Reclaiming Abundance

As we approach the holiday season, we will be feasting and gathering with friends and family.  As we are encouraged to think about what we are grateful for, I think this is a great time to think about reclaiming abundance.

Recently many folks have been talking about “reclaiming” aspects of ourselves and our lives that have been lost in late stage capitalism.  Kate Rademacher writes about reclaiming rest.  Maggie Jackson writes about reclaiming our focus.  Peter Koenig works with people around reclaiming the parts of ourselves that are locked up in false money stories.  The fact is that all of these people are pointing to the power that each of us has to liberate ourselves from the machine that keeps us exhausted and discontented and constantly looking for quick fixes to feel better.

I wanted to look particularly at reclaiming abundance for this blog post, and I will be exploring the other topics in future blogs.  In order to reclaim abundance, we must rethink our relationship to money – our illusions around it, how we get it and what we then do with it.

The fact is that our views about money are so distorted in late stage capitalism that most of us live lives fueled by the endless pursuit of more and more of it, not realizing that it will never bring us what we really truly want – that is, peace, freedom, security and/or deep life satisfaction.  For those who are struggling financially, it can look like “if I could only get X amount, then I would finally be ok.”  But that is a false belief.  The truth is that you are perfectly ok now and how much money you have has no relation to the amount of peace and freedom you experience in life.  It may seem like they are related, but again, that is an illusion – an intricate web of storylines that we have internalized since the dawn of the industrial revolution.  All you have to do is look at any number of billionaires who can’t stop accumulating more wealth and assets.  Because under this illusion, there is no such thing as enough. 

In her book Pleasure Activism, adrienne marie brown says, “…so many of us have been trained into the delusion that we must accumulate excess, even at the cost of vast inequality, in order to view our lives as complete or successful.”  brown also says, “A central aspect of pleasure activism is tapping into the natural abundance that exists within and between us, and between our species and this planet.”  Brown invites us to explore the concept of “enough.” 

Peter Koenig points out in his work, that it is these misunderstandings about money, scarcity and abundance that have resulted in the ecological crisis we are now grappling with.  He envisions a world in which all the energy that is “locked up in the hamster wheel” – keeping people exhausted and unfulfilled – was channeled instead into work that people truly loved.  Imagine a world fueled by love instead of chronic dissatisfaction and destination addiction.  In such a world, he believes major problems such as the climate crisis would resolve naturally.    

Koenig also states that we project onto money all of our wishes and all of our fears.  By reclaiming these aspects of ourselves that we have tied up in the money illusion, we are able to heal ourselves and also gain a healthier relationship to money.  We are no longer slaves to it and have access to the natural abundance within us.  We release many of the blocks that keep us from having a healthy flow of money in our lives.

Unfortunately, we cannot expect the governments to solve the massive economic problems that currently exist because the existing systems were built out of these illusions.  And the system will fight for its own survival, even if it is perpetuating mass destruction.  Rather, if individuals and communities have a shift in consciousness around money and abundance, change can happen.

The act of reclaiming is an act of personal power, and so change doesn’t require a violent overthrow of any institution.  It simply means that we have to begin to see through these illusions – these false narratives that we have been fed and have believed.  The fact is that the natural abundance brown talks about has been here all along, and that is why the holidays offer an opportunity to tap into it.  At holiday feasts, we celebrate the fact that no matter how much money is in the bank, we are gathered together with loved ones to enjoy all that life has to offer.  But the celebration of abundance can be a part of every day.  It doesn’t require a formal gratitude practice, although that may be what works for some.  It is merely the recognition that you have always been provided for, even during the most difficult times.  True abundance has more to do with love, connection and support than it does with money, and those things are always available to us.    

I highly recommend checking out Peter Koenig’s reclamation work on YouTube.  He provides a simple process to help people break through their money illusions and struggles.

On that note, I wish you a holiday season filled with abundance, love and joy.