If you want to have more energy, you need to demand that more energy flow through your life. You need to raise your standards. You need to have a compelling reason to use increased energy.
It’s not enough to simply wish to be tired no longer. You need to be pulled along by an inspiring vision of the future. You have to understand that abundance is about internal resources more so than external resources. Practicing and coming to know these things is a process, of course, but you have to keep walking toward abundance, faster and faster.
While it doesn't serve to consider yourself as walking away from scarcity, it does help to recognize when you are thinking through this mindset. When you find yourself doing so, simply turn toward your ambitions once more, and be on your way.
Tell Me Something I Don’t Know
The scarcity mindset loves to believe that it is productive. Yet really all it does is complain and criticize all day, while ultimately accomplishing nothing. It is the sniveling, moping loser in the corner of the room. It yells about why it can’t make any friends… Then when potential friendship offers show up, it says, “No, that’s impossible! That cannot happen.” And then it goes back to crying about being lonely.
At the end of the day, scarcity-thinking is pretty boring. The opposite of beauty is not ugliness, but rather boredom. It is stagnation. It is circular reasoning. Ugliness can be reinterpreted and seen differently, but boredom just is what it is.
It’s hard to realize how boring you’re being when you’re mired in the scarcity mindset. You think your life is so crazy because you have so many problems. At some point you get to wondering why some people want to fall asleep when they talk to you. It’s hard for you to understand now, but it’s because you’re being boring as hell. Perhaps your problems are not boring in your eyes, but through the eyes of consciousness itself, they are very much so.
Imagine if one of your cells told you about all of the processes it undergoes in a day. At first this might be fascinating from a scientific standpoint (especially if a microscopic piece of your liver started talking!). But unless you fell ill, after a while this would become repetitive, predictable, and value-less, which are more or less the tenets of boredom.
This boredom amplifies if the cell is particularly selfish and short-sighted. If this cell were to start complaining and crying at some point, at first you might be alarmed that something is wrong with your body, but if your body continues to function well while this cell continues rambling and ranting, you’ll sigh in frustration. “Can’t you just, y’know, continue doing cell things? Or something? You’re not even supposed to talk, man. What is going on here?”
Because this cell, through its complaints, is dedicated to seeing the world in its one narrow-minded way, it will never learn. It will never raise its standards. It knows only two modes of being—lack, and slack. In lack, the cell is driven by urgency and pain to get what it wants, so as to eliminate the pain. Perhaps it whines incessantly in an attempt to get what it wants. This can work sometimes, but not always.
Once the cell receives what is needed, it enters a state of slack. At least for now, it doesn’t really need to do anything. Its needs are met. And that’s that. Time to go watch television… Well, or whatever “fun” and “interesting” things cells do. Excrete waste, I guess. Pooping can be fun, right?
Slack and lack are somewhat-cyclic, though it is possible to remain in one state perpetually. Some cells have found a way to work the system which allows them to remain in a state of slack for the rest of their lives (i.e. the next 5 minutes). They watch television until they die. Others are constantly in a state of lack, driven by pain, fear, and urgency to do largely unimportant things just to continue surviving, until they ultimately collapse from exhaustion. Their existence is a painful one.
Still, it’s nothing particularly special. You, the larger body, might experience that cell’s existence as an annoying little pain in your side. If that cell can’t get it together, you’d prefer that it be replaced by a cell that can. You won’t miss that painful cell. At the other day it’s more or less just like all the others—except that this one is annoying, gosh darn it.
The way a cell transcends lack-and-slack is by recognizing its existence as part of a larger whole. It finally realizes that it doesn’t live just for itself, or even for the organ it is a part of. Instead there is a vast, complex, elegant system which it exists within, known as the body. It can’t take a step back and see this body, but the body, in fact, is all there is to see. The neighboring cells, the nutrients the cell takes in—all of this is of the body. If there was no body, seeing would be impossible. The body is everything.
Upon realizing this, the cell is bound to go back to ruminating over its individual-level complaints every now and then, but eventually it will hit the point of no return, where it finally realizes that the best life it can have- beyond the veil of lack-and-slack- is to live for the wellness of the body itself. This will require that the cell work hard, and that it does its best to communicate this understanding to other cells (since they are part of the body as well), but the work is well worth it. Because the cell has chosen to side itself with the immense power of the body, it shall never again suffer lack nor be caught in unconscious slack, for it knows that a story far larger and more compelling than its own is playing out, and it is doing its best to contribute to this story.
Sure, many of the cell's functions appear to continue on as they always have. It still has to eat, breathe, and release the krakens every now and then. From the scarcity mindset, it would appear as though the cell can never do anything but mooch off the body to survive. But from the abundance mindset, it can be seen that the cell is the body, and the body can do more than handle the life-processes of any one cell—even the so-called “bad” ones. At the end of the day, the cell’s life-processes are just an element in a larger story. It’s nothing to fret about.
Be Ruthlessly Unstoppable
If you want your life to have significance and joy beyond your individual, base-level life-processes, you must see yourself as more than a cell. You must identify with the body itself—that is, with consciousness itself. As long as you choose to see yourself as a cell, you will limit yourself. It’ll be too easy to get caught up in who got extra rations of blood-sugar today and who permeated your membrane while you were sleeping and so on. It doesn’t serve to see these “problems” as even mildly interesting or worth putting your attention on—they’re boring. Learn from them if you must, so that you may become more conscious, and then get out.
It really is not worth doing anything that lowers consciousness or causes it to stagnate. Maybe sleep is an exception, though even that is questionable (okay, maybe until you collapse from exhaustion… Can’t say that’s happened to me though. How many people have really pushed the boundaries that far?).
It’s not worth it to spend time around people who are perpetually scared and lazy. Maybe you regard them as your loved ones, but do you feel the love as they complain about how broke they are for the umpteenth time? At the end of your life, will you be grateful that you pleased such people by standing around aimlessly in their presence, spending the “quality time” with them that they wanted? Will such an activity have mattered in the larger scope of your life at all, except to have delayed your life?
In the pursuit of abundance- and thus, of higher consciousness- you must be ruthless. You must be disgustingly honest. You must be unreasonable. If anyone who seeks to dumb you down crosses your path, sweep them to the side. You will be of much greater service to them by allowing yourself to live more consciously than you ever will by trying to please them on a cellular level.
You must be unstoppable. You must recognize that what you are is infinitely vast and powerful. Any so-called “obstacles” are but an ant from the view of an airplane in comparison. You can’t get caught up in cellular-level thinking and see all these “obstacles” everywhere. They’re just things. Things are to be expected. Just keep going. You, and the things, will be fine.
This perspective may sound inhumane. In fact, it is the exact opposite. You can never be more humane than you are in the pursuit of higher consciousness, through which you live so authentically that it’s just gross.
What’s more humane than a brutally honest human who lives for what he loves, and becomes ever-more powerful to create an amazing life in the process? What is more human than that? Sitting around and pretending that a giant dead bird on the table at the end of November is the highlight of the month? Buying into the belief that your children are doomed to be evil forever because they brought home a piece of paper that had 16 red markings on it? Boy oh boy, what’s next—waiting around for the 15 cents the bank puts in your savings account at the end of the month? Oh, gee, how exciting!
No no, you say, my life is more exciting than that… I know a lady who cheated on her husband! You’d never believe it in a thousand years! It’s the talk of the town!
A thousand years, eh. Must have been wild. What exactly did she do?
Oh, well, you know, she had sex with some guy from work.
And?
What do you mean, and? Isn’t that crazy?!
That’s it?
Yeah… aren’t you blown away?
No.
How?
It’s just sex. What’s to be blown away about?
It’s evil! She turned her back on her children! She’s going to hell!!!
Ok.
What, doesn’t anything excite you? Are you a brick wall?
Sure I get excited. I can get fired up. Just not over the vanilla story of the century is all.
But…
I think we can end the conversation here. Goodbye.
Evil… lll… !!!
Evolve Into Creative Mode
Yes, that’s how you sound when you live in lack-and-slack. You have to dig your claws into any seemingly-unusual event to feel a modicum of excitement. You have to buy into outright hysteria. But when the end of your life comes, these so-called “exciting” and “crazy” matters will not matter a pinch. Unless you allow your life to become unnecessarily overwhelmed by any one such event- which, if you use this mindset, you probably will- by that time you will have forgotten the bulk of them. They’ll all be one big, boring, mind-numbing blur, and that blur will be what you regrettably regard as your life. Tis a pity, eh?
I know, I know—from the scarcity-mindset, it’s hard to see that anything else matters. It’s hard to find fun in anything but gossip or complaining or momentary fleeting pleasures. It’s hard not to stare at the clock and count down the hours until your next meal, or sleepy time, or, if you’re lucky, your next screwing (though you might want to rush through even that). It’s hard not to want to shrink down into a low-energy state and check out from life.
But I assure you there is another side to this. There is a life far, far beyond this which makes this mode of living hard to even call “life.” Yes, it will require you to do different things than you do now. But above all, it will require you to see differently than you do now. It’s not just about looking on the bright side. Doing that assumes that you’re standing in the darkness. No—you must see that the light is all around you, and comes from within you.
You must understand that each moment of your life rests on you—that you are responsible to create it as you choose. You must be bold enough to choose to get what you want, because if you do not make this choice, life certainly will not make it for you. It will see no reason to share its juiciest fruits with a coward, for a coward chooses not to live. You have to know that all that is here is what you make of it. If you are consciousness itself, and consciousness is everything, it can be no other way.
You have to understand that you’re not some stick-figured cell who uses the toilet 3 times a day and screams when he gets mad and then turns off for 8 hours each night. That’s just a perception that you are giving your power away to. You have to know that you are an intelligent being capable of conscious creation, and you have to own that power. You must be grateful for that power, and you must use it well.
In truth, you are always using that power. But you’re like a monkey with a rocket launcher—you’re firing wildly and without understanding of how this darned thing works. You watch rockets explode all over the place and you freak out. You run away and climb into a tree. Then you eat bugs out of your best friend’s hair.
But that’s okay. The monkey can learn. The monkey can evolve.
You have no idea how much you’re settling right now. You have no idea how little of your creative power you are consciously using to create a joyful life. You have no idea what a joyful life would be like. You have no idea how low your standards are. You have no idea how much more energized you could be, if only you raised those standards.
Seriously. You have no idea.
At any given time, it generally will seem like you do have an idea. That’s because the reality you see at present (i.e. your beliefs) tends to perpetuate itself. It gets nice and cushy and gives the impression of being real.
But it’s not. Reality itself is real, but the way you see it is fluid. It has so much potential for error-correction, and so much potential for change. But that potential only begins to be realized once you choose to see it as possible. You begin to make the life beyond your dreams come true only once you decide to own your life, meaning that you accept creative responsibility for it and begin to step forth boldly.
Of course, it’ll always seem like you’re at the beginning. Sure, you can look back and see how far you’ve come. But against the backdrop of the vision that calls you forward, it’ll look like you’re just starting. There’s such a long way to go, and so much to be learned. It’ll feel like you’ve been settling. It’ll feel like you’ve been unconscious. It’ll feel like you’ve been deluded.
And this goes on, and on, and on.
Yet, this isn’t a painful process. This isn’t about a clawing need for more, more, more. Once you step with both feet out of scarcity and into abundance, life won’t be about filling the gaping holes inside yourself anymore.
It’s not that you’ll be perfect, needless, all-knowing, or with nothing left to learn. But instead of running around trying to prove yourself and appease your neediness by filling yourself with the seemingly-unattainable resources of others, you calm down a bit and you take command. You’ll continue to move fast, but you’ll see before that you were moving unintelligently, and without focus. Now, on the side of abundance and intelligence, you will start to move more strategically, for you will be conscious enough to be able to do so.
Likewise, you have always had your creative abilities, but now you will use that power to increasingly support yourself, rather than hold yourself back. Rather than avoid, you turn forth, and face up. Rather than trying to shovel resources inside yourself, you enable yourself to be extended outward, and you create. You receive by giving. Giving is all the receiving you could need. You give to live.
No problem will seem too daunting to you because you know that intelligence is the ultimate handler of problems. It is all that has ever solved problems, and it is all that ever will.
You will know you have begun the cross to the other side once you start to consciously turn away from negativity. What is required to complete the cross is a compelling vision of life on the other side. Once such a vision has been created, crossing is inevitable.
Certainly the vision will be refined over time. But once the understanding locks in that consciousness is life, there can be no turning back. Scarcity-thinking will feel like drinking an unnecessary poison of boredom. Whenever picked up, the vial will soon enough be kicked to the side once again. This kicking will continue until the vial is touched no more, when a need for it is seen no longer.
See the Spiral
You will know you have begun the cross when the sniveling, critical, whiny thoughts of scarcity start to become impossible for you. This won’t happen all at once, like flipping a light-switch, but once it starts it is hard to stop—the change is just too good to give up on. And the first time you notice it, it will catch you by pleasant surprise.
For me, it happened in a McDonald’s parking lot (of all places…). I ran across it to bypass a busy road. The drive-thru line was packed. Normally, I would have ranted and raved inside my head about how these people were killing themselves. But instead, there was a moment of silence. I simply could not muster such a thought. Instead, all that came up was, Bless you.
Some people might see such a response as self-righteous and annoying. But self-righteousness isn’t the point. The point is that I choose to see a better world. I choose to intend upgraded intelligence for all people. I choose to see that all people are worthy of such intelligence. This is the path to abundance.
The focus on internal resources (i.e. consciousness) rather than external resources is crucial. The thought, when I go by a fast food restaurant, isn’t, I wish for you a bigger bank account and a better education so you can eat healthier. Even when I see a sick person, it isn’t, I wish for your health and well-being—at least, it’s not merely that.
Instead, I choose to see the person as more intelligent. I see them as able to navigate their situation with a heightened level of consciousness, competence, and clarity. I see them as an individual who knows why they’re here, who lives in accordance with that fact, and who takes joy in it.
Intelligence is the only thing that has ever handled problems, and it’s all that ever will.
This happened for me only several weeks ago. Yet, the emphasis on raising consciousness already is becoming, it appears, more maniacal than ever. But “maniacal,” really, is a misnomer. It looks insane only from the bumblings of scarcity.
Desiring conscious growth is not maniacal. It’s beautiful. It’s exciting. It breathes joy into life. It’s intelligent.
It may sound like circular thinking, or an endless loop—be intelligent so you can be more intelligent. Well, it is endless, but it’s not a loop. Scarcity creates a loop of stagnation. Abundance- the pursuit of increased intelligence- creates an upward spiral. You can predict where a loop will go next, but not a spiral. You can get a general idea, but a spiral, unlike a loop, is always being created. That means you’ve never been there until you get there. A loop, on the other hand, is always being traced over. It likes to trick you into thinking you’re doing something new as you add the next layer of pencil, but really, you have been there many, many times before.
But it doesn’t have to stay that way. You don’t have to trace the same circle forever—not if you don’t want to. You can start drawing outside the lines. At first, those lines may be out of whack and all over the place.
But in time, you can get into a rhythm. You can turn that loop into an elegant upward spiral. You don’t have to color within the lines handed to you by others. You don’t even have to use the vanilla-colored crayon they gave you. You can create a masterpiece—and you can use as many colors as you want. You simply have to choose to do so.
Now, what are you sitting around for? Get drawing.
Read Related Articles: