Living in Abundance vs Living in Scarcity

Emily Bautista, IIN Certified Health Coach & Body Fuel Alliance Member

Why does it always seem there’s a choice to be made when it comes to our career and personal life, as if one cannot exist with the other? The idea of the tortured artist always echoed in my mind and I feel it’s a common rhetoric among many fields. I had this mindset that being successful meant sacrifice, being unhappy or unhealthy in all unrelated parts of life. That one had to suffer, work or personal life, career or mental health. But what if it is possible to have it all? A career to be proud of, a thriving social life, fulfilling relationships, and the perfect place to call home. Many of us operate in a way commonly referred to as “living in restriction” or “living in scarcity”. Essentially, we consider the limitations of a situation rather than the opportunities. What if we approached life believing in endless possibilities? What if we adopted an Abundant Mindset?

Before I dive in, let me give you some background… Hi! I’m Emily Bautista and I am a TV, film, and Broadway actress with a passion for holistic health and wellness. I started my educational journey with holistic health and wellness about three years ago. Admittedly, my decision to pursue this field was born more so out of necessity than curiosity. Let me explain…

Remember when time stood still?  When the office buildings were suddenly vacant, the bars deafeningly silent, the streets of time square felt like a well lit ghost town, not even the sound of an airplane engine could break the silence. So many of our distractions just disappeared. For me, the pandemic was the first time in years I didn’t have anything to do. My last few years had been somewhat of a dream, a nonstop, busy as all heck rollercoaster. I was playing a lead on a National Tour, traveling every Monday to a new city, setting up a temporary home, working 7 days a week, and packing it all up into two little suitcases to do it all over again.  It was exciting and hectic and the perfect distraction for neglecting anything unrelated to my career. In the midst of working a dream job I had managed to attach all of my self-worth to it and without it, I found myself overcome with negative self-talk and paralyzed by the feeling of worthlessness - I had been living in scarcity. 

My mind focused on succeeding by limiting. I restricted food so I looked a certain way, I didn’t invest in my mental health and well-being, I retained limiting beliefs about my potential as a partner entering toxic relationships I thought I deserved, limited my time spent with friends and family because I wanted them to only see my success on stage and not the mess I felt I was offstage. Ultimately, I thought in order to succeed you had to live in scarcity, I never looked to balance as an option. I never looked to abundance as an option. I just let myself remain stuck in the thought “well one had to suffer, my work or personal life”; I chose personal life. Once time slowed down, the stress that lay within the lack of balance and investment in my physical, social, spiritual, and homelife, manifested into physical symptoms - IBS and full body rashes… awesome!  

I decided to enroll in a program called IIN (The Institution for Integrative Nutrition). This is where my journey began, and continues today. Here, I learned so much about what holistic health truly means and how living holistically promotes living in abundance.

What is the Abundance Mindset?

The abundance mindset is a positive and optimistic mental outlook that celebrates the endless possibilities and resources life has to offer. Adopting this mindset encourages us to check in with oneself, take note of what brings joy, and think of where opportunity and growth lay instead of focusing on limitations. It challenges us to open our minds to new things, release ourselves from the pressures of comparison, and invest in our self care and well being.  

How can I make the shift?

I find that the best place to start anything is by beginning with gratitude. It is so easy to forget all that we currently have when we are distracted by the things we don’t. Taking a moment to practice gratitude is known to reduce anxiety, stress, and depression, as well as strengthen our relationship with those around us. Why is this important? Well the answer may seem pretty straight forward, nobody enjoys being stressed out, but I think it’s also important to know how stress manifests in the body.   

When cortisol levels rise, also known as the “stress hormone”, we can experience an elevation in blood pressure, weakened immune system, ailments regarding digestion (IBS and indigestion), inflammation within the body, low energy, weight gain, and trouble with restful sleep. By lowering our cortisol levels we can regain control over these symptoms leaving us with more energy to invest in our relationships and ourselves. 

I want to quickly introduce a concept I found absolutely invaluable at IIN: “primary foods”. (Follow along in my next blog as I dive more into each section.) 

Primary food represents the nutrition we receive off the plate, such as: joy, creativity, social life, finances, career, spirituality, homecooking, home environment, relationships, education, health and physical activity.

By contemplating these sources of “off the plate” nutrition, we can see where we might feel overwhelming joy or maybe a lack or hesitation. I encourage you to practice living in abundance by exploring the endless possibilities these areas have to offer. How can we positively affect these different areas so that we feel proud to talk about them vs shying away from the subject. They won’t always be perfect, and maybe some days one area will feel stronger than another, but maybe we can slowly make effective changes in our everyday life. It can be as simple as adding a daily walk into your morning routine, joining a trivia team or a book club, maybe choosing to make more home cooked meals or reaching out to a friend we haven’t seen in a while.  

Start to visualize the life you want, your goals and ambitions. Visualizing and goal setting help us take intentional action toward our goals. Instead of dwelling on the obstacles, think about the solutions, the steps you can take today that will get you one step closer to your dream life. Obstacles just make the journey to where we’re heading a little more interesting. Be open to change and allow yourself to discover new passions or new sources of joy. You’re allowed to be good at more than one skill. Welcome the opportunities that come your way.

These are just some tools I’ve learned over the last couple years and to be honest researching for this post helped remind me of all the resources I forgot I had at my disposal. We all get distracted by life and I by no means feel I have the answers but hopefully some of these tools can help you as they’ve helped me! Here’s to growing and learning together on this journey we call life!