The past few months have been really stressful for me. My Dad has been in the process of dying, and finally left his body recently after succumbing to complications from the late stages of Alzheimers.
He’s at peace now, I pray. And for those of us left behind, well, life goes on. It’ll never quite be the same again. He’s left behind a huge hole that can never be filled, but also a legacy that we’ll always be proud of. And somehow experiencing the death of a parent has made me feel, in amongst all the grief, a greater appreciation for life.
So… even though I normally write about abundance, today I sat down at my desk and all I wanted to write about was peace.
Then it struck me: peace and abundance are very strongly linked. Because the more abundance we create in our lives the more we experience freedom, and there’s less fear and more peace.
Only, that’s not the direction of the causality.
What?
Really, that’s not the way it goes. At least not initially. Let me explain…
More Peace = More Abundance
It’s not that more abundance leads to less fear and more peace – it’s that actively creating the conditions and cultivating the habits that reduce and temper our fear response, and promote internal peace, are the very things that open the door for more abundance to show up in our lives.
The thing is: we’re battling our evolutionary wiring here. As human beings we’re wired to be alert to danger. Our nervous systems, our adrenals, the information filtering systems in our brains all go into a hyper alert and vigilant state very easily in the presence of danger – both real and imaginary. In fact, our bodies don’t really know the difference between real and imaginary danger. The chemical response is pretty much the same either way.
When we live in this hyper vigilant fear state, we get a kind of tunnel vision. We are really alert to danger, but not so much to opportunity. And that’s why living this way can cut us off from being able to create abundance in our lives. We just can’t see how.
What can trigger our evolutionary fear circuitry? Lots of things that we come across every day that are not necessarily life or death situations like: stress, when you’re running late and having to rush around, traffic, getting annoyed at that driver who cuts you off for no good reason, pushing to complete work deadlines, missing your train, getting offended because someone you don’t even know was being rude to you, having arguments, juggling commitments like kids, elderly parents, even social engagements… not to mention watching violence on TV, playing violent video games, or even some sports.
Life can be stressful! You can’t avoid all of these things in life (nor may you want to), so some active counter-balancing is key.
Take steps to dampen down your fears, to stop feeding them, to create a sense of calm, and then abundance and opportunities can start to flow.
The Upward Spiral We Want to Be On
Once that happens, then we get on a positive feedback loop where less fear leads to more abundance, and then that abundance further reduces our fears and financial insecurities, opening the door to an even greater level of abundance and opportunities… and so on.
That’s the kind of upward spiral we want to be on. And it all starts by disconnecting from fear and cultivating some peace.
The big mistake a lot of us make, is to expect we’ll find peace AFTER we’ve sorted everything else out. After we’ve achieved a state of abundance, freedom and choice. Nope. Peace is the state of mind, the initial condition if you like, that allows all the other good stuff to flow.
So how can we cultivate a peaceful state of mind? These are my top tips:
5 Abundant Ways to Keep Calm and Carry On
Practice these tips to keep calm and carry on… and watch how the opportunities and abundance in your life, as well as your sense of vitality and optimism, open up when you do.
These steps sound pretty simple, right? Don’t underestimate their ability to create a powerful transformation in your life. Simple is good. You don’t even have to do them all at once. I get easily overwhelmed if I try to make too many changes all at once. So pick one, make it a new habit, solidify that change in your life (research says it takes about 3-4 weeks to establish a new daily habit) and then move on to the next one.
Every little bit counts. Aim for 1% improvement each day and within a couple of months your life will be headed down a new, more abundant track.
Let me know in the comments if this post has helped you!
To YOUR Abundance,
Julie Ann Cairns
P.S. This article first appeared in LivingNow Magazine. You can check the original article out here:
http://livingnow.com.au/5-abundant-ways-to-keep-calm-and-carry-on/