Abundance: how to feel it — we all can if we practice.
Learning from what life has to offer us.
This month I'm teaching on the theme of abundance. Abundance is a profusion of something — more than enough. In yogic or spiritual terms it implies an inner wealth rather than a material one. Abundance is a sense of wholeness.
Having recently returned from retreat in India, I feel blissed out. I'd forgotten just how nurturing and restorative retreats are. They are a gift beyond self care and compassion: an opportunity, as Rumi the Persian poet says, 'to pay a visit to yourself'. This 'visit' is a quiet, profound inner journey, moving away from worldly noise to discover your own light. And I did discover it. I came back with a sense of abundance, wholeness, that I'd not previously experienced.
It's easy to feel abundance in a beautiful setting. Every morning upon waking, I opened my bedroom doors, to an abundance of Nature deep within a mangrove forest. Birdsong, butterflies (and the occasional tree frog) greeted me. Nature is very good at showing us abundance. And we — if we choose — may reflect back her beauty with our own inner light.
The slower, peaceful daily routines of retreat and the sense of community it creates amongst participants, can create lasting friendships with previous strangers whose paths cross. That happened to me. Over brunch one day, we began to describe abundance — likening it to a cauldron brimming with gratitude so that obstacles in life were merely a rock thrown in — displacing some joy temporarily but safe in the knowledge there is still more than enough wholeness, energy, bliss left to tackle whatever we have to face.
Then my aunt died. I found myself standing on a Cambridge street sobbing for over an hour, bereft, lost and alone, not knowing what to do. I'm 62 but I felt like a child — a distressed child needing to be held. My aunt cared for me like a mother. In her presence I felt seen and understood. She was a seminal figure in my life providing me with the love, advice and encouragement that helped me to blossom.
A Buddhist poem — Life Goes On — struck a chord:
Life goes on... With or without friends. With or without love. With or without anyone caring. You came into this world alone. You'll leave it the same way. And in between, you'll learn peace is an inside job. Growth begins the moment you stop waiting for others and start choosing yourself.
'Choosing yourself' isn't selfish: it's a call to be empowered, the courage to take action. I sense it's also a route to feel abundant. I've changed my daily affirmation statement to "I choose Me" and I'm excited to know what will happen. For 'peace is an inside job'.
I was fortunate indeed to have my aunt in my life. Her death will no doubt continue to teach me things I need to learn. Beyond the sadness, there remains something more profound: a sense of inner wealth, a resourcefulness that tells me everything will be alright. A sense of wholeness even in loss.
Three steps to abundance:
- Having a daily gratitude diary
- Sitting in quiet stillness breathing slowly
- Regular physical movement
Trust in the process.