Achieving Balance - Abundance and Lack

Lately, I have been reflecting on the opposites of “too much” and “not enough” and how they are paired as abundance and lack.

Too much to do, not enough time.

Too much stuff, not enough organization.

Too much responsibility, not enough fun.

I suspect given a choice, most of us would rather avoid lack and focus on abundance. Why? On a basic level, our American consumer way of life has programmed us with a “more is better” mentality and that to “have it all” equals success. In addition, we each have specific family of origin experiences and beliefs around lack and abundance that color our unique perspectives.

I invite you to step back from previous judgments of abundance and lack to see them as opposite ends of one sliding continuum or as “two sides of the same coin”.

Consider the energies of Lack and Abundance as children on a teeter totter. Both are filled with shadow and light attributes. Within each of us, we have a child of lack and a child of abundance trying to find a dynamic balance as we navigate the ups and downs of life.

When we deny or reject one of these children or one of their natural attributes, they become shadowy and hide in the unconscious, throwing off this dynamic balance by working under the radar. With conscious awareness of the shadow aspects of each child, we can find and embrace them, learn new beliefs and behaviors and make new choices to cope with change and move toward a lighter balance.

It can be easy to forget that Lack has a light side and Abundance has a shadow side. In the light, Lack can be a helpful limiting principle to bring us focus by narrowing choices, teach us order, priorities and discipline to achieve our goals, elicit gratitude for what we have and provide us rules and boundaries for our safety. In the shadow, Abundance can be an expansive principle of excess leaving us overwhelmed, in need of a storage unit, blindly faithful, unrealistic, complacent, and self righteous. It can be unsustainable.

Do you have a pair of opposites that feel out of balance in your life? How and where is the continuum showing up? If you were to flip over the coin to see the other side, what potential advantages are there to the side you want to avoid and the potential traps of the opposite “good” side that are easily over done or over focused on? What beliefs and automatic-programmed patterns of reaction could be underneath them? Why? What could life be like if you opened your heart and mind to a new perspective?

I would be honored to lovingly assist you in accessing deeper awareness, examine and shift shadow to light beliefs and behaviors for achieving dynamic balance with more personal empowerment for positive change.