Abundance has been a topic on a lot of my people’s minds. So has scarcity.

Abundance means something different for everyone. We each have our own definition of what makes us feel the feeling of abundance.

Abundance is not just money. Many of us get so stuck into our money issues that we forget all the other things that can make us feel the abundance of our lives.

For me, some of the biggies are time, friends, family, furs (the living kind!), health, nature, music, challenges and interests. But new things pop in and out all the time. There was a time when having plastic bags made me feel incredibly rich. Now that I want to live as plastic-free as possible, they don’t have quite the same effect.

When I have too much of one thing, without the others, the shine on that one thing tends to dull a bit. Used to be that the one thing I never had was time. Now I have more time. On Labor Day weekend, I had lots of time. I hadn’t planned to fill it with much. So all I had was time, I hadn’t figured out what I wanted to do with it. That felt like too much time. Gluttony, not abundance.

When you stop and think about what really makes up abundance for you, I bet that you’ll discover that you have a list, too.

And I bet your list is diverse. You want options; you love choices. Abundance is made up of a balance of many diverse things. So abundance = diversity. Hmmm, variety is the spice of life, maybe?

Another thing you’ll discover is that you already have a bunch of the things on the list. And you want more of the things you love.  That’s fantastic! No, it’s not greedy, it’s gratitude!

Abundance doesn’t have to be a struggle.  You want more of something you’ve already been able to have.

Scarcity thinking is the struggle. Scarcity thinking is focusing on what you don’t have. That’s always going to be a hard, icky, baffling struggle.

Abundance is gratitude for all of the diversity of human experiences that you want – and have – in your life. Gratitude is always going to lead to abundance.

Abundance = diversity = gratitude. It’s not really an equation. It’s a cycle.

And remember: in all things – progress, not perfection!