If you used Insight Timer over the past few months, you probably noticed the many live events happening. For me, it’s been such a gift to be able to connect with people in real-time. It’s also opened up doors for more teachers to be found and share practices.

While I’m super grateful for these opportunities, it pains me to admit what I’m about to share.

As I was scrolling through the live offerings, I fell into old patterns of jealousy. With some teachers having classes multiple times I week, I felt like I wasn’t doing enough. Childhood feelings of competition sprung up and I felt like I needed to get ahead.

What I’m sharing is why I created my course, Learn to Stop Caring What Others Think. Jealousy is one of the most toxic emotions we can hold. In the past, it paralyzed me. I’ve grown a ton from where I was, but I’m still on the journey, working with it as it comes up.

The most notable change has been my awareness. I’m able to notice that I’m feeling jealous and work to respond in a skillful way.

It’s challenging because there is a culture of competition in the West, especially in America. We think that there are a finite amount of opportunities and if someone else gains, someone has to lose. The effect of jealousy and competition is that it puts us in a state of lack.

This is the opposite of an abundant mindset. The irony is if we are to change the feeling of jealousy to collaboration and mutual support, we not only feel better, but we bring more of what we seek.

When we do this, we remember there is more than enough to go around. We move from fear-based thinking to love-based thinking.

Once we have enough, we then expand that outwards instead of filling the endless, empty hole of not-enough.

There are two meditation practices that help us move from Scarcity to Abundance.

Gratitude

Eckart Tolle said, “Gratitude is the foundation for all abundance.” The abundance of money, yes, but also abundance in all areas of life.

Gratitude works because what we focus on grows. What we appreciate, appreciates.

I remember getting paid my first $125 to give a speech at a library. I was so excited that someone was paying me to give a talk!

After I cashed the chack, I taped it on my wall so I could see it every day. Whenever I sat in my kitchen, I looked up and sent waves of gratitude for the opportunity. Sure enough, those checks got bigger.

If you saw my house at the time, voided checks all over the wall, you may have thought I was a madman. But it worked. Opportunities kept coming.

Although I don’t plaster check on the wall anymore, I continue this practice to this day, thanking my bank account for any money I receive.

Celebrating small wins are crucial. Appreciate the little victories, and they will turn into big ones.

Sympathetic Joy

The second practice is Sympathetic Joy, known in Buddhism as Mudita. The purpose of the exercise is to share in the joy and success of another. We practice being happy for another and wishing that their good fortune continues.

Sharing another’s happiness is easy if it’s someone like a spouse. When they get home expressing something good that happened, of course, you share in their joy.

It’s a lot harder to wish those same feelings to a colleague we feel jealous towards, who just shared an accomplishment on social media. However, that is where the real, transformational work is.

Don’t be put off if you can’t feel the feelings of sympathetic joy right away. It takes practice.

From Scarcity to Abundance is a meditation that can help you work with feelings of lack and shift your energy to abundance. (Meditation portion begins around seven minutes in)

Listen now on Insight Timer.

May many blessings come your way.