6 Practices to Shift Your Mindset from Fear Based to Expansive and Abundance Based
Fear is the number one reason most people perform lower in life than their actual potential and capacity. Underneath all the excuses, hesitations, and perceived obstacles, its fear that really holds you back.
Here are six simple practices you can start today to shift your mindset from scarcity and fear-based, to empowerment and abundance-based.
To take practical steps to shift your mindset from fear to abundance and expansiveness, practice the following six strategies in your life:
1. Take responsibility for yourself:
Teach yourself to take responsibility of your own life. If you are over the age of 21 and are not happy with where your life is heading, it’s time to pick up the slack and become the CEO of your life. Because it is entirely your responsibility to make sure your life is heading the way you want it to. The good news is that it doesn’t have to feel painful, because by taking this responsibility you give yourself the power to choose your approach to everything. When you see this practice through the lens of excitement and see it as an opportunity to grow, you’ll get your motivation juices flowing. Behind all the years of conditioning is a whole lot of your potential that sat dormant, and now it’s time for you to activate it and reap the benefits.
It’s time to open that gate and release your true power.
As you step into this responsibility, you’ll have to stop giving your power away to other people or situations outside of your control. Instead, you would begin to see the importance of your role and power to change the direction of everything that happens in your life. You would exercise this daily by taking note of what areas of your life would you want to see better outcomes in. As you take an active role in the way you respond to everything in life, you’ll want to take charge of the way you manage and process your emotions. For example, whenever difficult emotions arise, you would honour them. You would feel them honestly but actively choose not to dwell or become attached to them. You would discern the best way to respond after you’ve acknowledged the situation for what it is.
You can’t always control what others do to you. Certain circumstances in life will be out of your control. But the one thing you can definitely control, is the way you respond to everything.
2. Get past your own judgements:
Judgement reflects a lot more about you than it does the thing or person you are judging. Understanding your judgements is a great way to understand yourself and your needs. This begins by getting real with yourself.
Whenever you judge someone or something, understand the void this judgement is trying to fill for you. If you commit to doing this, your mindset will take a massive positive shift!
Whenever you notice yourself judging someone, do a self check-in within. You can use the following prompts for this:
I. What am I really judging here and why?
II. What emotional response caused this judgement? (i.e. envy, resentment, regret etc. Be specific.)
III. Am I trying to avoid this emotion by judging?
After this, try to understand where this emotion comes from. Acknowledge that it’s not a pleasant experience. But be willing to manage this deeper void or need for yourself. When you do this, you bring awareness to the experience without an emotional reaction to it. This can help you discern an emotionally healthier; expansive response instead of a fear and attachment based response.
With this practice, you will begin to feel more open and accepting to the world around you. You will easily attune to the diversity around, because you’ll feel more whole inside.
When you understand and address your deeper needs, you would not feel an impulsive need to judge.
Your judgements can be one of your greatest teachers in life!
3. Boundaries:
Set boundaries. To set effective boundaries that support your growth, instead of hindering it, you have to be self-aware. Self-awareness is one of the most important elements to all these practices as well as your growth. (For those interested in cultivating more self-awareness, grab my free Self-awareness daily journal practice guide here.)
Boundaries can help you stay in integrity with yourself and others during conflicts. It can also help others respect and understand your needs better. You can protect the integrity of relationships by setting boundaries in personal and professional dynamics.
I encourage you to establish boundaries in all aspects of your life, including; your time, your health, and even your money.
For example:
Setting boundaries can help when you need to have a difficult conversation that could potentially become emotionally charged. You could do this by letting the other party know about what’s ok and what is not during the conversation. Both parties can decide what is ok and what is not in advance and establish mutual understanding of this. Perhaps, it’s ok with you for others to express their anger, but it’s not ok for them to raise their voice or verbally abuse you. Have a clear plan for when boundaries are crossed. E.g. a timeout or ending the conversation and rescheduling it for when emotions calm down.
Another example would be setting a ‘no personal text or call policy’ with friends and family during work hours. The same policy can be put in place for clients or colleagues over the weekend.
These simple strategies and boundaries can save you a lot of energy.
Boundaries lessen the chances for resentment, drama, and conflicts - all of which are huge energy suckers and further fuel victim mentality.
4. Identify your core values:
Staying aligned with your values can help during a dilemma. Often it's the hardest to make the right decision amidst a conflict or when in a tight situation. But if you are aware of your core values, then choosing a decision that aligns with your values would be a little more easier. What often helps is thinking about the outcome a decision could bring. Would you choose an outcome that doesn’t align with your core values or long term vision for life? Probably not.
Your core values can help you decide to do the right thing, even when it’s the harder thing to do. Choosing an easier way is never worth more than your morale for life. If you don’t choose what you stand for in life ( no matter how hard it may be), you would be unfair to yourself, and the life you’ve been given.
Define your life’s mission and then marry it for the rest of your life! It’ll change the way you do life, do business, and relationships.
5. Practice autonomy:
Remember, in life, you almost ALWAYS have a choice. So you don’t have to settle for what is being offered to you. If something doesn’t settle well with your soul, you have to strive for the better. Set your own standards in life. No one else can know what is better for you. Speak out for your health, for your rights, and for your worth.
6. Love and accept yourself unconditionally:
An important part of loving yourself is being real with yourself. Living in the truth. Trusting yourself and your decisions.
Allow yourself to mess up when you do, and call out your own ‘BS’. But no matter what happens, at the end of the day you have to completely love and accept yourself. You have to be willing to trust in your ability to do the best you can in any given situation.
Learn from your experiences, but do not let them define you. You are a dynamic being who is infinitely worthy of love and respect. You are forever growing into the best you.
These practices bring progressive shifts in your mindset. Even if you start with just one practice every month, you will start to notice how your mindset evolves. It’s important to track your progress. I suggest documenting your progress with journaling or with an accountability partner.
If you are serious about cultivating growth mindset and want deep one on one support of a coach who cares about your progress, then click here to book your clarity call.
Harjot Mann, MD
Self-Mastery & Leadership Coach