Belief : plenty or never enough

[jeff3]

A line in the "where's Max" thread got me to examining my beliefs about supply and demand. I'm just thinking out loud here trying to get a breakthrough in my beliefs concerning the universal storehouse. Maybe someone else can benefit from, or add to, what I dig up.

I am pretty sure I have lots of beliefs that stack up and form the meta-belief "there's never enough", the reason I know this is because it's my current reality, there's never enough. period. Where does this come from ? I can think of lots times I was told "you can't have ______, because we can't afford it." or, "money doesn't grow on trees" or, "you can have this OR that, but not both." My life, and maybe some of yours has been one continuous , "I can't afford that".

I use towels until you can see through them, keep clothes I never wear, have socks with holes in them, my shop is full crap that 'I might need some day', we eat with old bent silverware that someone gave me, I won't go for a drive just for the fun of it because gas costs so much, I just counted 32 pens and pencils in my desk drawer-some of which don't work- that I might 'need' some day. I have a box of magazines that are about 25 years that I keep because??? who knows.

Some of this is maybe not so bad, but the general idea is , "I better keep this because I would have to buy it later if I need it." Along with, "there is only 'x' amount of 'whatever' so it is going to be hard to get, because everyone else wants it too." Which leads to "If I get it, someone has to do without."

Any ideas on how to counteract this mind-set ? One thing that comes to my mind is the old picture of the 'horn of plenty' that used to appear on the almanac covers. While very simple , if you really look at it you'll notice that it has only one opening and the other end actually goes to a point, not a big sack or a barrel, but the impression I get is that it implies everything comes from a single source, no-where. It all comes from nothing, so it is inexhaustible because we never run out of 'nothing'. This also kinda ties in with the scientific reduction of matter to basically 'nothing' . Each atom has almost no mass ,and when reduced further, even what it has is made out of basically nothing but information. The problem is that I can understand this intellectually, but I still don't really apply this knowledge in the form of beliefs. Maybe my old belief has more weight because it is bigger and I have applied it to so many things and the notion that there really is a non-stop, never ending supply is still too abstract to be active in my life.

[cdn2wheeler]

Your opening about supply and demand is a very interesting and thoughtful comment. High supply usually translates into lower demand and therefore lower value (it's not a foolproof measure, certainly, but it's generally pretty common). It goes to the heart of economics, the "dismal science."

I can't speak for your experience, but I was brought up with the same beliefs: you're out there on your own battling against the hordes and elements, and if you want something you'll probably have to compete for it, especially if what you want has some sort of intrinsic value or is in demand. It could be that dream job, it could mean that perfect mate, it could mean that airline seat during the busiest time of the year, etc. etc. The list is almost endless.

But we know that, as you suggested through your "horn of plenty" metaphor (nice turn of phrase, by the way, I quite like that), the very stuff we seek comes essentially from nothing. (Physicists who wish to argue the point, please line up to my left.)

It's a very difficult mind-set to break, however, towards idea of abundance, especially when it's been drilled into us since we were wee tots that anything worthwhile demands competition.

I don't have any tried-and-true methods for completely changing this mind-set, but there is one way I've found which goes at least part of the way to grasping back some semblance of control.

How we think is reflected in how we speak, and how we speak can modify how we think. To that end, I very seldom use the phrase, "I can't afford that" anymore when there's something I'd like but find myself a little short of $$. Now I make a conscious effort to say (or think), "Spending $X on that isn't a good use of my resources right now."

That does a couple of things:

1. It gives me back at least a semblance of control. After all, if I really REALLY needed whatever it is, I'd cash in some savings or sell a kidney or hire myself out as a freelance doorstop;
2. I'm not denying myself the pleasure of the purchase and ownership of the item entirely, I'm simply delaying gratification. It's not that "I can't buy that" it's more, "I'll get that at some point in the future when my financial situation has improved."

I've also come to the conclusion that I really don't need, say, 32 pens in my desk or a cluster of magazines that I never look at or dead batteries that look perfectly OK. When in doubt, throw it out (or give it away, or donate it, or something). Just having less *stuff* in my life tends to keep my desire to attain more *stuff* in check. Not sure why that is, but it works for me.

[RT Wolf]

Throw out that stuff, assocaite with people who have an abundance mindset, immerse yourself with the idea of abundance in teh wrold of all kinds. There's literally thousands of dollars flowing through you right now, as radio signals, as cellphone signals, as television signals all worth thousands of dollars.

Consider this: There is trillions of dollars of wealth out there. If you only total up the top ten richest people in the world (about 255 billion) and divide it by the world's population (6 billion, in this case, I'm pretty sure this is wrong), you get 42 dollars and 50 cents for every person in the world. And that's just the top 10. When you add the thousands of billionaires (or more, I dunno how many billionaires there are) that aren't in the top ten, and the literally millions of millionaires (The Millionaire Next Door put it at 1-3% of the population, and growing as a share of the population and its an old source), I'd reckon everyone in the wrold would have at least 10,000 dollars, maybe more.

Another way to look at it is take the 3.5 trillion dollar value that Forbes gave to almost 1000 billionaires here:
The World's Billionaires - Forbes.com
Divide by 6 billion and you get $583 per person.

Another figure from here is that high net worth people are worth 37.2 trillion dollars, which comes out to 6,200 dollars per person in the world. Which, in some places, is a small fortune. Again, that's just the high net worth people, not total value.
Merrill Lynch and Capgemini Release 11th Annual World Wealth Report

Yet another thing to realize is that there is not a fixed sum of money in the world. The economy is not a zero-sum game where one person has to win for the other person to lose. Take stocks for example. If a stock goes from 100 to 0, where does all that money go? Into the nothingness it came from. Also, the government prints money, and I recall watching some movie about how banks have the ability to put out loans for greater amount of money than actually exists.

So, the person you traded value for money doesn't have the money anymore, btu they value. And perhaps they'll create value in their own way or trade their time and energy to someone who is able to create that value, or trade their money to someone who takes out a bank loan or creates value some other way.

Money is simply a ticket on social value. Its just pieces of paper, the real value of money is in what it can exchanged for. And there is many, many, many trillions of dollars of value in the world, in terms of unexploited ideas, and resources (no matter how you feel about it, the trees in the world and crude resources in the world, if converted into a usable form are worth trillions).

Another thing is that things have value even if you don't see it. What's the value of a 100 year old shotgun? Its value in metal is probably no more than 20 dollars. It clearly doesn't work. But just because someone used it, its work 100,000 dollars? The person who bought it, clearly thought there was value in it.
Geronimo's rifle, Wyatt Earp's shotgun auctioned - Yahoo! News

You might look at my blog, here:
Mind-Manual » Musings about Intending Money

Espeically check out the post I linked to paul's site.

All that said, its still hard to remember that there's SO much abundance out there in terms of both value and dollars.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by jeff3

I use towels until you can see through them, keep clothes I never wear, have socks with holes in them, my shop is full crap that 'I might need some day', we eat with old bent silverware that someone gave me, I won't go for a drive just for the fun of it because gas costs so much, I just counted 32 pens and pencils in my desk drawer-some of which don't work- that I might 'need' some day. I have a box of magazines that are about 25 years that I keep because??? who knows.

Some of this is maybe not so bad,

Well, IMO, it doesn't matter, unless it matters. And whether it matters or not, depends on you.

For example, suppose you are just a very practical guy and to you, towels are just something to dry yourself with, after a shower. If that's your view, then it really doesn't matter that your towel has a couple of big holes and its colour has faded - as long as it's still good enough to dry yourself with.

Maybe it is all a matter of personal idiosyncrasies. To some people, towels matter and socks don't; to other people, socks matter and towels don't. I don't believe that keeping some old things or hoarding some stuff necessarily means that there's always a scarcity mindset at work.

[RT Wolf]

^ That's a great point. The whole point is to feel abundant and content with what you have. To think that things in and of themselves have some sort of scarcity/abdunance value attached to them is a classic error. I'd forgotten this, too, I suppose. Thanks for reminding me ALG.

Consider that a dollar to you might not be too much money but to someone else it might represent a day's labour and a large amoutn of money. Its how you FEEL about what you have rather than the thing itself.

[Lola]

Originally Posted by jeff3

I am pretty sure I have lots of beliefs that stack up and form the meta-belief "there's never enough", the reason I know this is because it's my current reality, there's never enough. period. Where does this come from ? I can think of lots times I was told "you can't have ______, because we can't afford it." or, "money doesn't grow on trees" or, "you can have this OR that, but not both." My life, and maybe some of yours has been one continuous , "I can't afford that".

I've been racking my brain for a couple of hours now trying to recall where I read this very thing recently. I'm not succeeding in remembering which book or author but it resonated with me at the time (I had a bit of an epiphany) as they talked about beliefs that are programmed into us at early ages. How hearing such messages as you've quoted throughout our childhoods can predispose us to the sub-conscious continuation of such limitations throughout our lives.

I'll use ALG's sleep trick and try to manifest the reference by morning.

[LoveFreedom]

Hi everyone,

This is a timely post. Synchronicity for me as I am having a financially 'tender' day. It seems that the more I earn the more I spend and the bills just keep coming. I live very comfortably, primarily thanks to my partners earnings, but so desperately want to be self-sufficient. And my credit cards just get dented more and more. I feel panicky, anxious and pretty scared when I think of money, so I avoid thinking of money most of the time. It feels just too sore when i do.

It's a bit of a vicious circle, but I am not sure how to escape this rollercoaster. I do meditation, visualisations, affirmations and the money comes, but then it goes even faster.

Ok, it may be a belief about my worth, it may be some conditioning or a mind virus, who knows, all I want to know is what are the practical ways of getting out of this state.

The more money attracting work I do -the more money come my way, but then the dents on my credit cards get bigger as well and so are my fears. I tried different things and I intellectually understand how it works, but the emotional hold is so strong that I cannot escape.

Many of you talked about what is wrong with this kind of belief system, and I agree. But a diagnosis is not the same as the cure. And I am not so clear what the cure is. I just probably can't see it clearly enough, so if any of you can, please share!

Jeff3, I like the metaphor of the horn of plenty. Well done. I will keep it in mind.

RF Wolf, I read your 'musing' and it made me think of something I read ages ago. An article about one of the cosmetics company, started by a woman ages ago (not sure which one it was). She made face creams for women back in the 40s or 50s and charged A LOT, way above the costs. People kept buying like crazy. They were bying this dream of looking better, younger, or maybe they were buying a bit of self-indulgence, who knows. But this lady said that people never value things that come for free and the more you charge the more perceived value is in your stuff. It got stuck to my mind.

I have been observing people since then and freebies are not treated with respect, neither are cheap things. The value of things has nothing to do with the 'rational' value.

Anyway, these were my musings... Thanks for the posts everyone, This is one great forum!

[jeff3]

Originally Posted by LoveFreedom

Hi everyone,

This is a timely post. Synchronicity for me as I am having a financially 'tender' day. It seems that the more I earn the more I spend and the bills just keep coming. I live very comfortably, primarily thanks to my partners earnings, but so desperately want to be self-sufficient. And my credit cards just get dented more and more. I feel panicky, anxious and pretty scared when I think of money, so I avoid thinking of money most of the time. It feels just too sore when i do. It's a bit of a vicious circle, but I am not sure how to escape this rollercoaster. I do meditation, visualisations, affirmations and the money comes, but then it goes even faster.

Ok, it may be a belief about my worth, it may be some conditioning or a mind virus, who knows, all I want to know is what are the practical ways of getting out of this state.The more money attracting work I do -the more money come my way, but then the dents on my credit cards get bigger as well and so are my fears. I tried different things and I intellectually understand how it works, but the emotional hold is so strong that I cannot escape.

Many of you talked about what is wrong with this kind of belief system, and I agree. But a diagnosis is not the same as the cure. And I am not so clear what the cure is. I just probably can't see it clearly enough, so if any of you can, please share!

Jeff3, I like the metaphor of the horn of plenty. Well done. I will keep it in mind.

RF Wolf, I read your 'musing' and it made me think of something I read ages ago. An article about one of the cosmetics company, started by a woman ages ago (not sure which one it was). She made face creams for women back in the 40s or 50s and charged A LOT, way above the costs. People kept buying like crazy. They were bying this dream of looking better, younger, or maybe they were buying a bit of self-indulgence, who knows. But this lady said that people never value things that come for free and the more you charge the more perceived value is in your stuff. It got stuck to my mind.

I have been observing people since then and freebies are not treated with respect, neither are cheap things. The value of things has nothing to do with the 'rational' value.

Anyway, these were my musings... Thanks for the posts everyone, This is one great forum!

Originally Posted by LoveFreedom

I feel panicky, anxious and pretty scared when I think of money, so I avoid thinking of money most of the time. It feels just too sore when i do.

I know exactly how that is, I try to avoid looking at my bank balance because it is depressing to see that it keeps getting smaller. When I do get a little extra cash something breaks or some additional expense comes up. Right now I have a stack of bills literally 3" tall sitting right here, some of which aren't even opened because I can't stand to look at them.That's my current reality and I can't wish it away and if I try to work exxxxtra hard and longer hours it stays the same.....except I'm more tired and grumpy.

Originally Posted by LoveFreedom

what are the practical ways of getting out of this state.

Changing mental states is easy, just go to a seminar, watch a movie, or read a book, it'll likely pump you up for a day or two or maybe a week but eventually the emotional change wears off and the mental programs that create your reality just keep on creating the same thing. Beliefs are ideas or concepts that we internalize once we decide they are true, after that we will create circumstances that validate the belief. Since our reality is complex it has many beliefs that support and perpetuate it and a lot of them are intertwined which I think creates a lot of our resistance to change. How to change the programs or beliefs is what I believe you are looking for and I still don't have a good answer that works all the time, but this is a sort of brute force attack that sometimes works for me. First I try to identify and narrow down to a phrase or two what may be holding me up, like, "There is never enough money" for example. This very simple phrase could kill all your attempts to have "enough money" if it has been internalized. It could have started innocently enough by you overhearing a serious or heated discussion by your parents about finances, then, when you see something you want to buy but haven't enough money, it gets reinforced again and that could happen many times to a kid growing up. You could tell yourself, or be told by someone else, that "there's not enough money" hundreds or thousands of times over the years. Once it is narrowed to as few words as possible I create a statement that says what I would prefer the reality to be, again in as few words as possible, then I start looking for things that validate the statement , however small they may be, and continue this focus as best I can. Eventually you will begin to see that things are changing and you don't have to search for validation, it will be the way it is. The hard part for me is keeping the continued focus on the positive statement because my experience is that the old belief will not go easily (at least with this method) and things could get worse before they get better. I mentioned in my 'YIKES' thread that my life had fallen apart right before my eyes and I feel it is this 'reverse effect' caused by resistance.

[LoveFreedom]

Thanks Jeff3, yes, some change in programming is what I am looking for. I may start by tackling the issue head on, consciously planning my spending. Posting my 'worries' helped a lot and made me more determined to do something about them. I intend to plan... and pay off... and be more careful... and more conscious and use the phrase suggested by Cdn2 wheeler's: "Spending $X on that isn't a good use of my resources right now" .

I think one of the tensions for me was that this 'behaving as if' doesn't really leave much space for saying 'can't affort'. So it's a good advice!

Good luck to you in dealing with your bills too, Jeff.

[jeff3]

changed my mind about this one