Do You Want to Shift from a Scarcity Mindset to an Abundance Mindset? Read These Tips First!

Shadow work journaling gives you an opportunity to release the trauma that causes negative thought patterns, anxiety, feelings of unworthiness, and other types of limiting beliefs to manifest into your reality. 

And while it can feel downright torturous to revisit painful moments from your past this way, it is necessary to do in order to free yourself and find closure. 

From there, you will have the ability to truly experience pure happiness and inner peace. Plus, you will empower yourself to take brave steps toward your dreams in the process.

There are many, many layers to shadow work and healing through journaling. In this article, I’m going to specifically talk about shadow work as it pertains to our finances.

I’m going to get personal and share shadow work journaling techniques to help you shift from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset. 

If I can heal my money wounds, you can too! Let’s goooo!

Why is Shadow Work Journaling So Important?

With all of our differences, many of us carry common struggles. So, as we heal, I think it’s our responsibility to share our healing techniques in order to help others.

The journaling techniques I share on my journal blog are for that purpose. But before we dive into the meat of the article, I want to share a few quick facts about the way the mind works with trauma so that you can understand why it’s important to go back and do shadow work before we can truly let go and move forward.

 Whether we’re talking about someone who has developed a scarcity mindset or another issue like trusting new friends, most of our wounds come from childhood. 

When we are hurt as children, we don’t yet have the emotional intelligence to process and let go of our pain in a healthy way.

So, instead, we bury it deep within and create new scripts and behaviors to protect ourselves from experiencing further pain. The issue here is that the "protection" really stifles and causes more problems. 

For example, if you were a child who went without basic necessities because there wasn’t enough money flowing into the household, you can carry money wounds into your adult life.

Those wounds can present themselves in a ton of different ways. Some common ones can be a scarcity mindset, fear of abandonment, or a constant sense of feeling unsafe and unstable. 

Even if your outer reality is displaying a completely different story to you, trauma can warp your mind into only seeing issues that aren't really there.

This is why developing a strong gratitude practice and focusing on the good that you have in your life is the perfect place to get started on this journey. 

If you’re not sure how to begin, I shared a blog post last week that will help you tap into that beautiful gratitude energy (Quick and Easy Journal Prompts for Tapping into An Attitude of Gratitude.)

Another thing we should note about trauma is the way it keeps you stuck. There is a part of you, your inner child who is still living in the place where your pain took over.

So, even if you had a traumatic experience as a five-year-old, you can experience the very same hurt and suffering when similar situations arise when you’re in your fifties. The situation doesn’t even have to be real, it might be on a fictional television show you’re watching.

But when we do our shadow work, understand our triggers, and release the stuck energy, we become free. Sure, you’ll still have compassion for the hungry child on that show, but you won’t feel overwhelmed by that fictional character’s pain.

And in your day-to-day life, you will feel worthy of what you have and empowered to go and get more.

I broke down my shadow work journaling techniques to help you shift from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset down into digestible steps. 

Maybe you'll want to do them one by one in the same journaling session, or maybe you will do one each day for a few days.

Go at your own pace and do what feels best for you. Feel free to add to these as well!

In fact, I would love to see what other abundance mindset journal prompts or techniques you're using in addition to these steps!

Definitely share in the comments below and let's all help each other journal our way to real self-care and empowerment.

 Pinpoint the Traumatic Experience(s) That Caused You to Slip into a Scarcity Mindset

In order to overcome a scarcity mindset to enjoy an abundance mindset, you have to know where your negative feelings around money began to take form.

You might have several experiences that you’ll want to express here or maybe there was a single incident that gave you negative feelings about money.

Don’t try to be perfect or to write a beautifully balanced story. Brain dumping like this can cause your story to get a little messy and that's okay. The key is to include as much detail as possible and be honest. 

You want to bring as much of your story and the emotions it caused into the forefront of your mind and overall experience as you possibly can. It’s highly likely that once you’re really in this groove, you’ll remember things that you buried and forgot.

It’s normal to cry, feel anxious, isolated, or even want to quit while doing work like this. You will probably feel a mix of uncomfortable emotions come to the surface. 

Whether you do or don’t have an emotional reaction, you aren’t doing anything wrong.

Just retell the story to the best of your ability and don’t overthink it. Just flow. Tell several stories if you need to. 

In Order to Flourish Within An Abundance Mindset, You’ve Gotta Detach From Your Money Wounds

When terrible things happen within our homes as children, we blame ourselves.

We hear this a lot from kids of divorced parents. They tend to carry that burden thinking that they could have done something to prevent the breakup or that their needs and behaviors caused the breakup. 

During childhood, we aren't able to separate ourselves in order to understand that the adults in our lives are responsible for their own adult lives and that children don’t have the power to change that. 

So, a huge part of doing this healing work as adults one hundred thousand percent needs to include detaching, omitting responsibility, and understanding that a child can never be the responsible party, even when they’re forced into adult situations.

As a true adult, you now have the ability to reshape your life and let go of the life you were given as a child. You do not have to stay stuck reliving your old trauma.

You have the power to change your mindset and change your life.

Practice Forgiveness for Yourself, the Situation, and the Adults Who Were in Charge

Once you’ve detached from the trauma that caused your scarcity mindset, the next bit of shadowwork journaling you’ll want to implement is forgiveness. It should be pretty easy to forgive after you’ve fully let go, but letting go might take some time.

Again, we’re all different here, so don’t freak out about how long this takes. Just own your journey and do what feels right for you intuitively. 

Forgiveness doesn’t mean you’re saying that anyone’s bad behavior is okay. It just means that you love yourself enough to give your heart what it needs to heal. 

If your ego puts up a fight here, please understand that it isn’t serving you. You are stronger than that petty voice within.

I go deep into the imporantance of this type of forgiveness, additional shadow work techniques, and more in my virtual course, "Overcome Self-Limiting Beliefs with Self-Love." Check it out of you want to receive more guidance on these topics!

Your next step is to have a beautiful abundance mindset! Are you ready?

 

Abundance Mindset Affirmations

Through shadow work journaling, you revisited the situations that caused your money wounds and scarcity mindset to manifest.

Next, you took the power out of your negative experiences by detaching and disowning them.

Then, you followed up with forgiveness from a place of self-empowerment and clarity.

So, what’s next?!

I’m going to leave you with a powerful abundance affirmation that you can repeat out loud or write in your affirmation journal (Read: The Best Affirmations for Women Plus How to Create and Use Your Own.)

"I release the financial fears and worries from my inner child, my family history, and my entire being. I welcome a healed and happy relationship with money into my life. I welcome happy money into my life. I welcome financial prosperity and abundance into my life and certainty in my heart that I will always be provided with more than I need."

Thank you so much for reading till the end!

If my shadow work journaling techniques to help you shift from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset helped you, share this article with a friend or better yet a sibling who shares your trauma.

Then, treat yourself to a super cute abundance mindset journal!

I wish you healing, peace, and empowerment during your shadow work journal journey!

Your Friend,
Frida