“Our Newtonian concept of both time and money is built on scarcity.” ~ Gay Hendricks PhD, The Big Leap
The catch is, scarcity is just not true. And science is proving it.
As we move into a new year of unprecedented extremes, change and volatility, we can choose the same old story – there’s not enough, survival of the fittest, competition is our natural state, etc, or we can look around at where that has gotten us and choose a different way.
As Einstein reminds us, “doing the same thing expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. “
The good news is that we have another choice, as individuals and collectively. We can transcend that old belief system. And yes, it is only an outdated belief system that keeps us in outdated feelings of disempowerment and lack.
Let’s dive into a different story and make shift happen.
![Woman rescued in Humaita, Porto Alegre, Brazil [Diego Vara/Reuters]](https://tslp.life/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Screenshot-2024-12-30-at-8.53.41 PM.png "Woman in rescued from flood.")
Lost in the Weeds
In 1987, Hugh Wilson let the local community know that he was intentionally planting a hated local weed, gorse, across 106 hectares of New Zealand known as Hinewai. People in the area had been fighting this particular weed for generations. They were furious.
Hugh Wilson was a botanist with a radical vision: to regenerate an area that had become a wasteland back to Native Forest. The locals were not just angry, they were sceptical and afraid.
They called him a fool and a dreamer.
He was both, and that’s exactly what was needed.
The common worldview defined gorse as a weed, a problem to be eliminated. This mindset left no room for alternatives. The only choices were how to eliminate it: you burn it, you poison it, you bulldoze it – but you get rid of gorse. No one had considered why it was so prevalent, what it might be good for or how to take advantage of it. Until Hugh.
He was able to see the bigger picture. That weeds show up for a reason. They are nature’s way of healing herself. When there is a deficiency nature provides a remedy.
Nature is at her best in diverse ecosystems. Left to her own, that’s what she creates. Traditional pastoral farming works in monocultures so traditional farmers are constantly fighting nature who seeks diversity. In this area of New Zealand, gorse is her lead activist.
It’s an opportunistic plant that takes advantage of cleared ground and forest climates. Left unchecked, it takes over. So that’s what Hugh did. He left 106 hectares of gorse infested land unchecked and let it run rampant.
As it grew, it provided shade and nutrients for a full ecosystem to develop in its understory. Shade tolerant hardwoods that also thrive in sun began to get taller than the gorse and gorse hates shade. It actually dies in shade, so it began to die off, providing even more nutrients for the burgeoning native forest.
Within 10 years, you could see native forest establishing itself – nature doing what she does best, establishing abundant thriving, diverse ecological systems that are supportive and complimentary.
Hugh is now considered a local hero. His stewardship has expanded to 1500 hectares of resplendent native forest that had all been written off as wasteland. Birds and other wildlife are abundant. There are 47 known waterfalls in permanent flow.
(Watch a YouTube documentary on Hugh and the Hinewai Nature Reserve here.)
Embracing Abundance
So how does that help us get out of the scarcity mindset?
The mystics say that every question holds the answer within it. That’s true here.
Scarcity is a mindset. It does not exist in the world, it exists in our perception of our world, how we were trained to see the world and to think of ourselves. It’s taught at home and at school. It furthered at work, through social media and by every ad you see.
When we believe that we are on our own, we have to figure it out ourselves, we have no help, that someone else is going to get something and we’ll get nothing, and so on – we have no space.
✖︎ There’s no space for creativity or possibility.
The farmers couldn’t see any alternatives for the wasteland the area had become and were stuck in fear and lack.
✖︎ There’s no space for connection or relationship.
People in the area were antagonistic and fractured.
✖︎ There’s no space for healing.
Nature was trying to heal herself and was being fought every step of the way.
✖︎ There’s no space for abundance.
The area had become a useless wasteland.
Abundance is more than a mindset, it’s how nature works – and we are a part of nature.
People who visit the Hinewai Reserve ask Hugh if he planted the forest. He laughs and says that there’s no way that he could have planted 1500 hectares of trees. He just got out of the way and became a steward of what wanted to happen.
5 Steps to Your Abundance Mindset
Here’s your process to welcoming abundance into your world in 2025.
1. Recognize that you were trained to have a worldview of scarcity, so it’s most likely your default frame of reference.
2. Awareness is what puts you in choice, so start noticing the places that sneaky, scarcity mindset shows up in your world. Take a notebook with you for a day and make notes.
3. Choose one of those thoughts and ask yourself, or a friend for an alternative story/belief/way of thinking about it. (Reach out to us if you want some help)
4. Once you have an alternative, every time you notice the old scarcity thought pattern, stop and rewire your brain to the new abundant pattern.
5. Celebrate every small win.
Scarcity is reactionary and disrespects ourselves, those around us and spirit as our business partner.
Hugh has proven without doubt that when we get out of the way, nature knows what she’s doing and will step in. And, as a reminder, we are a part of nature.
She is prolific and abundant. So are you.
She thrives in diversity and continually regenerates (remember the stories from during the pandemic?) So do you.
This year, when you see something that doesn’t work, instead of clinging to it, trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, choose to make space, embrace abundance and welcome the creativity and new ways to implement something that does work.
Hanauma Bay in Hawaii was closed in July 2020. During its nine-month closure, water clarity improved by 56%.
Credit: NY Times Article from 2022
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