• Course Review: Mindvalley's Unlimited Abundance
    Course Reviews,  Manifestation,  Self Love

    Course Review: Mindvalley’s Unlimited Abundance

    Below, you’ll find my full review of Mindvalley’s Unlimited Abundance program, including my personal experience and whether I would recommend this course for you.

    Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product using my link, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. You can read my full disclosure policy here.

    Mindvalley’s Unlimited Abundance

    Mindvalley’s Unlimited Abundance program is an online course dedicated to helping you release and clear any blockages that may be holding you back from receiving your true abundance. There are 24 total sessions, each focusing on a different abundance block.

    This is a pre-recorded, audio-based course led by Christie Marie Sheldon, a world-renowned energy healer. The program is designed to give you the same transformation you’d experience if you worked with Christie in a one-on-one session. However, the course comes at a fraction of the price of a personal session, and all of the clearing sessions are repeatable, so you can continue to use them time and time again.

    I’ve recently completed the entire program, and below, you’ll find my full write-up. I know that these types of course reviews can often be filled with hyperbole, and I won’t do that here. This is my authentic experience, including how I felt during the course, what internal and external shifts I perceived, and who I believe would benefit from this course.

    You can use the links below to skip to my results, but I will tell you here that I’m a believer. To be honest, I’m still trying to comprehend all of the shifts that have happened since I started this course. It’s been a truly incredible journey, and I’m excited to share some of it with you today.

    In This Article


    Sign up for the free Unlimited Abundance masterclass here.


    What Is Mindvalley?

    Mindvalley is the industry leader in providing personal development content. They give you the tools and resources to improve the quality of your life experience as well as the quality of your relationships, health, mindset, and well-being.

    The focus of Mindvalley is learning. Their curriculum is designed to unleash your fullest potential in every aspect of who you are: mind, body, and spirit. To do this, they work with world-renowned authors and speakers. Course teachers include Jim Kwik, Marissa Peer, Sadhguru, Lisa Nichols, Donna Eden, Michael Beckwith, and Mindvalley’s founder, Vishen Lakhiani. (And this is just to name a few.)

    Mindvalley’s personal mission is to create personal transformation that raises human consciousness.

    I’ve had a deep respect and admiration for Mindvalley for a long time, so when I decided I wanted to find some personal development courses that could help me with where I’m currently at in my life, they were far and away the top pick for me.

    I talk more about the Mindvalley membership at the bottom of this article, but if you’re interested in learning more, you can click here. (They have a risk-free 15-day trial period, and you can refund yourself at any time with just one click if you’re not satisfied with your experience.)

    Who is Christie Marie Sheldon?

    Christie Marie Sheldon is a globally renowned energy healer, intuitive life coach, and author. She’s conducted tens of thousands of private sessions for clients, many of whom are world-renowned authors, celebrities, and business leaders. She’s also led over 200,000 students worldwide through her courses on Mindvalley.

    Christie is one of Mindvalley’s most popular teachers, and I can see why. She has a unique energy about her that makes her seem fun and accessible while also making it clear that she knows what she’s talking about. My brain doesn’t typically respond well to anyone who has a more aggressive/loud teaching style, and she didn’t have that at all. I trusted her guidance and genuinely enjoyed the energy she brought to the course.

    The Set-Up (What To Expect)

    In the Unlimited Abundance course, you’ll be guided through 24 sessions that each focus on a different abundance block that may be holding you back from receiving your true abundance.

    While financial prosperity is the main focus, it’s not solely about your finances. It’s also about releasing old energy to allow an abundance of love, joy, health, passion, creativity, and success into your world.

    You’ll begin by taking an Abundance Block Diagnosis Test, which is an online self-assessment that simulates a one-on-one session with Christie. After you take your test, you’ll get your results, which will tell you which abundance blocks you should focus on first. (After I received my results, I first focused on the abundance blocks that came up for me in my results. Then, I went back and completed all the other sessions.)

    Then, it’s time to begin. You’re empowered to go at your own pace during this course. You can either follow the daily schedule and do one session a day, or you can create your own schedule depending on what works best for you. (For instance, 3 sessions a week.) I mostly did one course a day, taking just a few days off during the holidays.

    Here’s a look at the basic outline of the course:

    • Part 1 – Intro Session: Clearing Resistance
    • Part 2 – Clearing Fear-based Abundance Blocks (5 Sessions)
    • Part 3 – Clearing Abundance Blocks That Make You Feel Stuck (4 Sessions)
    • Part 4 – Clearing Abundance Blocks That Cloud Your Clarity (5 Sessions)
    • Part 5 – Clearing Abundance Blocks That Weaken Your Sense Of Personal Truth & Ownership (5 Sessions)
    • Part 6 – Clearing Money & Career Abundance Blocks (4 Sessions)

    And here’s what you get:

    • 24 lessons (for a total time of 22 hours 8 minutes)
    • 24 energy clearing sessions
    • 6 bonus sessions
    • Unlimited Abundance workbook
    • Abundance Block Diagnosis Test & results

    Learn more about Unlimited Abundance here.


    My Experience

    Like I said above, after I received my results, I first went through the energy clearing sessions that came up for me in my results. Then, I decided to do all the clearing sessions. I set aside an hour a day to complete the sessions, allowing me to focus fully on the energy clearings without distractions.

    I usually completed the sessions in the mornings, and if a session especially resonated with me, I’d make a note of it and come back to it again later to repeat the clearings. What I really love about the course is that each session comes with a full lesson as well as a shorter energy clearing session. So if you’ve already completed the full lesson, you can come back and repeat just the energy clearings later on.

    An unexpected positive outcome from this course was that I felt like Christie actually empowered me to feel confident in clearing my own energy when needed.

    So, for instance, if I’m running errands and I start having fear-based thoughts or feeling some heaviness inside me, I don’t have to fully rely on the course audio to clear this energy. The more I practice, the more I’m able to do this myself with the tools Christie provides. This alone has been such a profound positive shift for me, and like I said, it was completely unexpected.

    Now that I’ve completed the course, I’m still repeating the energy clearing sessions, focusing especially on the ones that have resonated most with me. My personal favorites were Clearing Lack Of Self Worth and Clearing The Feeling Of Being Stuck. (But you’ll likely find different ones that resonate personally with you.)

    Did It Work?

    Starting the Unlimited Abundance course, I had zero expectations. None. I actually barely even read the course sales page before I decided to just dive right in. I’m one of those people who usually skips reading instruction manuals and instead tries to figure something out on my own. (Seriously. Instructions are my kryptonite.) Usually, that doesn’t work out so well for me.

    But I’m kind of glad I didn’t have any expectations starting the course.

    There was no pressure. No lofty expectations. I just had an open heart and open mind and decided to see what happened.

    In the first few sessions, the biggest shift I noticed was within me. I suddenly felt an urge to become organized. One of my biggest weaknesses (besides not reading instructions) is that I tend to keep ideas and to-dos in my head without ever writing them down. At any given moment, I’ll have a few dozen ideas in my brain for future blog posts, products, website maintenance, Instagram posts, and other tasks I want to complete.

    Around Day 2, I felt a desire to get all of these things out of my head and onto paper.

    So I made a list of all these tasks. Then, I looked at it all and asked myself what I could get done in a day. I crossed a handful of items off the list the first day. Then, I crossed more off the list the second day.

    By the end of the first week, I’d completed both small and big tasks that had been in my head for months.

    And this practice is continuing to this day, where I’m writing weekly lists and continuing to complete more than I ever have before. (But despite the fact that I’m completing more, it doesn’t feel like I’m working harder. I actually feel lighter. My energy feels aligned with each action I take.)

    What surprised me was that Christie actually brought this up in the course. She said it’s a common thing after these energy clearings to feel a need to declutter and get organized. When I heard that, it felt like extra confirmation that the energy clearings were working for me.

    After the inner shifts began, I started to see shifts in my outer world, too.

    Below, I share some of the changes I’ve seen on my website and social media accounts. Believe it or not, this is actually just a fraction of the magic that’s been swirling through my life lately. I’m still trying to comprehend it all, but I want to show you just some of the incredible results I’ve had.

    • Website: I’m currently seeing a 40% increase in my total website viewership over a 28-day period. Forty percent. That’s huge. I’ve blocked out the actual numbers, but you can see the percentage increases in the image below. (The bounce rate going down is a good thing!)
    Website analytics
    • Instagram: This is where I’ve seen some of my greatest shifts. Honestly, I’m still not sure how this happened. I took a couple screenshots of my Instagram insights, which you can see below. The first shows the insights on January 2nd, and the second was two weeks later, when I was nearing the completion of the Unlimited Abundance course. Look at the difference between the accounts reached, accounts engaged, and total followers. It’s astounding. Additionally, my writing has been shared on two of my dream accounts: @moonomens and @writers. (You can see those below as well.) For me, this is abundance beyond anything I’ve ever experienced; this is my dreams coming true before my very eyes. I don’t know how to explain any of this, but my heart has been in a constant state of beaming through my chest over the past few weeks.
    Instagram Analytics – January 2nd
    Instagram Analytics – January 16th
    • Pinterest: My entire Pinterest account has seen substantial increases over the past month, which you can see from the analytics of my 30-day overview below. Pinterest is an important platform for me to drive traffic to my website, so this has been big. Early on in the course, I received the email below, letting me know that one of my pins was being featured in the Today tab. That was an unexpected but happy surprise!
    30-day Pinterest analytics – captured the day I completed my final session for the course
    Email from Pinterest
    • Product Sales: From my personal spreadsheet below, you can see that I actually saw a 24.47% decrease in product sales before I started the course. While I was taking the course, I saw a 118.86% increase in sales. Since this happened around the holidays, I removed any product sales that were labelled as gifts. (All of my products are digital, and customers have the option of buying a digital product and having it sent directly to a gift recipient with a personalized message.) So the percentage below only accounts for sales in which customers bought products for themselves, not as a gift. Additionally, I’m currently on pace to sell more in January than I had in December, which I wasn’t expecting. (February 6th Update: My January sales did end up beating my December sales – by 1%. Since January is historically one of the lowest spending months for retail sales, I’m really grateful for this small increase.)
    Product sales

    Is This Course For You?

    If you’re someone who feels like you’re doing everything “right” yet still aren’t seeing results in your outer world, I definitely believe you could benefit from this course. I’m someone who firmly believes in the power of energy healing, but I had never experienced it to this level before. What I especially liked about this course is that I didn’t have to label or name all of the subconscious blocks that have been part of my energy field. I just had to be open to healing them.

    Truly, I’d recommend this course for anyone who wants to clear the old, stagnant energy holding them back, especially if you feel stuck, fearful, unclear, or that somehow abundance is something that’s for “other people” but not for you.

    However, if you have a hard time buying into energy clearing, this might be a tough one for you. It’s completely okay to be skeptical of these things. I don’t think anyone should feel forced to believe in something that doesn’t feel true and real to them. But if you think your skepticism is too strong to ignore, then you may want to pass on this course. And like I said, that’s completely okay. You’re empowered to find something that aligns with what feels right to you.

    I also want to note again that the courses are all audio; there’s no videos to go with the lessons. I didn’t have any issues with this, but it’s an important factor to note when you’re making your decision on whether this course would be the right fit for you.


    You can check out the free Unlimited Abundance masterclass here.


    My Tips

    Show Up (Even When You Don’t Want To)

    This is a big one. If you go at your own pace and complete this course by yourself, you have to be self-motivated and self-disciplined. This is especially important because there will be days you don’t want to show up. I had many of these days. In fact, even at the end, I’d often stall pressing the play button and busy myself with random distractions.

    Christie actually says throughout the course that this is totally normal. As she says, this isn’t actually you speaking; it’s your stuff: the heavy, stagnant energy that isn’t ready to be released. And even more, it’s usually the days you don’t want to show up that you need it the most.

    Every single time I didn’t want to show up but showed up anyway, I felt 1000% better after the session was up. Every. Single. Time.

    So show up. You won’t regret it.

    Be Present

    Most sessions are somewhere between 40 to 60 minutes in length. Set aside time when you can be fully present for the sessions. Reduce distractions as much as possible. I promise, this time you set aside for yourself is worth it.

    Repeat Clearing Sessions

    If any of the clearing sessions especially resonate with you, repeat them at least twice. I repeated sessions in which I experienced a noticeable tightness somewhere in my body, as I could feel that I was still holding onto some of the old energy. I also repeated sessions that made me feel really light and good. And now that I’m done with the course, I’m continuing to repeat sessions and don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

    This is a powerful tool. Use it as much as it feels good to you.

    Complete The Entire Course

    While you don’t have to do all the sessions, I found a lot of value in completing them all. The sessions I felt I got the most out of were often the ones I least expected. The time you invest in yourself will come back to you a hundred fold. I can wholeheartedly tell you that it’s worth it.

    Pricing

    To get access to this program, you must become a Mindvalley member. If that sounds scary, I promise, it’s not. Mindvalley has a risk-free 15-day trial period, and you can refund yourself at any time with just one click if you’re not satisfied with your experience.

    Here’s what’s included with your Mindvalley membership:

    • 60+ programs for all areas of your life
    • Daily live classes with world-renowned teachers
    • 500+ advanced meditations
    • Mindvalley connections through a private social network and meetups

    With your Mindvalley membership, you can choose to either be billed monthly or yearly. The monthly membership cost is $99/month, and the yearly cost is $41.60/month.

    The 15-day risk-free trial period is available for both monthly and yearly memberships, so again, you can refund yourself without any hassle if you’re not happy.

    I felt 100% satisfied (honestly, that’s an understatement) with my experience in the Unlimited Abundance course, so I’ll be moving forward with completing more courses. I’ll be reviewing any future courses I take, and I’ll always be thorough and honest in my reviews. So if there’s something I really don’t like, I’ll share that as well. But I have a lot of faith in Mindvalley, and I’m excited to keep going in this journey.

    If you’re still unsure, you can sign up for the free Unlimited Abundance masterclass here.

    Final Thoughts

    Like I said above, I really had no expectations going into this course. So to say that my experiences with this course has exceeded my expectations is an understatement. I still don’t really have the words to adequately express how everything has unfolded for me over the past several weeks.

    Your journey will likely look different from mine. I don’t know how your path will unfold or what kind of energy you’re holding onto right now. I just know that the Unlimited Abundance course is one of the most worthwhile investments I’ve made in myself.

    Internally, I feel lighter and more empowered. Externally, I’m experiencing shifts unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.

    If you decide to take the leap and start your own Unlimited Abundance journey, my greatest tip would be to have a completely open heart and mind. Every once in a while, when you’re clearing something, your brain may ask, “Can I really let this go?” Whenever I had that thought, I decided that my answer was yes. I knew that truth and love can never be cleared, so the only things I was letting go of were lies, fears, and limiting beliefs holding me back.

    Knowing that, I was able to let go of everything that my conscious mind wanted to hold onto. I knew in my heart that this was for my highest good.

    I don’t want to risk my reputation or name on something I don’t believe in. I believe in this course. I believe in Christie. And honestly, I believe in myself in a way that I hadn’t before.


    Learn more and sign up for Unlimited Abundance here.


    If you have any questions about the program, please feel free to use the comment box below!

    And for more manifesting tips, daily affirmations, and lots of positive vibes, be sure to follow me on Pinterest and Instagram.

    More Manifestation Resources


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    Manifestation

    How To Use Abundance Checks (With Free Printable)

    In this article, you’ll discover what abundance checks are, whether they actually work, and how to use abundance checks to manifest financial prosperity. Plus, download your free printable abundance checks below!

    abundance checks
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    What Are Abundance Checks?

    Abundance checks (or cheques) are blank checks that you can use to aid you in manifesting financial prosperity. Usually, these will be digital checks like the free ones you can download at the bottom of this article. If you prefer, you can use your own checkbook or create your own checks, either digital or handwritten.

    On your abundance check, you’ll write your name on the “Pay to the Order of” line. Then, you’ll write down the amount of money you’re going to manifest on the “Amount” line. (I’ll go into more detail on how to fill out these checks below.)

    Abundance checks can be powerful tools for supporting your manifestations and helping you to align with the energy of pure, limitless abundance. They’re also a great way to set intentions and decide what exactly you want to manifest in your reality.

    Below, we’ll cover whether abundance checks actually work, how to fill out your abundance check, and more tips to get the most out of your checks. Plus, you can download your free printable abundance checks and start discovering the power of this profound manifestation tool today.

    And if you want to skip to any of these sections, just use the links below!

    In This Article

    manifestation workbook guide learn more

    Do Abundance Checks Work?

    In a word: yes.

    The most famous example of an abundance check manifesting in real life is the story of how Jim Carrey wrote himself a check for ten million dollars when he was still a broke, largely unknown actor. He gave himself three years to receive this money, dating it for Thanksgiving 1995.

    So what happened?

    As he told Oprah Winfrey, just before Thanksgiving 1995, he found out he was going to make ten million dollars for his role in Dumb and Dumber.

    So what’s the secret?

    As Jim Carrey himself told Oprah, you can’t just visualize something and then do nothing. He worked hard. He believed in himself. He continually visualized his dreams manifesting in his reality.

    And that’s what it comes down to.

    Are you willing to open your mind and believe in your own innate ability to manifest the life you desire? Can you choose to consistently vibrate at the frequency of abundance rather than scarcity? Do you believe that the universe wants to support you in your manifestations?

    Abundance checks work to the degree you’re willing to believe that they work. But don’t just believe in the check itself. Believe in yourself. Believe in this infinite universe. Believe that you are absolutely worthy of pure, limitless abundance. (Because you are always, always worthy.)

    You can watch the clip of Jim Carrey’s story in this interview on Oprah.com here. (I definitely recommend it!)

    To learn more about creating a life of true abundance, be sure to check out my review of Mindvalley’s Unlimited Abundance program here. In this review, I cover what you can expect in this online course, plus I give you my authentic experiences, outcomes, and recommendations. I definitely recommend checking this one out!

    How To Fill Out Your Abundance Check

    • First, decide what date you want to put at the top of the check. The date you write here is completely up to you. You can choose a date in the future (either a random date or one that holds special meaning to you) or write today’s date on your check. You can also write a word such as Today or Now. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the exact amount will show up today. Rather, it means you have faith that it’s all aligning for you and in the process of manifesting.
    • Choose the dollar amount you want to write on the check. Pick a number that feels really good to you! Some people recommend choosing a number that seems reasonable to your conscious mind (basically, something that you feel confident in manifesting). I think the most important thing is to pick a number that excites you and feels really positive. Write the number on the “Amount” line and in the box on the right-hand side of the check.
    • Fill out the “Memo” field. You can approach this two ways. The first method is to fill out the memo field as the reason why the Universe is giving you this money. You’ll see this in the first example below: “For being your authentic self and sharing your gifts with the world.” The second method is to fill in what the money is going to be used for. So if you want to manifest five thousand dollars for a vacation, you might write “Dream vacation” in the memo field.

    Here are two examples showing how the abundance check might be filled out:

    How To Use Your Abundance Check

    So once you have your abundance check, what do you do with it?

    Again, this is all about your personal preference. Some people like to look at their checks every day, while others prefer to store it somewhere safe where it isn’t always in front of them.

    Personally, I like to keep my checks in my wallet, as this practice feels really positive and powerful for me.

    However, if seeing your check every day gives you anxiety (or causes you to obsessively wonder when your manifestation is going to come), it might be better to store it somewhere you won’t constantly be looking at it.

    An important aspect of manifesting is being able to let go and surrender your manifestations to the universe, not worrying about when your manifestation is going to arrive. So if you find yourself in worry mode, just place your abundance check somewhere safe, preferably somewhere that has good energy. You can even put a piece of citrine, pyrite, or another powerful gemstone with it to amplify the energy of the check.

    Here are some ways you might use your abundance check:

    • Store it in your wallet, and each time you see your check in there, feel all the positive emotions of having that amount of money right now.
    • Hang it up on a bulletin board and take some time to look at it each day. Visualize the experience of receiving this amount of money, and tune your energy to the frequency of pure abundance.
    • Place it in a drawer, a lockbox, or somewhere safe. Surrender your desires to the universe, and walk forward in faith and trust.

    Tips & Tricks For Making Your Abundance Check Work

    • My favorite trick to amplify the power of an abundance check is to add a bit of manifesting oil to the check after I’ve written it. Manifesting oils are blends of essential oils and herbs formulated to aid you in manifesting your desires. You can learn more about different types of manifesting oils and how to use them here.
    • Another one of my favorite ways to use an abundance check is in conjunction with the pillow method for manifestation. Place your check under your pillow for 7 to 10 days. Each night before you fall asleep, visualize receiving this money, allowing the positive energy of this beautiful abundance to flow through you.
    • An important aspect of manifestation is following your intuition. Sometimes, your intuition will guide you to follow a certain path, take a certain action, or do something that you wouldn’t normally do. When you feel these inner nudges, trust them! That just may be the universe guiding you to the exact amount of money you’ve asked for. You can read my complete guide to tapping into your intuition here.
    • And make sure that after your intuition speaks to you, you take inspired action!
    • And finally, as with all manifestation practices, make sure you’re regularly checking in with yourself. What vibrations are you currently emitting? Are you vibrating at the frequency of abundance? Regularly practice allowing pure, abundant energy to flow through you. Visualization is a powerful tool to help you with this. (And here, you’ll find 50 abundance affirmations to support your journey and help you manifest a limitless life.)

    Download Your Free Abundance Checks

    Are you ready to start unlocking the power of abundance checks?

    You can either save the image above or click here to download your free PDF file. In this PDF file, you’ll find a sheet that has three blank abundance checks on the first page as well as a slightly larger check on the second page. You can print and use these pages as many times as you’d like!

    These digital files are completely free for your personal use. I know it’d be annoying if I slapped a giant “zannakeithley.com” tag on your abundance check, so I left that off the check itself. I just ask that if you do share these on your website or social media, you link back to this website or tag me. I’d love to see your abundance checks in action!

    And finally, no newsletter signup is required to access this free printable. (I know that can be annoying, too.) But I do definitely encourage you to sign up for my newsletter, as every single time I create a new freebie like this one for the blog, I also send it to my newsletter subscribers. Additionally, I also send a printable affirmation calendar to my subscribers at the beginning of each month!


    Have you ever used abundance checks to manifest financial prosperity? Share your tips and experiences in the comment box below!

    And for more manifesting tips, daily affirmations, and lots of positive vibes, be sure to follow me on Pinterest and Instagram.


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    Affirmations,  Manifestation,  Self Love

    50 Abundance Affirmations to Create a Limitless Life

    In this post, discover 50 powerful abundance affirmations to embrace your limitlessness and create a life of pure joy, peace, love, and prosperity. Let these affirmations light up every cell of your being and remind you that you are always worthy of true, infinite abundance.

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    Pin this for later! 50 Abundance Affirmations to Create a Limitless Life

    What is Abundance?

    For financial abundance affirmations, check out 50 Money Affirmations to Manifest Limitless Abundance.

    What is abundance?

    For most of my life, I associated abundance with something that existed outside of myself. A life of pure abundance meant I’d have more than enough external “things” to survive and thrive.

    An abundance of food meant I’d have more than enough food to feed my family. An abundance of space to live in meant I’d have more than enough space for myself and my loved ones to live. And an abundance of money meant having more than enough money to live comfortably and financially support others.

    Even an abundance of the intangible things seemingly resulted from the tangible. The intangible includes an abundance of happiness, freedom, peace, creativity, and love.

    An abundance of happiness, I believed, would come when I worked in the career of my dreams and had everything I ever wanted.

    And an abundance of freedom would come when I had enough money to live the life I desired.

    And an abundance of love would come when I met someone who loved me unconditionally and when I had a large community of people to love me at all times.

    What I’ve learned in my journey is this:

    I had it backwards all along.

    Abundance isn’t something that purely exists outside of me; abundance exists within.

    And this is true for you, too.

    You are deeply connected to an eternally abundant Universe. True freedom comes by understanding that the abundance you seek exists within.

    You don’t gain freedom through gaining financial affluence from external forces. You become free when you realize you have all the affluence you’re looking for inside you. And when you’re able to cultivate a feeling of true affluence and prosperity within, you’ll start seeing more of it in your outside world.

    This is true for every intangible and tangible thing you’ve ever desired. You already possess the power to have everything you’ve ever dreamed of and more. When you cultivate true joy, love, peace, passion, purpose, and freedom inside yourself, you’ll see these things reflected back to you in your outside world.

    Below, you’ll find 50 abundance affirmations to embrace your limitlessness and create the truly abundant life you’ve always desired. As you repeat these affirmations, let them light up every cell of your being. Know that you are always worthy. You are infinitely powerful. You possess everything you need to create the most beautiful life you can imagine.

    manifestation printables learn more

    Abundance Affirmations

    • I am aligned with the energy of pure abundance.
    • I am connected to the endless abundance of the Universe.
    • I build my life on the foundation of joy, abundance, and unconditional love.
    • My life is bursting with joy, love, and prosperity.
    • My heart is awakened to a world filled with limitless abundance.
    • Everywhere I look, I see hope, abundance, and new opportunities.
    • I release limits and boundaries. I embrace potential and possibilities.
    • My mind is free of limiting beliefs and open to the flow of everlasting abundance.
    • I make space for love, abundance, and prosperity to flow to and through me.
    • I effortlessly attract a limitless abundance of joy, love, peace, and prosperity.
    • I live in a world filled with infinite love, and that love continually flows to and through me.
    • Every cell in my body vibrates with love and abundance.
    • All the good I put out, I gain back tenfold.
    • I create everflowing abundance through joy, gratitude, and self-love.
    • My positive attitude, unwavering trust, and fearless self-belief brings me unending success.
    • I am able to freely accept abundance into my life.
    • I allow the flow of abundance to move effortlessly through me.
    • I surrender control and allow abundance to flow into my life in unexpected ways.
    • Abundance is my true nature.
    • Abundance is my essence, my foundation, and my being.
    • I am open to the flow of abundance in all areas of my life.
    • I am open to attracting even more abundance into my life.
    • Everything I need to create infinite abundance is within me.
    • I am clearing space for a new chapter, filled with incredible experiences and limitless abundance.
    • I am constantly attracting the flow of abundance.
    • I choose abundance, and abundance chooses me.
    • I am aligned with the energy of abundance.
    • Abundant energy flows freely to and through me.
    • My abundance cannot take away from another’s, and another’s abundance cannot take away from my own.
    • There is more than enough abundance to go around.
    • I am rich in health, wealth, peace, and prosperity.
    • The energy of abundance flows to and through me at all times.
    • I am vibrating positive, loving, abundant energy, and I attract this same energy in return.
    • I am aligned with the highest frequency of abundance.
    • I am deserving of all the wonderful abundance coming my way.
    • I am grateful for the infinite prosperity that overflows into my life.
    • I am open to receiving everything I could ever dream of and more.
    • I am tuned into passion, positivity, and prosperity.
    • The path ahead of me is filled with an abundance of love, joy, passion, and peace.
    • I am connected to an endless source of innovation, inspiration, and creativity.
    • I have access to a limitless source of health, happiness, and love.
    • I focus my vision on creating a life of passion, prosperity, and purpose.
    • I believe in miracles, magic, and limitless possibilities.
    • I am worthy of infinite abundance.
    • I am worthy of abundance in all areas of my life.
    • I find true freedom when I look within for the abundance I seek.
    • I am grateful for the infinite abundance that continually flows into my life.
    • I am thankful to live a truly abundant life.
    • I open my heart to receiving a lifetime of pure abundance.
    • am abundance.

    To learn more about creating a life of true abundance, be sure to check out my review of Mindvalley’s Unlimited Abundance program here. In this review, I cover what you can expect in this online course, plus I give you my authentic experiences, outcomes, and recommendations. I definitely recommend checking this one out!

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    For more positive affirmations, manifestation tips, and self-love tools, be sure to follow me on Pinterest and Instagram. Plus, don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter for a weekly dose of self-love and inspiration!

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    Pin this for later! 50 Abundance Affirmations to Create a Limitless Life
  • how to overcome a scarcity mindset
    Manifestation

    How To Overcome a Scarcity Mindset

    There’s an unlimited amount of abundance, success, and prosperity in the universe, but we’ve been conditioned to believe resources and opportunities are scarce and that abundance is only for the special few. I’m here to tell you that is a lie. Abundance is your birthright, and I’m going to show you exactly how to overcome a scarcity mindset so you can create the joyful and abundant life you deserve.

    how to overcome a scarcity mindset
    How to Overcome a Scarcity Mindset

    My Scarcity Mindset

    It’s the reason why I have to show up at the movie theatre at least twenty minutes before the movie’s supposed to start.

    It’s why I don’t like to go to busy restaurants without a reservation.

    And it’s why I’ll back away from packed rooms without even trying to step through the door.

    It’s also why I’ve spent years looking in at the writing community from the outside, never even trying to go in. And why I’ve felt pangs of envy when I see one of my peers succeed.

    It’s the little voice in my head that tells me that I’ve already lost before I’ve even tried – the story I told myself for far too long. It’s the deeply internalized fear that prevented me from doing, trying, and even attempting:

    The fear that there is no room for me.

    I’ve always shown up to dinners and events early because I’ve never trusted that any of the movie theaters, restaurants, parking lots, or other places I go will still hold space for me if I don’t beat the crowd to secure my spot.

    And on a much larger scale, I’ve never trusted that when someone else succeeds in getting a major book deal, writing a buzzworthy article, or experiencing writing success, that there will still be space for me to succeed as well.

    It’s like being allowed entrance into an ultra-exclusive club with limited room capacity. Those in front and behind me in line are my competitors. The person who just got in secured a valuable spot, and now there’s one less spot for the rest of us to compete over.

    If you’ve ever experienced this kind of feeling when it comes to something you really want, I’m here to tell you this:

    This feeling is a lie.

    The belief that there’s a limited amount of spots for abundance and success?

    Lies.

    The fear that there won’t be room for you when it comes to your passions and dreams?

    More lies.

    I’m here to tell you that everything you want and more is available to you, and you do not have to compete with others in order to obtain exclusive VIP access to the life of your dreams.

    You can overcome the Scarcity Lie and live a life of true abundance, and I’m here to show you exactly how to overcome a scarcity mindset with three simple and effective practices you can start today.

    What is the Scarcity Lie?

    Before we dig into how to overcome a scarcity mindset, let’s go a little deeper into the Scarcity Lie.

    The Scarcity Lie is the fear that there is limited room for a person to succeed in reaching their dreams. It’s the belief that abundance is available for some but not all. Limits are the cornerstone of the Scarcity Lie. Instead of attaching ourselves to the wondrous opportunities that present themselves when we set an intention and go after our dreams, we attach ourselves to the limits that hold us back.

    The Scarcity Lie is a belief not rooted in love but in fear.

    It’s a fear of not being enough. A fear of not being worthy of your dreams. It’s the fear that if you don’t do everything faster and better than the next person, you might miss out on your big chance.

    And in this fear, there’s harmful ugliness that highlights the worst in us as humans, because when we submit to this fear, we’re unconsciously saying that it’s okay if someone else gets left out as long we secure our spot.

    Does Believing the Scarcity Lie Make Us Bad People?

    Absolutely not.

    This fear is powerful and often deeply ingrained in us from childhood, when we were separated in groups based on test scores and fed statistics of how many people would and wouldn’t get into certain programs and universities. For us, these statistics were our solid proof that the seats were limited, and to get ours, we had to compete and do better than the person next to us.

    I believe humans are innately compassionate and kind, but we’ve been conditioned to compete for a limited number of spots and taught to believe that there is a finite amount of abundance in this world. Every man for themselves, they say. Survival of the fittest.

    But does it really have to be that way?

    Absolutely not.

    Our thoughts create our reality, and the Scarcity Lie remains prevalent because we’ve been conditioned to believe in limits and lack. But what happens when we retrain our beliefs to see possibilities instead of limits? What happens when we assert our power and decide there is room for us? What happens when we cheer each other on and encourage one another, knowing someone else’s success has no effect on our own (and vice versa)?

    Then, an entire world of possibilities opens up before us, and our potential becomes limitless.

    How to Overcome a Scarcity Mindset

    So now, let’s dig into how to overcome a scarcity mindset and the methods you can start using today.

    Three practices have served me well in allowing me to consciously change old thought patterns around scarcity that weren’t serving me: Affirmations, Visualization, and Meditation.

    Method #1: Affirmations

    Affirmations are powerful. I believe in them so strongly, I’ve made it one of my goals to share them as far and widely as I can. If you want to learn more about affirmations, you can download my free ebook, 400 Powerful Affirmations Designed to Uplift, Inspire, and Empower Your Highest Self. You can also check out some free resources I provide, read my 35 Empowering Affirmations for Self Belief, and/or follow me on Instagram, where I post daily affirmation stories.

    So why am I so passionate about affirmations?

    Because one of the biggest reasons I’m sitting here writing this right now is because I learned how to embrace positive affirmations in my daily life. Affirmations helped me to become consciously aware of my negative thought patterns and to slowly shift them with time as I continually affirmed to myself that I am worthy, I am enough, and that I deserve to live a joyful and abundant life.

    For years, I didn’t believe I could call myself a writer until I was a published novelist. I thought that I had to wait until literary agents and publishing houses deemed me worthy of being a writer.

    After I started practicing daily affirmations, while I was still working in a full-time office job, I stuck a post-in note to the edge of my computer monitor with the words, “I am a writer.”

    I read those words over and over again, allowing myself to feel the joy of being a writer, until I finally followed my intuition and took inspired action to quit my job and fully embrace my writing passion. Yes. I am a writer. I have always been a writer. Using daily affirmations was a way to gently guide myself to truly believing it.

    Using Affirmations to Overcome the Scarcity Lie

    Once I recognized my negative thought patterns around scarcity, I knew that I no longer wanted to allow that to be my truth. However, I don’t believe in suppressing a negative feeling, as suppression is only another tool we use out of fear and not love, and any negativity I suppress will only rise back to the surface in time.

    I also don’t believe in berating myself or making myself feel bad anytime I realize I’ve been subscribing to a negative belief. I believe in forgiveness and self compassion. We are all beautifully imperfect, and recognizing our flaws only gives us more power when we learn how to rise above them and assert our truth.

    I knew that I had to own my story, and I knew I had to be patient and compassionate with myself as I slowly worked through this deeply ingrained belief. So I came up with a list of affirmations for myself, to be used both as a proactive and reactive measure. I could repeat these affirmations to myself every morning and night to set myself up for success, and I could also use them any time I recognized myself falling back under the spell of the Scarcity Lie.

    Powerful Affirmations for Overcoming a Scarcity Mindset:
    • There is room for me.
    • The universe provides me with all I need and more.
    • There is an unlimited amount of abundance in this world.
    • This is an abundant universe, and there is more than enough to go around and come back again.
    • I rise by lifting others.
    • All of the good I put out into the world always comes back to me.
    • I embrace my role as an encourager, supporter, and friend.
    • When someone succeeds in accomplishing their dreams, we all succeed.
    • As long as I trust in my path, I will always succeed.
    • My presence is always welcomed and celebrated in any room I walk into.

    As I set an intention to overcome the Scarcity Lie, I remained consciously aware of my thoughts and recognized opportunities to say these affirmations. Two unexpectedly common situations presented themselves when driving or running. If I found myself annoyed with a car cutting me off, I’d take a deep breath and silently say to myself, “There is room for me.”

    And if I was running on a sidewalk and saw someone walking or running toward me, I’d look at the sidewalk and remind myself of how much space it held, and once again, I’d affirm to myself, “There is room for me.”

    Why Affirmations Worked For Me

    Deep down, my biggest fear was that there wouldn’t be room for me in the place of my dreams. And because I clung so tightly to that fear, I let it become my truth. We create our worlds through our thoughts, so because I believed in scarcity, I saw proof of only lack and scarcity everywhere I looked.

    But when I released these fears and developed an abundance mindset, my whole world changed. What I saw changed. Suddenly, I was being welcomed into every room. My writing career was succeeding. I was receiving everything I wanted and more.

    Because I believed in abundance, I found more and more proof of my abundance blooming and blossoming all around me.

    Method #2: Visualize Your Highest Self

    When I recognize that I’ve fallen into old patterns of thinking, where I worry that there isn’t room for me, I visualize the highest and most authentic version of myself.

    • What does the highest version of myself look like?
    • How does she treat people?
    • How does she make other people feel?
    • What’s her aura like?
    • How does she move about her day?
    • How will she be remembered?

    Here’s my answer:

    The highest version of myself is endlessly compassionate, loving, peaceful, and giving. She is gentle yet powerful. She has so much trust in the universe, she never worries about where her path will take her. Her movements are graceful and effortless. And she cares deeply about other people; her presence makes others feel good.

    Visualizing My Highest Self

    Would the highest version of me race to the table to ensure my seat, potentially leaving other people out? Would she let worry and stress consume her? And would she be so focused on this one single outcome that she’d close herself off to other creative ideas and inspired opportunities?

    The answer to all of these questions is no.

    The highest version of myself would never worry about being left out. She’d know, undoubtedly, that there is always room for her. She would trust her path and would always be aligned with the highest form of love.

    And even more, the highest version of myself would look at that table and figure out a creative solution so that everyone could have a seat. She’d search for more chairs and carry them over. She’d look for flat sheets of wood and metal to make the table bigger. She would be resourceful and creative, and she would do all of this out of love. She’d make room so that there is space for everyone to live the life of their dreams and enjoy infinite success, love, and abundance.

    When I visualize the highest version of myself, I carry this woman with me wherever I go. I think of her when I make decisions. I remember her when I start to think negatively. And the more I align with this beautiful, loving, kind, and compassionate woman, the more I become her.

    Start Visualizing Your Highest Self Today

    In order to overcome a scarcity mindset, we need to have a vision of the highest and most authentic versions of ourselves.

    Then, we need to be that person.

    This doesn’t mean being perfect all the time. It just means recognizing when you’ve become misaligned and gently returning to that vision, over and over again.

    • One method of visualization is to simply sit in a quiet space and start drawing a picture of your highest self in your mind.
    • Another way to do this is through journaling. Write out all of the details of your vision in your journal (or a piece of paper). This is especially powerful if you use the present tense. Instead of, “I will be . . .” use the words, “I am . . .”

    As you visualize, return to these questions:

    • What does the highest version of myself look like?
    • How do I treat people?
    • How do I make other people feel?
    • What’s my aura like?
    • How do I move about my day?
    • How will I be remembered?

    Method #3: Meditation

    It’s okay if you don’t meditate. This isn’t a non-negotiable whether you do or don’t. But I offer it as an option because of how much it’s helped me.

    There’s a prevalent myth around meditation that it requires someone to cease thinking altogether. This myth is why so many of us write off meditation completely—because we believe “not thinking” would be impossible. However, “not thinking” is not the goal of meditation. The goal of meditation is to become conscious of your thoughts. To recognize and observe them without judgment. You can think of it like you’re lying in a field of grass, watching the sky. You notice a cloud passing above you. As it passes, you look at that cloud objectively and unemotionally and think, “Oh, there’s a cloud.” And then you release it, letting it slowly and gently float away.

    That cloud is like your thoughts. In meditation, you notice them. You allow them to exist without judgment. And then you gently and kindly allow them to float away.

    Types of Meditation

    There are many kinds of meditation, and not all are rooted in these types of mindfulness practices. Some of my favorite types of guided meditations are visualization meditations. You can use visualization meditations for many purposes, such as to visualize your dream life, which can help with setting intentions.

    When it comes to overcoming the Scarcity Lie, we can use visualization meditations to open ourselves up to an abundance mindset and release any blocks that may be holding us back.

    For example, one of my favorite visualization meditations has been to close my eyes and imagine a beautiful waterfall in front of me. The rays of the sun beam down on this waterfall, cloaking it in radiant light. I walk forward and place my hand in the water. When I pull my hand out, my palm is covered in gold coins, beautiful jewels, and anything else I can dream of. Every time I put my hand in the waterfall, I receive more prosperity. More abundance. And I know deep down that I always have access to this abundance. It is always there, ready and waiting, whenever I seek it. I can never be cut off from this abundance unless I choose to cut myself off. Knowing that, I can move easily through my day, knowing that what I’m seeking is always available to me.

    Meditation and Breathwork

    Another technique I’ve used in meditation is to consider my breath. On any average day, I breathe without giving it a lot of conscious thought. My breath is always moving in and out of my body. I don’t have to cling tightly to the last breath, worried I won’t receive another. When I exhale, I innately understand that all I have to do is inhale to receive more oxygen. Just like I don’t have to cling tightly to every breath in fear that there won’t be more, I don’t have to cling tightly to material goods or anything else in fear that I’ll be lacking. I release my tight grip and have faith in my path. I let go of control and just trust.

    Getting Started with Meditation

    If you want to get started with meditation but aren’t sure how, I’ve created a beginner’s guide for you: 7 Types of Meditation Practices for Beginners. I’d also recommend downloading a meditation app. Insight Timer and Headspace are both great apps, but feel free to download a few and see what you like best. You don’t have to make any big commitments. Start with ten minutes a day for ten days in a row and see how it feels to you. To read more about how meditation has helped me and the science-based benefits of meditation, check out my posts 10 Things I’ve Learned From Daily Meditation and 10 Science-Backed Health Benefits of Meditation.

    Conclusion: How to Overcome a Scarcity Mindset

    I like competition in sports and board games. I especially believe competitive sports and family game nights can be positive opportunities when we’re young to learn how to handle both success and failure with grace and gratitude.

    But I refuse to treat life as a game in which one must be competitive, cutthroat, and clever to get access into the VIP room of success and abundance. I refuse to view my fellow writers as my competition or to believe their success will undermine my own. I refuse to root for another person’s failure in order to succeed myself. And I refuse to lose the vision of my highest and most loving self.

    We don’t have to treat life as a game of odds and probabilities in which only a limited number of people are allowed entry into a lifetime of abundance. That’s the old story. The old consciousness.

    Luckily, there’s a second option:

    Instead of continuing to allow there to be limited seats at the table, we can make that table bigger.

    Instead of allowing the room of success to have a capacity limit, we can knock down walls.

    And instead of begrudging someone for achieving the success we dream of, we can share in their joy.

    And the big one:

    Instead of trying to control each and every detail of our individual journeys, we can let go, trust the path ahead of us, follow our intuition, and take inspired action, knowing that we will never lose out on what’s meant for us.

    I don’t subscribe to the old stories about scarcity anymore. I don’t want to. It feels good to cheer for another’s success. It feels good to love with my whole heart. And it feels good to wholeheartedly believe in my complete and unlimited access to infinite abundance. It feels good to trust. To believe. To let go.

    There is room for me. There will always be room for me.

    And there is room for you. There will always be room for you.

    Now that you’ve discovered a few methods on how to overcome a scarcity mindset, the best thing you can do for yourself today is to stop subscribing to someone else’s story of what is and isn’t possible and release the limits that others have constructed for you. Today.

    You control your thoughts, and you decide what limits do and don’t exist.

    Now that you know how to overcome a scarcity mindset, discover more powerful practices to create the life of your dreams:
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    How to Overcome a Scarcity Mindset

  • gratitude practice
    Manifestation

    The Key Mindset Shift to Transform Your Life

    “Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”

    Eckhart Tolle

    You’re standing in an empty room, and in front of you, there’s a closed door.

    You haven’t seen what’s on the other side, but you have a pretty good idea: Joy. Wealth. Love. Vitality. Creativity. Peace. Freedom. Health. All of your deepest desires and dreams.

    To open the door, you need a key.

    You start looking around, but there’s no key in sight. You’re disappointed but not surprised. After all, that’s the VIP suite in there. It’s only meant for the elite, chosen few.

    So instead of wasting your time standing in front of a permanently locked door, you turn around and walk away.

    That’s where most of us get it wrong. I know I did. Since I was seven, I’ve had big dreams of being a writer and sharing my words with millions of people. But quickly after college, I got swallowed up in the life of living paycheck to paycheck in jobs that didn’t feel fulfilling. I thought this was something I was supposed to do, though. A stable job meant consistent paychecks and health insurance. The problem was, I never felt very passionate about what I did, and this began to affect and blend into other areas of my life as well.

    I had been looking at that closed door for many years, returning to it in moments of hope and quickly leaving dejectedly when I realized I had no idea how to get to the other side.

    Today, I’m going to skip ahead a bit in my journey to manifesting my dream life, and I’m going to tell you how I finally opened that door.

    The Key Mindset Shift that Changed Everything

    Most recently, the closed door came in the form of a vision board. Well, it was more like a vision web. In the middle was a rectangle with my name in the center, and there were several branches surrounding it with ovals at the end of each branch. Each oval had a word or words in it, representing something I desired in my vision of a perfect and fulfilling life.

    Here were a few of the items I’d included on this web:

    • Writer
    • Body peace
    • Strong, loving community
    • Live in the foothills
    • Travel and adventure to beautiful places
    • Financial freedom
    • Beautiful garden

    In the weeks and months following the creation of this vision web, I began incorporating new habits and practices in my life. I’d been meditating off and on for a couple years, but I decided to make it a priority instead of an option. I started reading books and listening to podcasts on topics related to self-improvement. I began a daily (honestly, hourly) habit of repeating positive affirmations. And I began to truly practice gratitude. When I woke up in the morning, I’d say a little thank you for another new day. When I went on a run, I’d appreciate my legs and my lungs and my heart, and I’d say an extra thank you to the weather for cooperating. Everywhere I looked, I discovered more and more opportunities for genuine and profound appreciation.

    Gratitude started out as a conscious practice, but with time, it became more and more ingrained within me. The changes were subtle, but I felt an internal shift taking place in both my thoughts and feelings. And then one day, I pulled out that vision web and stared at in disbelief. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Every single thing I’d written down, I now possessed.

    I was dumbfounded. How had these things felt so far away before? The crazy thing is, from the outside, my life really didn’t look any different than it had just a few months earlier:

    • I didn’t move houses, and okay, I didn’t live in the foothills, but besides that technicality, I had a beautiful home that kept me safe and warm.
    • In the past couple years, I’ve gone on vacations to some of the most beautiful places in the United States, and I knew there were more to come.
    • I didn’t win the lottery, but I had financial security and the money I needed to buy what I needed.
    • I had the best relationship I’ve ever had with my body in my entire adult life, and I had cultivated a deep respect for all that my body was capable of. (This body has run a whole marathon!)
    • I had the best community of loving and supportive family and friends.
    • I had my beautiful garden.
    • And that whole writing thing? I was working on writing a novel, and I wrote every single day. I realized that I didn’t have to wait to call myself a writer until I published a novel. I didn’t need to wait for for an agent or a publisher to validate that I was a writer. I’m a writer now. I’ve always been a writer. Nobody can ever take that away from me.

    So where did I find the key to unlock the closed door and step into the other side?

    I found it in my gratitude.

    Once I stopped viewing my surroundings based on lack and what I didn’t have, and instead changed my perspective to appreciation for all that I did have, my entire mindset shifted. And honestly, that probably would’ve been enough, but then something kind of crazy happened: the more gratitude I felt, the more wonderful things flowed into my life to feel grateful for.

    How was this possible? Was I just honed in and noticing the good stuff more than I used to? Or was I actually receiving more positive opportunities and experiences because of my new default state of appreciation?

    And once again, that would’ve been enough, but then I discovered something else: two key mental tricks thats transformed my life and gave me access to more than I ever dreamed possible.

    Mental Trick #1: To manifest something in your life, feel grateful for that thing before it actually transpires in your experience.

    Say you’ve been saving up for a new car. You know exactly what car you want, and you’ve consistently been setting aside money from each paycheck to go toward the purchase of that car. You know the date you’ll be able to buy the car. You’ve researched car dealerships and know how much you’re going to offer. You visualize yourself sitting behind the wheel of that car, and you know when you finally have it, you’ll feel so joyful and grateful.

    But what if you didn’t wait until you actually have physical ownership of that car to feel grateful for it?

    What if you were grateful for it now, before it has even manifested into your life?

    I know it sounds weird. It did to me. It’s so counterintuitive to what most of us know and experience. How can I appreciate something I don’t even have? And what if my dream or desire isn’t as certain as a car that I know I’m going to purchase? Maybe you dream of a new job or a perfect partner. Maybe you desire greater financial wealth. You can’t purchase those things like you can a new car. So what then?

    Here’s what I say: Even if you think that thing is out of your hands, feel gratitude for it today anyway.

    Feel the exact same appreciation you know you’ll feel when you get that dream job, perfect partner, or financial wealth today.

    Begin to live like your dreams have already come true, and feel appreciative for that abundant and joyful life right now. When you live in lack waiting for something to happen, you separate yourself from the experience of having that thing. Don’t separate yourself. When you’re feeling like all of these good things have already happened to you, you’re no longer searching for it outside of you; you’re connected to that thing.

    Mental Trick #2: Be grateful for negative experiences and for those times when things don’t go your way.

    This is where the real magic happens.

    These experiences are your opportunities for growth. This is how you build resilience. Every single negative experience is providing you with a lesson you need to hear. Choosing gratitude in these moments is going to help you learn the lesson a lot faster than choosing frustration or anger. Your life will radically transform when you begin to understand how these experiences aren’t happening to you; they’re happening for you. (And the next step? As you become more and more conscious of your thoughts and inner state, experiences begin to happen through you.)

    Want to practice this now? Next time you’re driving and get stopped at a red light, inhale deeply and feel grateful for the opportunity to pause. When you’re stuck in a slow-moving line at the grocery store, stand still and allow yourself to feel appreciation for this moment in your life. Find normal, everyday experiences that usually bring you frustration, and consciously choose to feel gratitude instead.

    Nothing changes your life more than your perspective. When you consciously shift your perspective and understand the power of your thoughts, you master your inner world.

    And when you master your inner world, you master your life.

    • Zanna
    gratitude practice
  • life lessons from meditation
    Meditation

    10 Beautiful Life Lessons from Meditation

    Do you meditate? While my meditation practice started only a few years ago, the lessons I’ve learned from meditation are ones that resonate for an entire lifetime. In this post, I list my ten most beautiful life lessons learned from meditation.

    life lessons from meditation
    10 Beautiful Life Lessons from Meditation

    Meditation

    About three years ago, I meditated for the first time.

    If you aren’t familiar with meditation, you probably have some preconceived ideas about what meditation is and how it works. I know I did. I thought that meditation was only for really exceptional people—people who knew how to turn off their thoughts and had this special superpower to transform their minds into perfectly blank slates. That sounded impossible, so I never really gave any serious thought to trying to meditate. 

    But a few years ago, I started noticing people talk more and more about meditation and all of its benefits, so I decided to give it a shot. I downloaded a meditation app and tried a few of the beginner meditations. For a while, I meditated off and on, sometimes meditating every day for weeks while other times not meditating at all for months. Finally, though, I decided to carve out dedicated time to meditating every day. I knew it’d be a positive thing, and I told myself it didn’t have to be a big ordeal. Just ten minutes a day was all I had to do.

    Well, after “just ten minutes a day,” meditation has given me more than I ever could’ve possibly dreamed. I was going to type that my life has completely transformed since I started meditating, but I realized that would be wrong. From the outside, my daily life hasn’t actually changed all that much. I still do a lot of the same things: I work, I write, I run, I read, I eat cookies and binge watch shows on Hulu with my boyfriend in the evenings. In some ways, my life hasn’t changed at all, and in other ways, everything is different now: the way I see myself, the way I see the world, my relationships, my goals, my dreams.

    While I’ve only been meditating for a couple years now, the lessons I’ve learned in this short time will stick with me forever. Below, I list my ten greatest life lessons from meditation.

    I accept love. I receive love.
    10 Beautiful Life Lessons from Meditation

    Lesson #1: I’ve learned how to accept and receive love.

    This has been the lesson that’s taken me the longest to learn, and it’s something I have to work on every single day. I’ve always been a perfectionist, and I don’t say that with pride. For my entire life, perfectionism has smothered and suffocated me. It’s kept me from going after my dreams for fear of failing. It’s kept me afraid and small. And it’s this perfectionism that’s kept me from really accepting love from others.

    I thought the only way I could be loved was if I looked and acted perfectly. I thought that failure and making mistakes gave people an excuse to no longer love me. These deeply ingrained beliefs held me captive for almost my entire life. But as I started to meditate, I found myself challenging these beliefs for the first time.

    I wish I could say I just woke up one day and decided to let myself be loved, but the truth is, it’s been really hard. It’s hard to let go of something you’ve believed about yourself your entire life. When I first started on this journey to self love, I’d spend entire days with my chest feeling hot and tight and heavy from anxiety. I found my brain going back to its old bullying tactics over and over again.

    The real transformation came when I stopped fighting it. I let myself feel the anxiety; I allowed the bully to speak.

    And then I would gently set my hands out in front of me with my palms facing the sky, and I’d quietly say, “I accept love. I receive love.” Dozens of times a day, over and over again, the bully came out, and I’d just keep telling myself that I accept love. I receive love. I am loved.

    The bully still exists, but she’s much quieter now, and when does she come out, she no longer has any control over me.

    Lesson #2: I’ve learned to recognize when my inner critic is trying to protect me—and to gently let her go.

    Like a lot of people, I’m my own worst critic. Historically, whenever I have a positive thought about myself, my brain follows it up with at least five negative ones:

    Yeah, you did that one smart thing, but just don’t forget that you’re fearful and awkward in social situations and that you’re not good at reaching out to people and you should probably volunteer more and you have no self control around chocolate and don’t get me started on your nose.

    Ugh.

    It makes me cringe when I think about how badly I’ve bullied myself throughout my life, but I’m not going to suppress that inner critic or pretend she doesn’t exist. I’ve seen her and met her in the darkest places inside of me, and after sitting with her for a while, I learned that she’s trying to protect me. And once I learned how to accept and receive love, that critic became a smaller and smaller voice. She still comes up a lot in my daily life, but I’ve learned to recognize when she shows up. Instead of feeling bad about myself, I very gently and kindly tell her that her service isn’t needed, and I allow myself to let her go.

    My happiness comes from within.
    10 Beautiful Life Lessons from Meditation

    Lesson #3: I’ve learned that happiness comes from within.

    I’ve heard this my entire life, but I’ve never really felt it until recently. Have you seen the graphic where one person goes up to another and asks where he got his happiness, and the second person says he made it himself? It’s taken me a long time, but I finally get it.

    The best way I can illustrate what I’ve learned is this: My whole life, I’ve wanted to be a writer. I daydream about the day I’m signed to a publishing deal. I imagine what it’ll be like to hold my first hardcover novel in my hands. I imagine that I’ll be so happy. It’ll be the best day of my life, right? But do I really have to wait until that moment to start to feel happy? And when that day comes, do I want to rely on that single moment to sustain my happiness for the rest of my life? What if I could just be really, really happy today? And tomorrow? And all the days after that?

    I’m not going to pretend I’m the human equivalent of a cup of rainbow sprinkles, but I believe my life is as good or as bad as I choose to see it. I can be happy now. It’s my choice. My life isn’t a sum of all the things that happen to me that I think I have no control over. My life is a sum of the way I choose to see it. And I choose joy.

    Lesson #4: I’ve learned the power of gratitude.

    This is the real secret of my joy. After hearing my teachers speak of gratitude in the app I use for guided meditations, I became more aware of acknowledging all the positive things in my life. It started with a conscious effort to write down a few things I’m grateful for every single morning. Then I added a practice where I thought about the three things I was grateful for that day before I went to sleep every night. When I went out on a run, I tried to consciously find things to appreciate: my legs, my lungs, my heart, the trees, the person who smiled and waved on the other side of the street, the sunshine, the guy who lifted his fist up in the air through his car’s sunroof to cheer me on.

    When things are going badly, it can sometimes be really hard to find things to be thankful for. In these moments, if all I can be grateful for is the air in my lungs, that’s okay. But those days don’t happen very often anymore, as it seems as though the more grateful I feel, the more positive things show up in my life to feel grateful for.

    Post-mountain bike crash – smiling through the pain!

    Lesson #5: I’ve learned how to slow down.

    This is another one that’s taken me a long time to learn. I’m a fast mover. You may not see it because I’m a pretty quiet and gentle person, but I’ve always had kind of a difficult relationship with time. I despise being late, so I’m always in a rush to get out the door to get to my destination early. When I’m hiking or running, I’m always trying to move faster. To go quicker. The destination has always been more important than the journey.

    One of the best things that’s ever happened to me was my mountain bike crash that sent me to the ER on the very first day of a trip to Moab, Utah last October. I couldn’t ride a bike the rest of the trip, and it took me several weeks before I could even walk at a somewhat normal pace. All of our plans for the trip had to be adjusted. Instead of long and arduous hikes, I could only go on very leisurely strolls and scenic drives. And you know what?

    It was okay.

    Better than okay, actually.

    It was incredible.

    At a slower pace, I really opened my eyes and looked out at the world, and I reveled in the beauty that surrounded me. I realized that if I’d been moving at my normal pace, I would’ve missed all of these wondrous sights. I started to lose sight of this lesson over the holidays, but meditation has brought it back to me. Now, sometimes when I’m out running, I’ll purposely find moments to stop and just walk for a few minutes and soak up the beauty of the moment.

    Lesson #6: I’ve learned that contrast is beautiful.

    In theory, I would’ve loved to go my whole life never injuring myself on a mountain bike and having to go to the ER on the first day of vacation. But now in hindsight, I’m kind of glad it happened.

    Experiencing several weeks where my body was limited and in pain helped me to appreciate my healthy body even more.

    Overdrafting my bank account during (and after) college makes me more grateful for any money I do have now.

    Having bad bosses has really made me appreciate the good ones.

    Losing friendships makes me cherish my forever friends even more.

    And experiencing rejection has made success even sweeter.

    As meditation has helped me to shift my default perspective to one of gratitude, I’ve become more and more appreciative of all the times things haven’t worked out the way I planned.

    I am worthy.
    10 Beautiful Life Lessons from Meditation

    Lesson #7: I’ve learned that affirmations are powerful.

    I’ve known about affirmations for a long time, but it wasn’t until they started showing up in my guided meditations that I really began to embrace them. I’m not sure if I can really articulate just how much affirmations mean to me and how much they’ve helped me. Like my journey with gratitude, they started out as something I had to stop and consciously think about. Somewhere along the way, though, they became a part of me. They became real. Now, instead of my mind wandering to negative thoughts, I have this constant soundtrack of positive affirmations echoing through the back of my mind. I’ve become and embraced the very things I’m affirming.

    I am worthy. I am powerful. I am abundant. I am loved. I am beautiful. I am joyful. I am exactly where I need to be. All is really well.

    (If you’d like to add some inspiration to your day, check out my free ebook, 400 Powerful Affirmations Designed to Uplift, Inspire, and Empower Your Highest Self. I’m also always adding new affirmation tools to my Resources page!)

    Lesson #8: I’ve learned that I am worthy and deserving of my dreams.

    This has really come from a combination of affirmations, self-compassion, gratitude, and love—the whole toolkit. The words “worthy” and “deserve” have been roadblocks in my journey that I’ve really had to spend a lot of time with to discover why I’ve had so much trouble with them. Saying that I’m worthy of something or that I deserve something has always sounded so wrong. I should be humble, right? I shouldn’t just go around saying I deserve something. Nobody does that!

    But as I’ve slowly and gently removed some of these protective layers, I’ve learned that saying I deserve or that I’m worthy of something has nothing to do with not being humble. To help me find peace with these words, I started to picture people I love. Do I believe my best friend is worthy and deserving of her dreams? Unequivocally yes! Are my nieces and nephews worthy? Do they deserve immense joy? Heck yes. What about my parents? My siblings? My boyfriend? Yes, yes, and yes. So if all of these people are worthy and deserving, what makes me the exception? I’m not. I am just as deserving as I believe everyone else to be.

    Somebody else's success cannot take away from my own.
    10 Beautiful Life Lessons from Meditation

    Lesson #9: I’ve learned that someone else’s success doesn’t take away from my own.

    I hesitated including this because it reveals one of the uglier things that’s lived inside me. For years, I had a hard time coming to terms with the success of others in the writing community because I felt like they were all getting the thing I dreamed about most. A voice in my head told me I wasn’t good enough, and over many years, I let that voice get louder and louder. I steered clear of the writing community because I didn’t want to watch everyone else succeed when I felt like a failure.

    Deep down, this had nothing to do with anyone else and everything to do with my own insecurities and self-doubt.

    Again, I’m grateful for the contrast now, because I’ve learned that it feels a lot better to be happy for people and cheer them on. If you’ve ever experienced similar negative feelings regarding other people’s success, I can say this with absolute certainty: Nobody else’s success can ever take away from your own. Just because someone else is abundant and thriving doesn’t mean there’s less for you. There is room and space for all of us, and there is an infinite amount of success, happiness, love, creativity, kindness, generosity, and abundance out there. I promise.

    Lesson #10: I’ve learned how to have self-compassion.

    I haven’t had a whole lot of self-compassion throughout my life. And even as I started learning all these different lessons through meditation, I’ve still struggled with self-compassion. Because everything I just listed? I’m not perfect at it all. I’ve had ugly moments. I’ve had moments where I still try to move too fast. I’ve felt crippling anxiety. And to make things worse, I’ve then reprimanded myself for allowing negativity to seep into my life:

    You’re not supposed to be sad right now! Remember, happiness comes from within. You know all the “right” things you’re supposed to do. You have the tools to be happy. What’s wrong with you?

    It’s taken a lot of time and work to learn to have compassion for myself in these down moments. I’ve had to remind myself that I don’t have to be “on” all the time to be loved. I don’t have to accomplish anything to be loved. Even if I never do anything in my life except walk and sit and breathe and think, I get to be loved and love myself every single day.


    Has meditation helped you to uncover any deep inner fears or stories you’ve told yourself? What life lessons from meditation have you learned? Leave a note in the comments below to share your experience!

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    10 Beautiful Life Lessons from Meditation