Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide
Contemplating the concept of abundance/sufficiency this month, I was delighted to get a copy of SheEO Activator Harriet Ross’ newsletter forwarded to me. She does a such a great job describing how the states of scarcity and abundance feel in the body, I had to share. And I invite you to notice what happens to your body when you focus on lack versus sufficiency. As I described last week, the first is a fear state, triggering the stress response and focusing us on the “threat.” The second is expanded, relaxed state where we are able to notice all the possibilities around us.
Ross writes: “I have been working with body, breath and energy practices over the past 20yrs of (deep) Yoga and in this exploration wonderful insights sometimes seem to repeat, though land in new (deeper?) ways. My daily practice has lately included an interoceptive awareness meditation which has resulted recently in such sweet fruit.
“I made a decision the other night to become an “Activator” with a Women’s business initiative and community of change-makers called SheEO. This inspired initiative is a group of radically generous people funding womens’ ventures that are transforming structures, systems, communities and the world for the better and for the good of all. While I’ve known about this enterprise for several years I’ve always felt I didn’t have enough money to become an Activator, feeling that somehow that was only for the wealthy….or at least for those with a much larger income than mine.
“My relationship with money has been one of scarcity mindset having lived month to month and hand to mouth pretty much all of my life. Not feeling secure in the world can have a discernible effect in the body, breath & energy, affecting one’s overall outlook. My ongoing practice has certainly helped me in working with this mindset and more importantly the concurring energy of this samskara (unconscious belief/knot/charge) but the other evening something changed.
“That night, yet again thinking about participating with SheEO I observed in myself the process of scarcity thinking. The thought `I don’t have enough’ produced a sense of tightness, an interior feeling (interoception) as though all of the tissues inside my physical body began to constrict and tighten….ever so subtly. Upon noticing this I decided to practice “What If?.” What if I allowed myself to really trust that I DO HAVE ENOUGH and to really know this to be true. Lo and behold FLOW, a sense of release & ease returned in the tissues, my breath deepened, my mood lightened, my whole sense of Being shifted. WOW!
“This process of questioning thoughts, checking in with ones inner knowing and listening to the body’s intelligent guidance is a powerful practice of TRUST. Trusting that if we soften Life will guide us, though we must accept that doing so doesn’t guarantee any particular outcome. This is about Being in and of the moment, about aligning with and allowing Prana, the Life force, to flow. The fruit of practice. “Are you holding a belief that is creating constriction and what happens if you were to stop believing that thought and open to greater possibility?”
