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Successful adaptation to change requires shifts in the way we believe and behave. It requires us to evaluate our motivations and clarify our intentions. Behaviors that seemed appropriate at some former level of life, may now appear outdated or may limit our functioning.

In my work, I am blessed to see the power of questioning assumptions every day. Once we become aware of limiting behaviors or beliefs, we can change them. And so we learn to look deeper instead of blindly repeating the same old behaviors to getting the same old outcomes. As soon as we manage to identify the hidden determinants of our behavior, our lives often shift spontaneously!

One of the primary areas of limitation shows up in our relationship to abundance -or scarcity, whichever side of the coin one tends to focus on. In an era of unprecedented abundance in the western world, many still struggle with feeling that there is not enough: not enough to feel satisfied, not enough to feel safe or secure. We keep accumulating things, yet it cannot fill the deep emptiness inside our souls.

Perhaps it is time to redefine our relationship to abundance. The definition of an abundant life cannot be satisfied by the presence of material things alone. Jesus knew this when he said that man shall not live by bread alone, but by the living Word or Spirit.

During feudal times, all wealth was tied to land ownership and material prosperity was a zero-sum game. Abundance was defined by the presence of material goods because there was only so much land, and only so many people could own it. Land owners could build fortresses and tax travelers to pass across their property, leading to more wealth. This system led to separation between those who owned land and those who didn’t, the haves and the have-nots.

This belief system is still active as a powerful undercurrent in modern society. Millions of families who had over-extended themselves to acquire property during a real estate boom, recently found their fortunes swept away overnight by a collapsed real estate market and loan scams that left them underwater. Almost overnight, they went from proud owners to impoverishment, loss or bankruptcy. But does the loss of physical assets really make you a loser?

Two thousand years ago, enlightened teachers like Jesus and the Buddha taught that true abundance is not based on physical assets alone. They proposed that true abundance includes qualities such as integrity, honesty, service, and loving kindness to all forms of life, to name a few.

And yet, talk to people around you and you will soon find many adhering to the outdated belief of measuring abundance by material displays of wealth. Beside that, you will find the limiting notion of having to compete against others to access these limited resources for survival.

In western society, we are driven by this outdated assumption that there’s only so much to go around, and that we need to compete with others for these resources on a basis of win/lose. I have to get mine first before you can get yours or the limited supply runs out (think black Friday shopping mobs)… if you win, I must lose... and on we go, pitting our limiting beliefs against others in an effort to survive. We expand this belief in scarcity to cover every facet of our lives: believing that for my faith to be right, yours has to be wrong; for my political party to win, I have to sling mud and make yours look bad; and so on.

If I believe that you must lose for me to win, or that you must be belittled so I can have value, or that you must be wrong for me to be vindicated, or you must be suppressed for me to feel free, then my sense of happiness becomes dependent on your lack thereof.  My experience of life becomes fragmented into dualities of opposites, and I end up suffering estrangement from my fellow humans. A life that is lived from such outdated beliefs offers very limited love, serenity and security.

This outdated thinking and behavior cause untold suffering in the world. The Buddha taught his disciples to become free from the vice of duality-thinking; to liberate themselves from the opposites of desire and aversion which propel the cycles of scarcity and suffering. It is only when we let go of this misguided struggle for a bit of material security, that we are able to poise our minds in peace.

How do we uncouple from the vicious cycle of chasing after material security and finding scarcity instead?

The power lies in our thoughts. Our thoughts contain the seed forms of potential; making change possible in our consciousness, our belief systems and our world.

Physical reality flows from our imagination and ideas about how things could be. As humans, we are gifted with the ability to change the way we think, and hence create different outcomes. We can change the way we look at things and thereby change the outcomes!

Instead of seeing the world as a physical pie, with ourselves competing against others for a slice of it, we can consciously choose again. Perhaps it is time to recognize that energy is never destroyed; it simply changes form. It is time to expand our definition of abundance to include all its myriad forms: the material as well as the mental, emotional, psychological and spiritual. And perhaps we need to acknowledge that there is enough for all of us when we are prepared to share.

This step in our evolution, this changing of the old mindset for a more appropriate one, may not be as clean or predictable as we’d like. Evolution is messy and uncertain. A clear outcome is not always apparent. To the minds of westerners who like control, reliability and certainty, this can be nerve-wracking. Yet, the alternative is to become extinct.

Times of change call for us to trust on a grand level. It is time to trust in our Source, ourselves and each other. We need to trust this time of upheaval to give birth to new paradigms that better fit our world… and we need to step into the game and play our active part in it. Are you ready? I’ll see you at the top!

©Copyright Ada Porat. For more information, visit www.adaporat.com  This article may be freely distributed in whole or in part, provided there is no charge for it and this notice is attached.