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Abundance and Prosperity

“The well of Providence is deep. It's the buckets we bring to it that are small.” —Mary Webb

Feng Shui Principle

There are seven ancient Hawaiian Huna secrets as taught by their shamans (Kahunas). One is Kala, which means There are no limits. The idea behind this and the Mary Webb quote is that all limitations are set by people’s own minds.

Color your world

The best colors for abundance and prosperity are deep purples, grounding golds, vibrant reds and grand greens. Think of the celebrations of Mardi Gras, the colors of the fall harvest and ceremonies of royalty.

The Highest Good Principle

I think that many people in life are concerned that if they get what they really want, something bad will happen. W.W. Jacobs warned in his 1902 short story The Monkey’s Paw: “Be careful what you wish for, you may receive it.” The story was a horror tale, and the warning may stick in the back of our minds from childhood: if we receive something we really desire, someone could take it away, our friends might be jealous or we may feel guilty for having something while others suffer. But we don’t have to think this way; as we can do with any thoughts that are no longer serving us, we can place them into a sacred fire of our own choosing, allowing them to be released once and for all.

In feng shui, we talk about intentions being the seeds that grow into the gardens of our experience. My feng shui master always said that we are allowed to ask for anything we can imagine, anything under the sun, and to never set limits to our desires. He also tempered this by saying that we can ask for anything we desire because we always add the phrase: “…as long as it is for our highest good and the highest good of others.” This is like a spiritual or energetic insurance policy that can help allay the worries that stem from dreaming big. (The section Highest Good of All, explains this concept even further.)

Don't put limits on your manifestations

Now that you’re thinking about your specifics, don’t put any limits on them. It’s funny how sometimes people put so many limits on their beliefs before they even get started—sometimes even on their fantasies. The tree is the symbol for wealth in feng shui. They say your branches can only grow as high as your roots are deep. If you can’t dream big, how can you receive big?

Prosperity and abundance are often thought of as money, and having lots of it. Some people think of monetary wealth as abundance, while others think of health as abundance or a relationship as abundance. Those ideas seem to be hinting at a bigger picture, which is the good life—all areas of your life. The good life is the concept that you can have it all. Why choose? Why have a life where your career is thriving at the expense of your health, or have financial gain at the expense of your relationship? If you get what you focus on, why not conceive of a win-win scenario where you can aim at all of it and have it all? If it’s overwhelming to focus on all the areas at once, then focus on one section at a time and the rest will come.

Clarify Your Intentions

The first thing to do is create a clear image of what prosperity and abundance is for you. For example, let’s say you feng shui the prosperity corner in your home and a few days later you find $20 in the street. Does that mean it’s working? Technically, you have more money than you had before, but if you don’t have a clear vision of what you’re aiming at to begin with, then you won’t know when you’ve received it. See if you can figure out how you will know you have accomplished your intentions. Picture it in your mind’s eye. See the cast of characters who are present. Being specific about your intentions can allow you to track your progress to your goal.

Feng shui is about balance in all of its forms, especially in regard to your intentions. This means addressing all nine areas of life, not simply focusing on one area like wealth. If you were working out, it wouldn’t make sense to use just one arm to lift a dumbbell every day. You would look funny, and you would hardly be in shape. The same is true when we define abundance or prosperity to simply mean wealth. See if you can expand your definition to include the idea of having the good life—health, wealth and happiness, or whatever the good life means to you.

A lot of people focus on just getting money, but then have no idea what to do once they have it. Studies show that more often than not, when people win the lottery, they eventually go broke or end up in a worse situation than before. It’s not about just getting money, but also the wisdom of how to handle it. If you haven’t healed your family area and your past, you might get big chunks of money, but you’re constantly paying down debts you’ve accumulated. It’s like having a hole in your bucket of wealth and before you can even count what you’ve brought in, you have pieces taken off the top.

Each of the nine areas of life needs to be addressed so you don’t create an imbalance in your manifesting.

The Magic Words

Let’s imagine for a second that our words are powerful. Imagine that the thoughts we think and the words we say could be taken literally by some force, some presence that exists in our lives. Would this change the words you use when you are making your requests of the unknown and the infinite? For example, have you ever noticed that some people (let’s call them the “just enough” people) always seem to have just enough to cover their monthly expenses, and no more? These people are constantly praying to just have enough to cover their bills. They are imagining their bills being paid and they are putting extra wattage of intention behind it by getting their whole heart involved. Please. Let. Me. Have. Enough. This. Month. This is the message that is being sent out like a radio signal to attract a "like match", and so it is.

Pitfalls: Guilt and fear

Are guilt and fear keeping you from receiving what you want? Everything you have been asking for might be right at your door, waiting to be invited in, but those emotions may be indications that there are subversive thoughts keeping you from receiving what you say you want.

From a universal perspective, if you get what you have asked for but you feel guilty for receiving it, the vibration of guilt may send out a message that you are being harmed—a big red flag. Imagine that the universe is functioning from a neutral place of love and compassion. It would never want to see you harmed in the process of bringing you what you desire, and it might just be waiting for you to work out your guilt issues around receiving before you can fully receive what you are asking for.

If opportunities in your life are like water flowing to your front door, then fear is like a cold front freezing that water into ice. Fear literally constricts our blood vessels and slows down the flow of blood in our body. The message your body sends is to slow everything down or stop it until the danger is gone.

Both of these conditions seem to come from an imbalance in thought. A thought that If I receive this, then someone or something else will not have enough, or will judge me for having it. How can you put some space around these thoughts to include the possibility that if you receive what you ask for, it may benefit you and also those around you?

In feng shui, you can’t pick up something new unless you put down what you are holding onto. It’s almost like a garden full of weeds—there’s no room for anything new to grow. So the first stage of making space is to declutter; in this case, decluttering your mind from thoughts of “just enough-ness.” But nature abhors a vacuum. If you don’t put something new in place of the old thought, similar useless thoughts are likely to pop back up, rendering your decluttering work a waste of time. So what are two of the most powerful words you can plant in the garden of your mind? The magic words or more.

You don’t even have to change what you are asking for, but the invitation is to stay open to receiving that which you believe you need, or more. So the next time you are asking to receive “just enough work” to cover all of the bills you have coming up, see if you can make a little space for grace to add a little extra into your coffers.

Win-Win

In the old paradigm of wealth, people needed to accumulate wealth in order to have power, create status and fulfill aspects of the ego that would make them feel a sense of accomplishment. Throughout history, they accomplished this by doing whatever it took to achieve the vision or dream. The journey may have included stepping on people along the way and doing things that they knew, on some level, were wrong. These are examples of achieving personal gain at the expense of others, which makes achieving the goal feel empty. These actions are win-lose.

When I was twelve years old, our school asked us to raise money for a local charity. We were encouraged to go door to door and collect money for the cause. I don’t know if I was very good at convincing people or if it was people’s inherent generosity of spirit, but I ended up with a couple hundred dollars when all was said and done. We kept a paper record of our donations, but there was no oversight. I looked at the money and I instantly had a thought: if I kept the money, no one would know.

At that time, I was playing a lot with remote controlled cars. I went to the store and bought myself new gold painted hubcaps and wheels for my car. These were things I never would have bought with my own money. Two of my friends were jealous of my newly “tricked out” car. I had accomplished my goal. I thought it would make me feel better about myself, but it didn’t.

I went to my mom and told her what I had done. She helped me try to return the items to the store, but they wouldn’t take them back. I repaid every penny I had taken by emptying my savings from the bank. Years of odd jobs, birthdays and holidays…gone in a flash. I learned an invaluable lesson about money, and about win-lose scenarios. I had a win in one department (looking cool) but a lose in another (feeling badly for not being in integrity with myself.) I certainly wasn’t perfect from that age on, but I definitely got the lesson that day.

Conscious capitalism

The win-win philosophy can be applied not only to your personal life and yourself, but to your work, too. The key is to be conscious of every professional decision and its impact on yourself, your business and the world around you. The conscious capitalism model is built on three core principles:

Deeper Purpose Recognizing that every business has a deeper purpose than merely profit maximization, a Conscious Business is clear about and focused on fulfilling its deeper purpose.

Stakeholder Model A Conscious Business focuses on delivering value to all of its stakeholders and works to align and harmonize the interests of customers, employees, suppliers, investors, the community and the environment to the greatest extent possible.

Conscious Leadership In a Conscious Business, management embodies conscious leadership and fosters it throughout the organization. Conscious leaders serve as stewards to the company’s deeper purpose and stakeholders, focusing on fulfilling the company’s purpose, delivering value to its stakeholders and facilitating a harmony of interests, rather than on personal gain and self-aggrandizement. Conscious leaders cultivate awareness throughout their business ecosystem, beginning with themselves and their team members, and moving into their relationships with each other and other stakeholders.

—From consciouscapitalism.com

What I learned is that this form of success (win-lose) is both unsustainable and dissatisfying. Why do you think so many of the wealthiest people become philanthropists? They have accomplished the desires of their ego and learned that it’s more satisfying to empower others than to take from them. This is the shift from a win-lose paradigm to a win-win.

With a win-lose scenario, I have to take from you in order for me to benefit. With a win-win, as I benefit, I uplift the community around me. True abundance and prosperity benefits the greater good—you and everyone around you. Money sometimes has a bit of a fickle nature; it wants to know why you want it to come into your life. If you can expand your reasons for wanting this wealth and abundance (to create something, to help family and friends, to inspire others to what is possible) to include something deeper than the surface reasons (to have stuff), then perhaps it will come more quickly and stay longer. It will also make your story feel good to everyone who hears it, which goes beyond win-win into a win-win-win paradigm.

Highest Good of All

My grandfather was an incredibly successful businessman. He was a giant in the publishing industry, and his work on the ad council led him to meet everyone from heads of business to presidents. Every night before we ate dinner, I remember him saying the words, “May we be ever mindful of the needs of others.”

In order for something to truly embody the principles of win-win, you must keep it in mind as you set out to accomplish your goals. How would getting my desires fulfilled impact others? In Black Sect feng shui, we always temper our desires with the phrase “for the highest good of all people concerned.” This acts like an energetic insurance policy, a safety net or a guiding principle. It gives you permission to ask for whatever you want; the caveat is that it’s for your highest good and the highest good of all involved, so you can’t ask for anything that’s too much.

On the surface, some of life’s opportunities might look as if they’re for your benefit, but later you may find that the look was deceiving. We never know why things work out as they do until we look through the glasses of hindsight. If we can begin to trust and intend our way through life that everything is functioning for a higher good, then we can relax and navigate the waters of opportunity with a renewed confidence and faith that all is as it should be.

Thank You in Advance

We have become accustomed to saying thank you after good things happen in life. It is polite, but it also feels good. So what happens if you start acting as if good things are already happening…before they happen? What if you begin to say thank you in advance, anticipating all of the good things that are on the way? Not only would you feel good from saying thank you, but you’re putting “out there” that good things are coming, which may even help you create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Saying thank you sets a powerful intention for future success, and that intention starts now.

Tithing: Giving Back to Our Source

They say the fastest way to get anything in life is to give it away, because you can’t give away something you don’t have. Sometimes we have to give in order to receive. One way to give back is through the process of tithing. Many people associate the process of tithing with the church or other religious institutions; what many people don’t know is that farmers originally inspired the process.

Farmers noticed that if they harvested their entire crop annually, every few years there was a “down year,” resulting in no crops. They found that by simply returning 10% of their crops to the soil that there were no down years. This is one of the founding principles of sustainability: keep 90% for yourself and give 10% back. This principle also applies to our lives. It’s like the goose that laid the golden egg; if you get greedy and take too much, it stops.

The church adopted tithing because it’s a business and it wants to survive, but the church is a metaphor for whatever helps you in your life. It doesn’t matter what the thing is, give to something that sustains you in the world in some way. This could be a school, a spiritual community or a charity. It could be children, the environment or the arts. Give back of yourself in some way. If you feel moved to donate a portion of your paycheck, then do. If you prefer to give your time or your skills, that can be a beautiful thing and just as meaningful or more so than a monetary donation. As you give to something that represents your own source of inspiration and opportunity, the same invisible energy will always be there for you as well.

One afternoon about 12 years ago, a friend called and invited me to coffee. He asked me what was going on in my life and I told him that I was struggling. He listened intently as I shared with him all the ways in which I was having a hard time. At the end of our conversation he gave me a $100 bill. I was flabbergasted. He told me that a friend had done the same thing to him once and he wanted to pay it forward. He urged me to do the same thing one day when I felt moved to. I will never forget his kindness and I always remember his words.

Inverse Tithing

There is a thought that if 10% is good, then 20% must be better. Or 50%. Or 80%. In an effort to be viewed as generous, it’s possible to almost become greedy in a way. If giving is good, then giving more is better. Whatever your reasons for wanting to give this much, inverse tithing can become dangerous. That’s when you give away 90% and only keep 10% for yourself. You may not feel worthy or deserving of receiving anything. You get something and immediately give it away. If someone gives you something, you immediately try to figure out how you can repay them.

For a while, this was me. I loved the feeling of giving so much that sometimes I kept doing it, even to my own detriment. I’d give money but then have to borrow for rent. I would donate so much of my time that I ended up not leaving enough time for paid work. And there were times that I was so exhausted that I wasn’t of use to anyone.

If you do this, you too may become depleted and then have no choice but to ask for help. Imagine if you were a farmer and you gave 90% of your crop back to the soil. You would only have 10% left to sell, and then most of your work that year would go to waste. The soil doesn’t need more than 10% to be sustainable, so challenge whether your desire to constantly give more is coming from a balanced place. (I’m not talking about philanthropy; if all of your needs are being met, then feel free to be as generous as you want. The information on inverse tithing is focused more on people who are struggling and feeling that they have to do more in order to get more, or to feel good about themselves.)

I’ve experimented in many different ways with tithing through the years. I’ve given money and I’ve given my time. I’ve given to charities that I believe in: ones that build houses for those in need and those that create clean, safe water, or plant trees in areas that were devastated. I’ve given to yoga studios, temples and the arts. I’ve given publicly and anonymously. And I’ve always been provided for—always and in all ways. Does it have anything to do with my tithing? Since I don’t know for sure, it feels better to believe that it does than that it doesn’t. It has always felt good to give and I do it as much for me as I do for others.

Once You Get It, Enjoy It and Honor What Got You There

Sometimes we arrive at our goal and without pausing for more than a second, we’re instantly thinking of our next goal. But you may be forgetting how hard you’ve worked and all of the effort that went into accomplishing your dream. Take a pause and acknowledge your hard work, feel the feelings associated with getting what you worked for and allow yourself to really give yourself the accolades you deserve. This can certainly help build self-confidence for the future, and it will keep your days from blending together in a forgettable blur. If we don’t take time to enjoy the fruits of our labor, we can lose sight of why we are doing this to begin with.

The good life is one where you have an abundance of health, wealth and happiness. When you have success and the fruits of that hard work come in, it is the happiness that will sustain you through the next cycle. The happiness will have long-term positive effects on your health as well.

Everything comes from the source and to the source it is returned, so be sure to honor those who helped you along the way. Honor the visible allies (family, friends, community, spiritual leaders) and the invisible helping hands (your highest source, God, guardian angels or whatever you personally believe in). People will appreciate your thanks and will be more likely to help again in the future.

After sports teams win, they have a parade. It’s a way of giving back to all of the fans that rooted for them along the way. Whether it’s a party, a dinner or simply raising a glass in a toast, do something to honor the occasion with a celebration of your process. Celebrate, appreciate, rinse and repeat.

EXERCISE: Test drive your life

Sometimes people wait for the stars to align before they take action. Others constantly act as if the thing they want is already happening, and then they allow themselves to catch up to what they commit to. But what if you aren’t quite ready to take that leap of faith? Perhaps an easy way to dip your toe in the water is to test drive your life.

A lot of us make wish lists, lists of “somedays” and “what-if’s.” Places we want to travel. Things we want to buy. Relationships we hope will one day walk into our lives. They say destiny is where opportunity meets action, so where can you begin to take steps now, today?

If you want a new car, test-drive it to see how it feels. Don’t just window shop, try on the dress or rings or shoes and see what the experience is like. Go to the open house. Price out the trip around the world. Something powerful happens when you take action and set things into motion.

Make a list of the eight things you most want to test drive in your life, and do it in order of priority within the next 40 days. Why eight? Eight is often thought of as a number that relates to abundance and prosperity. Why 40 days? It’s the number that relates to a spiritual journey (think Noah on the Ark, Jesus in the desert or Buddha under the tree). If you want to keep a journal or make notes on the list of how the experiences feel as you complete each one, you can reflect on them later to remind yourself of the accomplishments and positive energy you manifested by “trying on” your ideal life.

Until one is committed there is hesitancy,

the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.

Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation),

there is one elementary truth,

the ignorance of which kills countless ideas

and splendid plans:

that the moment one definitely commits oneself,

then Providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur to help one

that would never otherwise have occurred.

A whole stream of events issues from the decision,

raising in one’s favour

all manner of unforeseen incidents

and meetings and material assistance,

which no man could have dreamt

would come his way.

I have learned a deep respect

for one of Goethe’s couplets:

’Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.’

From The Scottish Himalayan Expedition, 1951—W.H. Murray