Recognising the poverty mentality and what to do about it.

I deserve the best, I am worthy and I am special. How often do we reaffirm these things to ourselves? Daily? Monthly? Yearly? Or hardly ever, right?

This idea of deserving the best can be thought of as being egoic or superficial but why should we not be deserving of everything life has to offer. Not just in monetary terms but to have abundance in all areas of your life, from friends, food, love, pleasure and anything else you can dream of. I am not meaning to be overindulgent but to have a healthy relationship with life where there is plenty of everything to go around, for everyone.

I am sure we all go shopping and decide not to buy something based on the price tag. Or sometimes there is no way to justify spending X amount on a new dress, shirt, shoes or even a drink in that expensive café which exceeds our budget of occasionally treating ourselves. But when we make this decision not to spend our hard earned cash have you noticed the emotions attached to it? Maybe guilt, shame, or the feeling of not being rich enough, not being good enough or even deserving enough. All these emotions are natural responses and most of the time they happen so fast we don’t even have time to shift this reaction to a positive one.

I know what it feels like to be poor, with limited or no cash in the bank account and unable to wear the latest designer clothes or to treat myself to a three-course meal at the coolest restaurant on the block. But when it comes down to it, does it really matter? What difference will it make if you did strut your stuff in the latest threads and fill your belly at the new restaurant in town? It would not change you as an individual. Maybe you associate yourself in different circles or have your house full of fancy gadgets but ultimately, would you be happy? There is a saying, the more money you have the more you spend and I think this can be extended to include just about anything you have an abundance of.

For some reason I am constantly gifted with clothes and living out of a suit case for the past 6 years is challenging as I don’t have enough room for all of them! Regardless if I have the room or not, I seem to have an incredible relationship with receiving clothes, so much so that I barely need to shop as I am constantly gifted with new ones.

It is easy to compare ourselves to others so the challenge (if you choose to take it on) is to become aware of your relationship to money and recognise it as energy. Know, at the very core of your being that money comes and money goes. Of course it is nice if it comes in big wads with loads of zeros at the end of a high number but ultimately we have to create the ideal environment for it to be attracted to us like a magnet.

When we experience the emotional responses of guilt, shame and not being worthy enough this impacts our energy towards money in a huge way. So to counter balance this I do the opposite, which increases the positive, abundant and feel good factor in my relationship to money and it helps to dissolve the mentality of poverty. I don’t mean to take out a loan and buy out the entire shop but to recognise what is missing in your life or in that moment and find out what will fill the void of feeling poor / unworthy / shameful etc. Perhaps it means to buy a take away drink instead of staying and sitting down in the café or instead of buying that must have awesome speaker system straight out, I start to put cash aside each day / week knowing that I will be enjoying surround sound in no time.

If you were born in an affluent family may be you don’t relate to any of this and experiencing this poverty mentality is not part of your journey. Ultimately, at times we all feel lesser than others and are always looking for happiness outside of ourselves. Without sounding ‘new agey’ whatever it is you feel you are missing out on or feel you deserve more of, know that you are more than deserving but the questions are, are you ready? Can you handle it? And will this fulfil your desire and make you a better person? Start by identifying your blockages, patterns and negative mind chatter. Not just the surface kind but also the emotions deep down in the soil of your soul, the ones which we easily ignore on a daily basis.

Be kind to yourself and start a positive conversation as you begin to knock down the walls and create space for abundance on all levels.