Part 4 - Cultivating Abundance: A Mini Blog Series
If you’re just joining us – I’ve been walking through my Dharma, or life purpose, statement I created through the Personal Flow Design Process during my 200 Envision Transformation YTT training with the Kula Collective. (If you missed my last post on Courage and Gratitude – you can check it out here.)
Let’s revisit the statement I have been using to reframe my goals and overall direction of my life:
“I am courageously and gratuitously
cultivating an abundant life
of curiosity, creativity and community.”
Today – I want to share with you what cultivating abundance means to me, what it looks like in the context of my life, some of the challenges I’ve faced, and some simple ways I’ve turned this seemingly ambiguous notion into action.
What does it mean to cultivate abundance?
Abundance means ‘a large quantity of something.’ Simple enough. Now - what does it mean to cultivate abundance? Cultivating - outside of gardening - means to try to acquire a quality, skill or thing.
So – through the lens of courage and gratitude – cultivating abundance is demonstrated through incrementally working towards acquiring new skills, qualities and things that can help pursue opportunities to live a life of curiosity, creativity and community. (More on that in my next post!) With any practice – cultivating abundance comes with consistently aligning and realigning goals to help achieve the acquisition of those skills and qualities.
While I was listing out characteristics of my future life during the Personal Flow Design process - I had a lot of fun things on my list summer homes, personal assistants and yes…even a tiger.
While those might be a little bit out there - I began to see an emerging theme of desiring an abundance of opportunity.
For me, opportunity emerges from safe spaces, a financial stability and time to create and engage in an inspirational world. It’s been said that you cannot thrive if you’re consistently in survival mode – so cultivating abundance lays forth a responsibility to ensure I am best prepared create these opportunities for growth to reach my fullest potential.
Safe Spaces
Having experienced homelessness firsthand - there is nothing more terrifying and uncertain than not having a safe space to retreat to. Perhaps this is why safe spaces are so important to me now - and are my first priority when it comes to my life vision.
Yes - having a physical space to call home is important - but it's also incredibly important to remember the home within us - and making sure it, too, is a welcoming and non-toxic environment.
So often, we subject ourselves to hate-speech and self-deprecating habits and behaviors. Because of this, we can experience an internal conflict between our habits and coping mechanics and learned patterns of speech, and the true Self who is trying to live authentically in peace. It's so important to make sure we are creating a safe and stable environments internally and externally to have the safe spaces to thrive.
Money
I grew up being taught that money is the root of all evil - and therefore was a big shame component around wanting money. I was had this preconditioned thought, watching my parents dance on the poverty line for years - that I will be resented if I have money.
When I was going through the Personal Design Flow process - I noticed that a lot of things in my vision for future set were items of luxury. Loft apartments, personal assistant and a tiger (not even kidding.)
And yet I still hesitated to list these things because I felt shame in wanting them - that’s what I was taught.
I had to exercise curiosity and courage just to break down this learned way of thinking in order to get where I wanted to be because throughout my years, I’ve learned that money is not evil at its core - it’s opportunity. Sure - will some people cease that opportunity for less than sincere initiatives? Sure.
But financial abundance also gives way to the opportunity to feel empowered, to feel secure and to invest in projects and initiatives you’re passionate about and believe strongly in.
(...And to treat yo self on occasion.)
Time
Time is finite. We only get so much - and even still - the amount we get is never guaranteed. So when it comes to cultivating an abundance of time I mean prioritizing how I spend the time I have and making ways to stretch it further.
Where am I spending time on needs such as a job or self-care?
Where and on what am I spending time on things that are not constructive or necessary, such as a lengthy commute or mindlessly scrolling through social media?
I make a thorough list of all these things - and then make a full account of ways I would, ideally, like to spend my time. There are always ways we can adjust and re-prioritize to make some extra room for the things we feel called to do versus things we feel a slave to.
Acting on Abundance
So how does one start making moves towards creating more abundance in safe spaces, money and time? After taking a good hard look of what's important through a lens of creativity and courage - I was able to hone in on a few specific ways I could start creating small changes with big impacts.
Negotiated a work-from-home arrangement eliminating three hours of daily drive and the ability to save money on gas, mileage and parking I could put towards more meaningful endeavors.
After researching the market value for my professional skill set - I identified opportunities where I was leaving money on and off the table and used that information to ask for a raise - creating more financial abundance.
Created my office's first ever PRIDE chapter to create a safe and welcoming space in the office for my peers.
Began to establish and enforce healthy boundaries with my friends, family and coworkers to preserve the time I needed to stay balanced and focused on my goals.
By recognizing the areas I can create abundance, exercising curiosity to understand how I can alter and prioritize my opportunities and courageously taking small steps for change, I have been able to set forth on a journey towards living a life of abundance even in ever-evolving circumstances. And it is with this abundance I hope to live out the last part of my Dharma - a life of curiosity, creativity and community.
Stay tuned for the rest of Kate’s series!
cultivate abundance in your life in one of our upcoming trainings!
About Kate:
Kate Powell is an experience strategist and people researcher by day and a multi-media storyteller by night and weekend. She thrives in creative environments while studying human behavior and motivational theory to shine light on authentic connection across communities.
Her preferred mediums are blogs, photography and film, and is currently working on a handful of projects exploring the causes of mental, emotional and social strains across the modern age. Her goal is to empower solutions in ways that don't bore people to tears. In her free time, she teaches yoga at her community wellness studio and is finalizing the manuscript for her first book, Snack on That.
You can check out her work/stalk her here.