
Step 4: Construct a preferred thought (of abundance) through visualization.
Step 5: Practise Steps 1 to 4 and the visualization every day for the rest of your waking life.
Discussion of the above steps:
Step 1: Become a conscious thinker: Allowing thoughts to slip freely through one’s mind, only half-noticed, actually encourages habitual negative or half-negative thinking. Being only half-conscious of one’s thinking makes one easily pick up and adopt other people’s moods and negativity, without even realizing that one is doing that or what the consequences would be. Or one may, thus, unconsciously or half-consciously, even be trying to “bond” with others in that manner. No amount of positive thinking applied now and then or done intermittently will work if one does not observe and monitor one’s thoughts, constantly, day by day. Most, if not all, people’s thoughts race in a continuous stream through their minds, and they habitually do not pay their full, conscious attention to most of those thoughts or even understand or watch out for the hidden implications or negativity of any of those thoughts.
Step 2: Consciously observe and monitor your thoughts and learn to recognize thoughts of lack: See them for what they are. Not all thoughts of lack are so obvious that one is immediately aware that one is thinking lack. One sure sign of negativite thinking is when one starts to feel bad or sad or lapses into a bad mood. Consider this: Suppressed frustration about a limited budget implies negativity. In fact, thoughts of frustration of any kind implies negativity. Worrying or grieving about loss of any kind implies negativity. Feeling guilty about coming late for an appointment, missing a call, forgetting an important birthday implies negativity!
I became aware that many thoughts that one does not regard as negative thoughts or thoughts of lack are exactly that, one day, when I noticed that, every time I was going home from shopping, on foot, trying to work out in my mind whether I would make it to the end of the month with the money left in my account, an annoying thing would happen: Some vagrant or beggar would accost me. Sometimes it happened two or three times along the way. I realized that even though such people were now and then seen in that neighbourhood, they seemed inclined to appear and to approach me only when I could not spare any money to give them. I thought, why did they not ask money from the people who were loading up their cars with lots and lots of groceries outside the supermarket, rather than ask money from me, who had no car, and who was walking home just carrying the absolute necessities – was it not obvious that I was the last person to ask, that I would not have money to spare?
I knew only too well that the conventional way of interpreting it was that I was supposed to learn a lesson, the lesson being that, when I had hardly enough for myself, I should take a portion of that little I had and hand it over to someone with a greater want.
Well, excuse me, what utter crap.
First, to play martyr is not a sound esoteric principle at all. FALSE pride, righteousness, modesty and humility grow from it. Giving up one’s right to free will is an absolute spiritual blunder and it takes years or even lifetimes to claim it back.
Also, how was that going to teach that beggar to stop being a parasite, to stop being dependent and expecting others to look after him, to stop claiming from others what was not his, how was that going to teach him to assume responsibility for himself, for his own spiritual growth, for his life?
And, at last, it struck me – those types had honed in on me because, at such times, I was on the same level of consciousness (thinking and feeling) that they were on. At such times, I was a kindred spirit of all people of lack. They and I being on the same level of consciousness made me noticeable to them and caused them to approach me – I was approachable because I was then of their own kind.
I understood at last how the concept of negative thought or thoughts of lack, and the opposite, positive thought or thoughts of abundance, really worked. It became clear to me that I had to get onto a level of consciousness where abundance is the marker for all beings on it, so that I would become a kindred spirit of people of abundance and they would then be the ones who notice me as one of their own.
Step 3: Consciously think the whole recognized thought of lack through, deliberately examining and analyzing it, carefully: Usually, it is the bad or sad feelings associated with that thought which makes one aware of the thought’s negativity. Allow those feelings to play out, in full, one by one; no longer suppress or deny them (see 'feel' webpage). Note that you are not replacing the thought of lack on your examining it and thinking and feeling it through, you are letting it play itself out, naturally, and letting it pale into insignificance. If it does not do so, repeat this step before moving on.
Step 4: Then and only then, as deliberately, start constructing a thought about the same subject that would imply abundance instead. If you do it right, you will start having appropriate optimistic feelings about the subject. You will have hope. In fact, it is much easier to construct the appropriate feelings, first. For instance, imagine how you would feel if you had enough money to do or buy something that would make your life easier in some way or another. ( I am not talking about wishful thinking or a winning-the-lottery kind of thing.) Not only imagine that coveted easier-life situation but meticulously visualize your day when you are in that situation. Being able to visualize is a skill that anyone can learn. It is highly developed way of imagining involving both the emotions and the mind. Thus, in visualization, one uses both feeling and thinking. (Easy exercises are in the “bestill”webpage.)
Step 5: Practise Steps 1 to 4 every day for the rest of your waking life. You will probably often sink into half-conscious thinking again, especially in the beginning; therefore, you should make a point of checking your thoughts and visualizing regularly, at least once or twice a day.
This is not an easy commitment after a lifetime of unchecked, semi-conscious, daily emotive thinking – I know, I am still learning, too. I do encourage you, however, to observe your thoughts, learn to recognize thoughts of lack, examine, think and feel them through, then visualize abundance. May you persevere and succeed.
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