THE DANCE BETWEEN SCARCITY & ABUNDANCE
WHOLE SUCCESS WEEKLY #16
This isn’t going to be a Black Friday email.
There’s enough of that in your inbox and honestly, if you’re someone who truly wants to invest in yourself, what I offer isn’t the kind of thing you wait to get on sale.
Today, I want to talk about something infinitely more important:
Abundance vs. scarcity:
how we define them,
what we choose to see,
and why our bodies default to fear.
Because if there’s anything I’ve been living, breathing, and navigating in real time these last 18 months of entrepreneurship… it’s this:
THE DANCE BETWEEN SCARCITY & ABUNDANCE
As a one-woman show determined to never go back to corporate (so help me God), I’ve spent the past year and a half bouncing between two realities:
One day I’m screaming in the car with the windows rolled up because I’ve had a hard financial month.
The next, I’m giving myself the pep talk of the century about what I’ve built and what I’m continuing to build.
This is the dance.
Being human enough to feel the fear, doubt, and unknown
and being self-led enough to lean into trust anyway,
choosing to see the impact.
It’s easy to fall into the scarcity trap:
the gap between where you are and where you think you should be.
(Researchers at Harvard call this negative bias: the brain’s tendency to cling to potential threats over positive outcomes.)
But here’s what surprised me:
It’s also easy to fall into the abundance view:
the gain, the progress, the “how far I’ve come.”
And THIS is what I want to explore with you today.
Because what I’ve mastered more than anything this year is this simple truth:
**We get to choose what we see in our lives.
And what we choose to see becomes our experience.**
THE SCIENCE BEHIND WHY WE DEFAULT TO FEAR
Here’s the real reason your brain clings to scarcity like glue:
Your body is built for survival, not success.
The human nervous system hasn’t evolved much since the days when hearing a rustle in the bushes could mean tiger → death.
So the brain developed what neuroscientists call a “threat-first processing bias.”
Translation?
Your system scans for danger before it ever scans for possibility.
Even when there is no tiger.
Even when the “threat” is an unread email, a slow month, or comparing yourself to someone online.
Studies from the National Institutes of Health show that the amygdala (the fear center) reacts faster and more intensely to negative stimuli than positive ones.
Another study from UC Berkeley found we’re literally wired to remember bad events three times more strongly than good ones.
So no - you’re not “negative.”
You’re not “dramatic.”
You’re not “low vibe.”
✨ You’re human. Your system is doing its job.
But here’s the part no one teaches us in school:
Where there is awareness, there is choice.
And where there is choice, there is rewiring.
You can retrain your nervous system
to register safety in success, ease, and abundance -
but only if you feed your system consistent evidence.
Not just mindset.
Not just affirmations.
Actual embodied evidence.
That’s where the shift happens.
The Power of Everyday Abundance (and 3 ways to practice it)
Here’s the truth most people miss:
Your nervous system doesn’t shift because you think positive.
It shifts because you feel safe.
And safety is built through small, repeated moments, not huge, life-changing ones.
So if you want to retrain your system to see abundance instead of threat, here are three simple but powerful practices that actually work:
1. Get excited about the tiny things (aka the “avocado rule”)
Abundance isn’t built through million-dollar checks or massive wins.
Those feel good, sure - but they don’t teach your body anything long-term.
Your nervous system learns from what’s consistent.
Jamie Sea, one of my fave marketing women, teaches this brilliantly:
Get excited as hell over the tiny good things in your day.
Like the avocado.
Truly. Let yourself geek out over the fact that you get to eat a buttery, green, creamy fruit grown on a tree.
Feel how amazing warm water on your skin is.
Let the morning light hit your face and actually register as “wow.”
These small spikes of delight do more to rewire your brain than any big manifestation list.
Because repetition teaches the body: “I am safe to receive. Good things are normal here.”
And scientifically, this works.
Micro-moments of joy have been shown to increase dopamine and broaden cognitive capacity (Barbara Fredrickson, UNC).
Tiny on purpose = big rewiring.
2. Pause once a day and name what feels good (the timer method)
Set one (or multiple) timer on your phone each day.
When it goes off, pause for 60 seconds.
Not to think about what you should be grateful for…
but what feels good right now.
A warm drink.
A quiet minute.
A text from someone you love.
Your body breathing without you trying.
This small daily pause trains your hippocampus, the part of the brain tied to memory and emotional balance, to store positive experiences more easily.
A study from the University of Indiana showed that consistent gratitude practices actually change neural pathways associated with well-being.
It’s not the practice.
It’s the repetition.
One minute a day can change the whole tone of your nervous system.
Example - The other day there was a double rainbow. Soaking in the craziness that we live on a planet that literally paints colors in the sky is insane. Get excited about this stuff!
Pic of double rainbow from my house - this is our planet! So cool.
3. Use “Stop. Look. Go.” (aka the simplest presence tool on Earth)
Seven years ago I listened to an Oprah interview with Brother David Steindl-Rast - the monk who teaches that gratitude is what makes us come alive.
His formula is simple and profound:
STOP. LOOK. GO.
Stop: Pause for a moment. Interrupt the autopilot.
Look: Notice what is here. The color of the sky. The air on your skin. Someone’s laugh.
Go: Let the appreciation move through you.
Example. Someone brings you flowers. Don't receive them, say thank you and then move on. Pause. Soak in the flowers - their colors, their scent, their crazy natural perfection. Even for just 60-seconds...soak that sh*t in.
That’s it.
No journaling. No performance. No perfection.
Just awareness → appreciation → presence.
This practice is powerful because it engages sensory processing, which shifts the nervous system from fight-or-flight into regulation.
Meaning?
You train your body to feel safe in the moment
and safety is what makes abundance possible.
Watch this 2-Minute clip here.
OR you can listen to the full podcast episode here.
A PERSONAL NOTE
Instead of flying across the country this week and paying 3x the price to get crammed into TSA lines, we opted for a road trip up the California coast.
Monterey air.
Ocean views.
Slow mornings.
Presence.
Family.
Space.
I’m remembering...viscerally...that abundance is everywhere when you choose to see it.
Wishing you a beautiful week
and moments that remind you of what’s already here.
With love,
Jessica