How the world rewards abundance
One of my favorite philosophical quotes is from the Kybalion, which states “As above, so below; as below, so above”. In simple terms this means that our world is very interconnected and everything has correlations. The way the world works in one place is how it works in another place also. For example, the law of gravity exists everywhere in the universe. Light obeys the same laws everywhere as well. These are the same principles that scientists used to be able to calculate the distance between stars, size of planets that we have never been to, and to define the basic laws of the physics.
In this blog we will be using these same principles to explore more abstract laws of the universe which we can apply to our daily lives. The law that we will be exploring in particular is related to abundance.
I will start by using a simple example relating to how our body works. We can use physical activity to strengthen our body, improve our performance, and increase our energy. From this we can conclude that by utilizing our body’s resources we are able to build up larger reserves of resources to draw from. On the other hand by conserving our resources, moving less, and not straining our muscles, we actually diminish our inner resources reserves. As an extreme example, we know that if you completely stop using your hand, your body will cut all blood flow and you will eventually permanently lose your hand.
So what is the lesson learned from this? By not utilizing our resources, we end up losing them. The famous cliche saying “Use it or lose it” becomes very relevant here.
We are essentially punished for not scarcity. If we decide that we would rather not use up our daily energy, if we try to conserve our muscles, we are not rewarded for that with more energy and stronger muscles.
Nature is the ultimate optimizer
Nature seems to be designed to optimize. Nothing on our planet is wasteful. When we dive deeper into nature, we realize that everything on our planet has a purpose. Every animal is optimized and nature ultimately strives for efficiency. So by not utilizing our body’s resources, we are telling nature that we don’t need that much. If we don’t need that much, then there is no need for our body to produce excess amounts of energy and we are cut off from the source.
On the other hand, by using our body and believing in abundance (that we will obtain more energy in the future) we are able to expand our ability, become stronger, and increase energy reserves. This on its own is a great example of the law of abundance.
Relationships
We also see this law of abundance play out in our relationships. Have you ever been friends with a very needy person who doesn’t know many people, believes everyone is against him/her, and is ultimately negative? How did you feel towards that person? Did his or her attitude make you want to be better friends with them? Or did you feel uncomfortable and want to run the other way? Most of us feel uncomfortable with negative people. Why? Well I believe the law of abundance is in play here also.
Optimism
This isn’t some law of attraction type of article where I tell you that if you send positive vibes into the universe and the universe answers back. No, I believe the law of abundance is much simpler than that. No mystery needed. The way this works is that we are preconditioned from nature to be attracted to abundance. For our ancestors this meant hope, this meant survival. It is the same reason we are attracted to great leaders who seem to have all the answers. We are hardwired to be optimistic. After all, we are just a bunch of monkeys with huge brains on a spinning rock in the middle of nowhere with our only source of light being the sun. Yet, somehow, we are still optimistic about our future, we plan our lives, and try to achieve some kind of greatness. If that’s not hardwired optimism, I don’t know what is. Could you just imagine what our world would be if we were pessimistic about our future as a species?
So how do I use this knowledge?
Understanding that we are rewarded for abundant thinking and action is one thing, applying it to daily life is another. Just as anything else, easier said than done.
I believe all changes happen with small steps. You simply cannot go from doing nothing to doing to backflip. Everything involves practice. Acknowledgement is the first step, this is what this blog post is for. The next is going out and practicing.
Abundance can be practices in every decision. Whenever making a decision, you must ask yourself, what my motivation for that decision? Here is an example, let’s say you are deciding what to study in University and you picked becoming an Architect. Ask yourself, what basis did I make this decision on? Is it because I am passionate about architecture or because I believe the job opportunities for architects are plenty? If the answer is the latter, you might want to rethink your choice.
