CULTIVATE AN ABUNDANCE MINDSET

As a yoga professional, it is deeply satisfying to observe your students evolve and embrace more of their potential. Yet it can be challenging to hold the space for their growth while you maintain high levels of energy and run a profitable business. That’s why it’s essential to cultivate an abundance mindset. When you do this, you are secure and confident in your decisions. You become aware of the amazing resources that are flowing to you and through you. And, you create memorable experiences for your students that lead to success on multiple levels.

Growing up in Redondo Beach, California, this idea of abundance surrounded me. The waves crashing on the shoreline were endless–just as were the grains of sand beneath my toes. And the millions of people with whom I shared the greater Los Angeles area provided a diverse and rich cultural experience.

Then when I moved to Northern California in my early twenties, I was restless in the farmland of the central valley. I didn’t appreciate the hundreds of thousands of acres of rice, which produce 95% of the total rice produced in California. Nor did I comprehend the impact of the millions of acres of walnut and almond orchards to a global market. Even lavender farms thrive in this fertile environment. Yet, their stunning purple hue that stretched across the landscape couldn’t fill the ocean-loving hole in my heart.

I could only see what I was missing; not the well-being in front of me. Then, as I began a steady yoga practice and made peace with where I was at, my attitude shifted. I embraced an abundance mindset and began to see my surroundings with new eyes.

I now find beauty in the countless rows of lavender.

My heart swells in springtime when the almond orchards are covered with pink and white blossoms. I appreciate the bounty of rice as it shines golden brown in the late summer sunlight. And, I deeply understand why this region was once known as the Golden Empire due to the vast richness it provides to not only our state, but the world.

It takes dedication to plant, nurture, and harvest a plentiful crop in the agricultural realm. This same level of attention is also required to cultivate an abundance mindset. This blog post shows you how!

ABUNDANCE RE-DEFINED

Abundance is commonly perceived in western cultures today by financial wealth. If you’re abundant, you have a steady stream of cash flow, savings in the bank, and fancy homes, cars, and toys that reflect the surplus of money you possess.

Yet money is just energy. It’s an object to which humans have assigned value, and each person has a unique relationship with that energy. Money can be used to bring joy–both in the earning and spending of it. Or money can amplify emptiness or sorrow.

And, if you look at the root definition of abundance, it simply means that you have a surplus–or large quantity–of something. Therefore you can have an abundance of many things that will allow you to live the life you desire.

You might experience abundance in:

• Gifts from others
• Free time on your schedule
• A growing client base
• Beauty in nature around you
• Amazing yoga spaces in which to work with your students
• Creative ideas
• Numerous solutions to a problem
• Relationships that bring you joy,
• Opportunities that arrive on your doorstep, or even
• Moments you feel satisfied in your day

It’s still essential to manage your finances well in order to grow your yoga business. Yet, while doing this, you will want to continually cultivate an abundance mindset. Re-defining abundance for yourself is the first step in that process.

Photo Credit: Pololia

5 WAYS TO TAP INTO ABUNDANCE

Now that you have a new understanding of abundance, it’s important to know how your mind plays a role in your ability to receive it. You’re probably heard the phrase, “Energy flows where your attention goes.” This refers to the idea that what you experience in life is a direct result of your focus. And, just like a scale, more weight gets added to the side on which you place your attention.

Take abundance, for example. You can see the world around you as rich and bountiful. You might even experience abundance as positive emotions like appreciation, confidence, and satisfaction.

Or, on the other end of the scale, you can focus on lack of abundance. Perhaps you get frustrated with your current situation or environment. You might be afraid of the unknown and unsure about which steps to take in the future.

The choice is yours.

Keep in mind that the more you observe abundance, the more you tip the scale to receive it in your life. Below are 5 powerful ways you can do so starting now.

(1) MAKE NEW CHOICES

There are so many elements of abundance in life, many of which you probably take for granted each day. One of the most obvious of these is choice-making. For example, when I drive to and from the yoga studio, I have numerous routes that will get me to my destination. Sometimes I want the most direct route. Other times I want the most time-efficient. And on many occasions, though, I like to meander my way home through a neighborhood unknown to me. Each time I do this, I learn something new about my community–and I love that!

You, too, have the capacity to make new choices many times each day. Perhaps brush your teeth with the opposite hand or try new foods for breakfast. Or, listen to a new playlist on your way to work or try someone’s great Spotify jams when you’re teaching. Maybe you even take a new style of yoga yourself.

The point is that you have the amazing ability to tap into abundance through the choices you make daily. Those new choices pull you out of the familiar (and often limiting) patterns of the past and thrust you into new possibilities for your future.

A New Path on the Mat

One way to tap into abundance on the yoga mat is to take a new path into a familiar posture. For example, a common way to enter Ardha Chandrasana is from Warrior 2 or Triangle Pose. Instead, try starting out in horse stance. Then, turn your right foot to face the short edge of the mat and sprung into Half Moon Pose.

The transition back into horse stance is just as unusual. Start by bending the standing leg generously (which also challenges your balance) and lift the bottom hand off of the ground. From there, and as gracefully as possible, return back to horse stance. This requires adjusting the right foot so it tracks in line with the right knee.

The key point here is that when you take a new route on your yoga mat (and in your everyday approach to familiar experiences), you acknowledge that you have endless choices at your fingertips each moment. This is a clear sign of that abundance available to you right now–all you have to do is make the choice to notice it and embrace it!

Photo Credit: Diane Nicole Photography

(2) ACKNOWLEDGE THE POSITIVE

We are re-defining abundance so that you can move from a narrow view of how it manifests in your life into a broader acceptance of it. While it’s great to acknowledge all of the positive ways financial affluence appears in your life, you can easily tap into abundance by noting the other great ways it shows up each day.

You might recognize an abundance of sunshine. There could be a wide variety of plants and animals that live in your region. Your street might be lined with abundantly green trees. Or, you could notice the grains of sand on the beach, drops of water in the ocean, or number of stars in the sky.

When you look upon the abundance that exists in your life, a positive emotional state often accompanies it. This good-feeling place sends a cascade of chemicals throughout your body that promotes health and vitality. Plus, you begin to memorize this high-flying state. This gives you more clarity to view the situations around you and more creativity to approach conflicts and challenges.

All of these great benefits–and more–begin with your awareness of the positive in your life experience right now. Notice them. Talk about them with others. Write about them in your journal. Simply acknowledge them in any way to tap into the abundance that is all around you.

Shift your Awareness on the Mat

Many yoga students–like most humans–tend to focus on their shortcomings rather than their strengths. This mindset aligns with limitation, or lack, instead of abundance.

Instead, encourage your students at the beginning of class to honor the time they have carved out for their practice. When you facilitate longer holds or more difficult postures, invite students to celebrate their strength to sustain the asana. Even physically invite them to pat themselves on the back. Or, at the end of class, read an inspirational quote that will allow students to appreciate what they accomplish on their mat and acknowledge that they have immense value as a human being.

At the very core of yoga is the ability to shift your awareness and increase your level of consciousness. Why not direct yours–and that of your students–to the multiple ways in which abundance exists in their lives right now?

(3) DAYDREAM

Abundance can show up in your life in many ways. The more obvious might be money, opportunities, or happy people in your yoga classes. Yet it can also arise as a positive emotion, a new thought, an insight, or even new ways of doing something familiar.

Another way to tap into abundance is to start an open-ended question with the phrase “What if …?” From there, you can fill in the rest of the sentence regarding any topic in your life. You might wonder “What if”:

• My yoga business doubled in size this year?
• I had a team of great teachers around me?
• There was more free time in my schedule to spend time with my toddler?

No matter what questions you ask, you naturally open your mind to possibilities beyond your current viewpoint. You can begin to daydream about what your future might look like. And, you let yourself off of the hook to know exactly how abundance will manifest in your life next.

Yoga and New Possibilities

How many times as a yoga teacher have you encouraged your students to try something new on their mat? How often do you suggest your students set aside pre-conceived notions about their capability and embrace the unknown? If you’re like me, you do this often.

For it’s in the unknown that the magic of life appears. Perhaps as you teach this week, pause for a moment before you undertake a challenging posture. Encourage students to sit still and ask themselves: “What if I could do this pose?” or “What if I felt more light and strong and sturdy on my mat?”

Maybe you suggest a bit of daydreaming about their practice by asking a question at the beginning of class. This might be, “What if I let go of my expectations for myself and just gave my best effort?”

Photo Credit: Aerogondo

(4) SAVOR THE SWEETNESS OF ABUNDANCE

The ways in which you can experience abundance are plentiful. You can have more than enough food on your plate. The gas tank in your car can register as full. Or, your weekend workshop could already have a waitlist. No matter which situations in life cause you to feel abundant, savor the moment. Stay in that good-feeling space as long as you can and memorize it.

Just this summer I had the privilege of teaching a 5-year-old how to wake surf. She was determined to get on the board with me one Saturday afternoon on the lake. Yet, she was also timid our first few pulls behind the boat.

Over the course of the day, and a few more times on the board, Isla anticipated throwing the rope. She squealed with excitement as we surfed the emerald-colored wave. And the question, “can we go one more time?” became a familiar phrase in her vocabulary.

I savored her growth throughout the day and I absolutely savored the joy of the entire experience!

Savor the Sweetness in Yoga

Yes, laughter is just one form of abundance and we sure had our fill as a family. In yoga, we also encourage our students to take their practice lightly. We want students to be playful in their attitude as they come to their mat. This amplifies the sweetness of the experience and makes the entire evolution of each posture more enjoyable.

So, whenever you notice those good feelings on your yoga mat or throughout your day, recognize them as signs of abundance. Then savor them so your entire being can memorize it as a way to tap into more affluence in the future.

(5) TAKE A REST

Let’s be real for a second. Even if you trust that affluence exists and you often do the actions above that help you tap into abundance, there are times when you will feel disconnected from that powerful flow of energy.

Instead of working longer and harder to get results faster, stop what you’re doing. In fact, one of the quickest ways to get back into alignment is to cease action entirely. Stop repeating the same patterns of thought, word, and action that are limiting your potential. Stop doing activities that are wasting your energy and resources. Seriously, just stop and take a break at the moment you sense your disconnect.

This will halt the momentum that is taking you in the opposite direction of the abundance you seek. This rest could look like five minutes away from your computer to center and breathe. It might be putting a task on hold and returning to it tomorrow. It might even be delegating a project to someone else or ditching that task entirely.

Rest in Yoga

There are so many ways to take rest when in yoga. You can pause in child’s pose or savasana between more active postures. Longer holds in a yin yoga fashion can be added to the cool-down portion of more active classes. Even elongating the time of stillness at the beginning and end of class can help students settle into the present moment more deeply.

Photo Credit: Fizkes

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

The Universe is an ever-evolving, constantly expanding environment in which you get to live. It is full of possibilities, and you can tap into the stream of abundance that flows all around you right now. You only have to make the choice to do so. Start by shifting your attention to what is working in your life. Pay attention to the myriad of ways well-being is present in your body, your relationships, and your environment. Reflect on how abundance is at the core of the practice we call yoga.

Most importantly, have fun with your process of growth. You have all the time in the world to embrace the abundance you seek. So, release the inner pressure to have it all now, to do it all now, and enjoy the delightful ways abundance manifests in your world today.

Take Action Now:

• Watch the first video in our Align with Abundance course.
• Try just one of the five ways to cultivate an abundance mindset today. Pick one option that sounds appealing, and use it on your mat, in your classes, or in any other area of your life. Then notice how abundance reveals itself to you in new ways.
• Say “Thank You” to someone today. Whether you verbally compliment a staff member at your studio or send a thank you card to a student, this act of expressing gratitude naturally helps you tap into the stream of abundance right now!