Shifting your mindset from scarcity to abundance starts with adding abundance mindset exercises into your life: exercises like awareness, gratitude journaling, visioning, self-compassion, and generosity.
Abundance is a beautiful outlook to take as you look at the world.
Instead of seeing too little, with abundance, you see enough. Instead of seeing limitations, you see possibilities. Instead of coming from a place of fear, you operate from a place of trust that everything will work out.
Get dozens of one-page exercises to help practice mindfulness, meditation, gratitude, and self love. Perfect for printable handouts when teaching mindfulness to groups, students, or in the workplace.
To see examples, plus a full list of the 61 exercises included, click below.
Sounds pretty good, right?
But many of us have been conditioned by society to see life through a lens of scarcity and competition.
Shifting your mindset from scarcity to abundance starts with adding abundance mindset exercises into your life: exercises like awareness, gratitude journaling, visioning, self-compassion, and generosity.
Let’s explore 15 abundance mindset examples, and how they can help shift the way you see the world.
15 Abundance mindset examples
Transforming a scarcity mindset into an abundance mindset takes time. But the list of exercises below is intended to give you as many outlets as possible for practicing.
Some will be well-suited to you. Others won’t. Take what feels right, and leave the rest.
The more chances you have to practice abundance, the more success you’ll have in shifting your mindset.
1. Seek awareness
First, take stock of where you are. Are you currently coming from a place of abundance or scarcity?
Understanding where you are now can help you pinpoint what you want to focus on as you move towards an attitude of greater abundance.
To turn this into a practice, establish your “scarcity vs abundance” baseline with journaling or introspection.
Then, observe your thoughts as you go about your day, and notice when thoughts pop up that are from a place of abundance or scarcity. No need to judge—just notice.
2. Gratitude journaling
To live an abundant lifestyle, it’s important to focus on what you have, rather than what you lack.
Gratitude is the perfect antidote to scarcity, because when you’re grateful, you’re focused on being content with the things you already have.
Gratitude journaling is a simple way to exercise and strengthen your gratitude muscle. You don’t have to give thanks for anything too big or too meaningful. Just notice and give thanks for anything around you.
3. Rephrase your narrative
If you’re coming from a place of scarcity, you might view your life and your prospects for the future in a negative light. That’s okay.
Try to gently shift your narrative. The story you tell yourself is important.
For example, instead of “I hate my job and I want to quit,” rephrase into “I’m grateful for what my job has taught me about what I do and don’t want, and for the motivation it’s giving me to create change in my life.”
4. Create an abundant vision
If your current mindset and situation fills you with feelings of scarcity, create a vision that’s the complete opposite.
What would your life look like if you approached it with abundance? Where would you live? Who would your friends be? What would your relationships look like? What would you do for work? What would your hobbies be?
5. Dream big
Creating an abundant vision won’t work if you’re limiting yourself by dreaming small.
When you envision your future, throw what feels “realistic” out the window and instead, create a vision that’s all about what you want, as if there were no limitations.
It’s common to notice yourself “playing small” even when you give yourself this freedom. That’s okay. Notice it, and gently pull yourself back to dreaming bigger.
6. Boundaries
Changing who you are, how you think, and how you act is hard enough. Managing other peoples’ reactions and expectations makes it even harder.
Notice who in your life is supporting the dreams and visions you’re expressing, and who belittles them or makes you feel as if you don’t deserve more.
Remind yourself that you’re in control of your time and energy. You don’t owe others your attention or presence, especially if you feel unsupported or limited.
7. Give to others
Giving is hard when you’re coming from a place of scarcity.
But giving generously is a powerful way to rewire your mind.
Instead of telling yourself “I can’t give. I don’t have enough for myself.” you tell yourself, “I am happy to give. I have more than enough for myself and others.”
8. Self-compassion
The road to changing your mindset and outlook can be a long and difficult one. Be gentle with yourself along the way.
Self-compassion is an essential tool to support the switch to an abundant outlook.
When you catch yourself holding limiting beliefs or telling yourself the same old stories about what you can and can’t do, be compassionate. Remind yourself that you’re brave to be on this journey.
9. Meditation
Switching your mindset can’t happen without awareness, and meditation is a powerful tool for building awareness.
By focusing on any one of the dozens of types of meditation practices, you can learn to increase your powers of attention and stay in the present moment.
10. Mindfulness
One way to think of mindfulness is as the space between your thoughts, actions, and reactions. When you’re mindful, you notice your thoughts and have the ability to modify what you think, say, or do next.
When it comes to abundance and scarcity, that means mindfulness is the ability to notice, pause, and adapt the thoughts you’re putting into the world.
As Jon Kabat-Zinn says, “Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.” Mindfulness exercises don’t have to take long – they can be as short as one minute.
11. Affirmations
In a world where subconscious limitations abound, affirmations are a powerful tool to rewire your thinking.
Positive affirmations about the qualities you have (or aspire to have) can bring those elements into your life.
For example, when it comes to money you might first give thanks for what you have, while at the same time affirming that “Money comes easily to me. It’s not an obstacle or a limitation, but a tool to help me live a better life.”
12. Do an “input audit”
The world is a noisy place. Many of the inputs we allow into our lives are toxic or drive us into negative, scarcity-based thinking.
Just think about the fear-based headlines you’re likely to read on the news. How is your attention to those headlines affecting your life and your happiness? Think about the websites you frequent, the news you read, the social media apps you use, and the shows you watch.
Which of them serve you by reinforcing positivity and potential? Which of them hold you back with negative, limiting beliefs?
13. Surround yourself with positive people
Just as you do for the information you consume, stay conscious of the influence of the people in your life.
It’s said that you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. With that in mind, ask yourself: do those five people believe in you? Do they tend to complain, or do they tend to express gratitude? Are they focused on limitations, or possibility?
Be aware that those around you have tremendous influence on you, even if it’s unspoken.
14. Think about possibilities, not obstacles
Obstacles are no fun. We go into the day with a plan, and if it goes sideways, we feel cheated somehow.
But we have less control over the world than we think. (Much less).
That’s why thinking in possibilities is a much better use of your mental energy than worrying over obstacles.
The next time a problem lands in your lap, see if you can approach it with a feeling of curiosity and possibility rather than disappointment and frustration.
15. Be happy when others succeed
Have you ever felt a twinge of jealousy at the success of one of your peers, or even a sibling or cousin?
For some reason, humans tend to be wired this way. We see the world as a zero-sum game. We tell ourselves, “If they’re succeeding, it makes me look bad. There’s less success for me.” This is a hard instinct to overcome.
But if you’ve defined your vision, you know what success and abundance means for you.
So, the next time you see someone else succeed, see if you can flip the script and be genuinely happy for them.
How does an abundance mindset impact behavior?
When you’re coming from a place of abundance rather than scarcity, the way you operate in the world starts to look different:
- You think long-term instead of short-term
- You dream big rather than playing small
- You throw limitations out the window, choosing instead to bet on yourself
- You default to gratitude instead of “not enough”
- Your view of the world, and your place in it, is expansive, rather than constricted
- Instead of costs, you focus on opportunities
- Instead of pessimism, you come from a place of optimism
- Instead of living in survival mode, you think about how you can flourish
Abundance versus scarcity is all about where the focus of your attention goes.
Is your attention on what you lack, what you fear, and the many ways things could go wrong?
Or, are you focused on gratitude, dreaming big, and wondering what could go right?
How do you cultivate a mindset of abundance?
Cultivating an abundance mentality is a process that takes time.
First, recognize where you are.
Are you living the life you want to live? Are you allowing yourself to dream, unburdened by what you feel is “possible”?
Or are you approaching life from a place of scarcity and unconscious limitations on what you can achieve and what you can be?
To fight any tendency towards scarcity that you may have, you can use abundance exercises.
Pick one: journaling, generosity, an input audit, meditation, vision work, awareness—any of them. Then, get started.
Just remember to be compassionate with yourself along the way.
Little by little, you’ll notice changes in how you see the world.
Further reading
For more on abundance, scarcity, and mindset, check out:
Frequently asked questions
How can I heal my scarcity mindset?
A scarcity mindset can be healed with abundance mindset exercises.
Start with awareness. Simply notice when thoughts pop into your head that are driven by a scarcity mindset. Over time, you can add in abundance mindset exercises like journaling, generosity, meditation, vision work, dreaming big, and being happy for the success of others.
My mindfulness practice kicked off in 2016 with a ten-day silent retreat. Since then, I’ve read dozens of books about mindfulness and completed hundreds of hours of meditation. Thinking about what makes humans happy, calm, and peaceful is endlessly fascinating to me.