By Pam Alberts
Using inspiring themes can change your outlook and life. Just ask Oprah Winfrey. She’s said many times that writing down what she’s grateful for each day has changed her life. How does that work? What you focus on you see more of because you’re more easily able to identify it, look for it, and attract it. Have you ever bought a car that you never noticed much on the road before but once you bought it you started seeing it all over? How does more abundance, purpose, love, creativity, or anything that feels uplifting or meaningful in your life sound to you?
To explore this concept further, let’s start with abundance as your inspirational theme. Write down all the ways you feel abundant each day this week. To get the most out of this experience, it’s best to define abundance for yourself because it needs to feel true for you. For example, you might think of it as “overflowing richness” in your life.
We often think of abundance as the opposite of scarcity, focusing on quantity. We’ll expand on this concept with an easy example that you can use in any and all areas of your life. Your closet is overflowing with clothes but you always seem to have nothing to wear. The quantity is there, but you don’t feel abundant because you feel it lacks richness. You don’t love very much of it and you can’t access what you want. So what could you do?
Begin by looking for what does make you feel abundant. You might take out the clothes from your closet that you do love. If you look at those items, regardless of the amount, you’ll start from a place of strength and be more likely to take additional steps to increase that feeling.
Having several material objects, but feeling like you always have clutter, robs you from feeling as abundant as you otherwise might. Focusing on the things you have that are inspiring, beautiful, and you love puts you in a very different place emotionally. It can give you a greater sense of control, serving to empower you.
Let’s take another example. Say you have several friends and acquaintances you’ve known for years. You might do certain activities with some, but really lack a genuine connection. Some you might have known for decades but now don’t have much in common now or no longer want to share much with them.
Let’s go so far as to say 75% of the people you know fit into these examples. So how can you feel more abundance in this area? By looking at the other 25%, you’re now focusing on people that love, support, and bring out the best in you. That’s true richness. You might want more people like that in your life and by focusing on the special people in your life currently, you could be well on your way.
Pam Alberts, MSW, LICSW, CEP, MBA is Assistant Director at the Lincoln Council On Aging. She runs a Growing Your Positive Attitude group at Bemis Hall – 15 Bedford Road, Lincoln, on Mondays from 11:15 to 12:15.
