Redefining Abundance
The Problem With How We Talk About Abundance
If you’re like most people, that word elicits a distinct response in your mind and body. This word is used so often in the personal financial world and even more so in the self-help world; it’s hard not to have a certain response to it. As someone who has built a career at the intersection of the self-help and financial services industries, I understand that the optics of a middle-aged white woman talking about abundance are…. Well, let’s just say they’re not great.
This word has become almost synonymous with bossbabe-style grifters proclaiming their unique ability to help you – yes, you! – go from living paycheck-to-paycheck with a mountain of debt in a soul-sucking job, to making six figures in six weeks doing something you love! #findyourblissbabe
The word abundance has been co-opted by what I have come to refer to as “white-washed manifestation culture” – the space where personal finance and self-help overlap, which is rife with cultural appropriation and spiritual bypassing.
In this blog post, I invite you to take a critical look at the current definition of abundance, deconstruct what the word actually means, and consider an alternative definition of abundance that is more accurate and better aligned with human thriving.
How Abundance Is (Mis)Used in Self-Help and Money Culture
I’ve already described the current use of this word, specifically in the self-help world, where it is being used to describe the concept of having “unlimited money for an unlimited amount of time.” For many people, the word conjures an image of Scrooge McDuck swimming gleefully in his stash of shiny gold coins.
In nature, abundance does not carry the connotation of “more than enough for an unlimited amount of time.”
The True Meaning of Abundance: Lessons From Etymology
One of my favorite newsletters comes from etymology expert Lara Eastburn, who studies words, their origins, and how they have evolved throughout history. In her most recent newsletter, she deconstructed the word abundance.
I learned that the word abundance originated from a word in ancient Latin that referred to the harvest. Lara went on to say:
“It didn’t mean unlimited. It meant enough.
It didn’t mean forever. It meant enough for now.
And it definitely didn’t mean ‘manifest six figures in six weeks.’”
Nature’s Definition of Abundance: Enough for Now
As someone who has learned to practice looking to nature as a source of wisdom on how to reconnect with ourselves and how to exist in a healthier way, I absolutely adore this concept of abundance.
Rather than accepting the corrupted meaning of abundance as “an unlimited amount of money for an unlimited amount of time,” I propose we adopt a definition of abundance that is more closely aligned with nature.
Here, abundance is connected to the seasons and rhythms of the earth. Perhaps abundance is better defined as having access to “more than enough for now” or having “enough for this season and the next.”
Reflecting on Your Own Money Mindset
Using this updated definition of abundance, ask yourself the following questions:
Does this change anything about the way I relate to the concept of abundance?
What would that change (if anything) about the way I think about financial success?
Does this shift anything about the vision that I have for my own financial goals?
Does my vision of financial success align with my own thriving as a human being?
Redefining Abundance for Financial Success and Human Thriving
If you want support to shift your understanding of abundance toward a definition that is more aligned with nature and human thriving, and you long for a compassionate space to unpack everything that may be coming up for you around the way abundance has been misused, I would love to connect with you.
Click here to schedule a free, no-pressure consultation call.
