2.32 Shannon Russell, Vanessa Stanhill, Martha Levie, and Angela Silva Discuss Abundance Pt.2

Currents: the Big Ocean Women Podcast

“Epicurus said that it’s not what we have, but what we enjoy constitutes abundance. And I really love that because it takes it out of the material realm. We're not talking about an abundance of money or an abundance of possessions or properties. We're talking about the things that make our life fulfilling and joyful and purposeful and bring light to us.” -Martha.

“If we can find a way to focus on what we can do and what we can control in our life right now, then that's where we can find that joy. So for me, last year during the holidays, I decided to stop using social media. Because I was feeling a lot of jealousy and contention in my life because of that. And so I cut it out for a year. And for me, that was one solution that fit really well with my needs so that I wasn't constantly bombarding myself with jealousy for things that other people had, but choosing to focus instead on my own family and the people around me and what I do have in my life right now.” -Vanessa

“Find meaningful things to do with the people I've got right here. That is what is going to help me feel abundance and what God has blessed me with and give me that sense of gratitude and joy and what he's given me.” -Vanessa

“The idea of abundance has to come within…it starts with yourself and then it extends to our families, whatever your family culture looks like, and then it extends to our communities and in doing that, we do have power to change the world. So many people in the world think they don't have the power to make a difference. But if you start with yourself, you can.” -Shannon

“Sometimes it's counterintuitive and we think that until we feel enough abundance in ourselves, then we can't go out and either help out, serve other people or encourage other people or anything, but in my life, most often, even when I feel like I am not enough, if I can look outward, there just seems to be abundance that flows back and forth from the people that I am associating with in my community back to me. So it becomes this multiplying effect that increases to everybody.” -Angela

“My mom when we were kids, if we were unhappy in some way, she would say, well, you need to serve someone else. So you can serve me and do the dishes, which sounds ridiculous, but it invariably changed our mindsets. It made us look outward and also affected how we felt inside.” -Angela

“For me being open to revelation that says something needs to change and following that did bring me greater abundance, even though it meant giving up something that I had really prized or enjoyed.” -Martha

“The culture of abundance is like that. It's something we foster within ourselves, but it never stays there. It is meant to radiate out to those around us, and then the idea for them to then radiate and the radiation to keep going so that we become bright and help one another in a way that is pleasing to our Higher Power.” -Shannon