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Sometimes we experience tough things in life. No one is immune.
Things happen: accidents, sickness, and even death. Injury, trauma, and pain.
Sometimes, things are hard.
Abundance won’t protect you from experiencing every hard thing in life. It can, however, help you to experience them in a new and more resourceful way.
Let me explain what I mean…
There’s a balance to be struck between allowing and processing tough experiences without fighting them… but also not giving up or becoming overwhelmed. Because it will pass. Or at least, the unbearable intensity of it will soften.
For a simple process that can help with striking this balance, read my blog on The Subtle Art of Surfacing.
When we’re caught up in a struggle, it’s hard to remember that profound gifts can come from hardship. It’s hard to imagine that there’s a depth of wisdom which perhaps can only be formed in that crucible of sorrow.
There can be a blooming of empathy and even tenderness in our hearts. Ideally, the fire tempers us and we emerge from it stronger, wiser and more able to face life’s future challenges.
The symbol we use for the heart is two symmetrical curves bowing in opposite directions, and meeting in the middle.
Why is that the symbol we use for the heart, and for love?
Is it because a fullness of heart holds everything – both sorrow and joy, pain and pleasure, in equal measure?
Being Present
A few years ago I was co-facilitating a mastermind session on financial freedom and abundance with my good friends Jeff Walker and Ann Wilson.
Someone started to ask “…but if the purpose of financial freedom is so you can be happy…” and Ann jumped in right away to nip that idea in the bud.
“I don’t think that’s the purpose of financial freedom!” said Ann.
“No, no… financial freedom doesn’t mean you’ll always be happy…
It means, however, that you can be PRESENT.
For all of it. For those you love. For what’s really happening, in the moment. For the good, for the bad, for the joy and the sorrow, and for everything in between.
When you have financial freedom, you can really BE THERE for all of it. You have the freedom to be truly present. And that’s a precious gift.”
As she said that, I heard myself exclaim “Whoa!” Because that was profound, wasn’t it?
It clarified something. Abundance is, for me, not about collecting stuff. It’s about having the freedom to be more present in my life. For all of it. For the whole “beautiful catastrophe.”
What does abundance represent for you?
To YOUR Abundance,
Julie Ann Cairns
P.S. If this post resonated with you… or you enjoyed my book The Abundance Code: How to Bust the 7 Money Myths for a Rich Life Now (available on Amazon)… or you watched my docuseries The Abundance Code (streaming on Gaia.com)… and you’d like to share with me about how any of those resources have helped you in your life…
Please send me an email to theteam@theabundancecode.com – I’d love to hear from you!
Hearing your stories of abundant transformation really fill my heart with joy!
