By AARDE WRITES for WEEKLY VOLCANO 8/15/25 |
Hey Aarde, My friend accused me of having a scarcity mindset. I have been going through a difficult time lately with work & finances, but I have always considered myself a positive person. Her life is always so smooth, so it’s easy for her to judge me—she hasn’t had the same kinds of struggles that I have had to endure. How can I overcome feelings of resentment towards her and cultivate a mindset that attracts abundance?
Signed,
Positively Trying
Hey Positively Trying, Most people live complex lives, and even though you might not have been a witness to your friend’s past struggles, believe me, they are there—some call it “The Human Condition.” However, she may have received a toolbox teeming with tools like self-trust, self-worth, and self-esteem when she was a developing adolescent, and therefore appears not to have had to endure the same struggles as the rest of us.
Hearing that from a friend may feel harsh and abrasive at first, maybe even repugnant and judgey. Still, this shows that your friend values you enough to be direct, and she has had personal experience which alerts her when she is around low-vibrational living. At its core, everything is a mass of energy, and energy has a hum to it. The higher the vibration, the brighter and happier the creature; the lower, the darker and more draining of an experience.
Your friend gave you a lifeline; she recognizes that your systems are not conducive to happiness. And if you think about it, you might admit that no matter how hard you work, you always walk away short on bills, one step away from financial disaster, or with a dreaded sense of failure—this is not a way to live life. I suggest inviting her on a walk on Ruston Way or Pt. Defiance, where you can express your gratitude for having a friend like her, someone who cares enough to bring attention to something you may have felt the effects of but couldn’t quite identify. I encourage you to take the opportunity to ask her questions like, “Has she ever lived in a state of scarcity?” and if so, “How did she recognize it and make the changes needed to live in abundance?”
Until then, here’s a crash course in Scarcity vs. Abundance Mindsets—two sides of the same coin. I’m sure you’ve seen or read a million stories that share the premise of good versus evil, with the majority ending with the good prevailing. Oftentimes this represents an internal struggle in life where we are faced with a choice: which side will we fight for? It is easy to fall into the wide and worn path of the dark side, with a smoothly operating system built on fear and scarcity—bombarded with mainstream media reports of limited resources worldwide and updates on policies that lack funding to allocate to critical areas. Scarcity is an easy trap to fall into, especially if one has experienced it as a child through poverty or learned examples, such as a mother who is constantly worried and catastrophizes outcome. A system like this creates individuals who are ready to fight tooth and nail for resources and have an overall reluctance to share.
Now, let’s look toward the soft glow emanating from the Abundance corner, which offers a multitude of opportunities for success. Finding oneself on the trail of gratitude creates a sense of lightness, believing there are always more resources just around the corner. When we live in a state of abundance, we are thankful that we have a dollar to buy some flour which we will then use to bake cookies which we will sell for $2 each. We’ve all heard that you can taste love in food; if the flour was bought with gratitude, our cookies will fly off the proverbial shelf. The key takeaway here is that streamlining your mindset is proven to yield positive results. Existing with the knowledge that success can take time, but it is ripe for the picking, allows us to proceed with a sense of self-trust moving forward, instead of looking for past patterns to verify failure. I’ve experienced growth in my finances, happiness, love, and overall well-being once I incorporated small steps towards abundant thinking. Not only is it possible, it is accessible, and you are deserving of a life full of abundance.
Here’s how to get started:
* Practice daily gratitude by listing the things you are grateful for in a small notebook. (I am thankful I woke up today.)
* Reframe negative thoughts with positive affirmations. (Recognize negative self-talk like, “You’re going to fail,” and correct it by saying, “You’re learning, and your resilience will prove you worthy of succeeding.”)
n Find a community that encourages you to think positively. (Spend more time with your friend who started you on this journey.)
* Give back by performing acts of kindness. (Volunteer at a food bank, or pay for the person behind you in the coffee line.)
* Practice mindfulness. (Visit Tacoma Center for Spiritual Healing on Thursday nights at 7:45 pm for their mindfulness meditation.)
* Limit harmful exposure. (You will find what you search for! Try to identify when you’re being “fed” scarcity and immediately switch to something more positive and search for positive news. I spent time watching animal friendship videos to trip my social media algorithm into feeding me more positive stories.)
* Be curious. (Ask questions when you feel afraid, consider the root of the fear, remind yourself that there is plenty to go around, you are worth success and happiness, abundance will find you, and you will succeed simply because you are grateful for the opportunity.)
