Ever since the birth of my daughter a month ago, I have noticed a shift in my perspective. It’s not about motherhood necessarily, but rather an overwhelming sense of being blessed and having abundance in my life. Prior to the baby being born, or even us planning to have a baby, the question of money and whether or not we could afford to have a baby was quite present. I wasn’t sure how we would make it work. While we ran numbers and figured out what it would take on our end, we got very clear about what was important and what wasn’t to us: what were unnecessary expenses, where I was being too indulgent with my acupuncture patients, where we could charge more money for services we provided, or where we could cut some hours on the road.
With this clarity, an amazing thing happened. Money started pouring in from all over the place. We talked about my husband’s need for a new computer, and the next day his parents gave us a check that would cover that expense, just out of the blue without knowing about that need. I started getting many phone calls from new patients wanting to start acupuncture treatments or get a feng shui consultation. Delayed payments that had been billed began to arrive. Coupons and rewards for free or discounted baby items and other things poured into my email inbox. I was able to find ridiculously great deals on things we needed, used on Craigslist. It goes on and on, and continues to go on.
In acupuncture, we have names for the 365+ acupuncture points located on the body. One of the names of the points is Abundant Splendor. It has always been one of my favorite points. Each point has a “spirit” that goes along with it, and as you may be able to imagine, Abundant Splendor is all about the abundance of life, and realizing what you have to be grateful for. It’s the Thanksgiving cornucopia in a single point.
When my baby arrived, it was like everything fell into place (albeit a seriously sleep-deprived place…), and the mentality of abundance was just THERE. Abundance without fear of instability. Fear was replaced by an unshakable faith. Maybe not even faith so much as truly being able to see all the gifts that I have been given, rather than mentally check them off some sort of gratitude list I’d create to do my best to stop myself from freaking out about whatever was stressing me at the time. It is easy to get caught up in the day to day goings on, to get concerned about finances, to worry about a multitude of things. What is more challenging is to admit that life is pretty great most of the time, and just live into that. Live as if everything you already want is happening, now. What is even more challenging beyond that, is that when things happen that you may be in the practice of labeling as “negative” or “bad”…for example, if a patient cancels an appointment, in my case…is letting that go, and continuing to believe that your life is abundant and that good will continue to come your way.
So ask yourself, are you living in abundance? Living as though life is excellent, or living as though life could be better “only if”…? Say things never change from your current state. Is this enough or will you always want for what you don’t have? Being gracious in the now allows for less suffering. Why not live with more ease in your life?
– Jen
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