Many people are entangled in scarcity fears and money blockages. They tend to be core issues, and you get to these complex issues by having worked through a lot of other issues surface-level and mid-level issues. It’s not like you just wake up one morning and say,
“I’m done being afraid of being poor.”
“I’m going to use money consciously now.”
“I’m going to stand up for better pay at work.”
So many issues, lifestyle choices, social circles, and other patterns have been built around this core issue. That’s the thing about removing this issue. A lot of other patterns, lifestyle choices, and issues come crashing down with it, and you have to realize that you’re changing your whole life structure.
Money Blockages, Inflation, and Fearing a Lack of Resources
As I’ll repeat regularly, a spiritual awakening is not convenient to your ego. Inner work and letting go of attachments don’t necessarily show up on a day when you don’t have to look after the kids or go to work.
The work arises whenever the ego rears up.
That can be any time on any day.
Scarcity fears and blocking ego beliefs are with people every day. They influence how people spend their time, the social relationships, and more as well as what they purchase or don’t purchase. Many people are simply hemmed in by these fears.
Open your eyes a little in a grocery store, and you may be staring at a scarcity fear or money blockage.
The fear of not having enough amidst a culture demanding more and more is powerful.
Inflation has augmented this fear for many, many people.
And the ego loves to take a little bit of truth to incapacitate so many people.
Yes, prices are going up and demanding people have more money to buy less. It sucks.
But the work we’re doing here is about letting go of the ego part that creates a sense of lack. Then we can surrender and do what is necessary.
Healing the Wounding of Ego Illusions
Healing an issue like scarcity will really shake up your life.
But don’t let me get ahead of myself.
You’re not healed yet.
As a reminder, I use the term “healing” very broadly on this spiritual awakening blog. I know many of you are resolving and healing trauma. You think about healing in a particular way.
Others of you are healing limiting beliefs. Limiting beliefs like, “you don’t have enough money,” create wounds of all kinds. They can make loved ones feel unsupported.
These fears and blockages can deny important forms of help when you are saving money that you should spend.
Conversely, these limiting beliefs can waste money when you need to be saving up for a new bicycle to ride around town.
Feeling blocked and scared about money distorts the reality you look at.
In this way, any ego illusion should be seen as a wound that needs healing.
Unfortunately, many people don’t even know they’re sick, much less how much healing they need.
Techniques to Face a Fear of Scarcity
So let’s look at some simple tips to apply to your every day life face these fears.
- Tip #1: Notice how you use money. Money is a tool, and it says a lot about how we’re feeling. Spending lots doesn’t necessarily signal abundance. It may signal a reaction that comes from scarcity fears. You may want to show others that you have a lot. On the other side of the coin, you may be miserly. You make Scrooge look like the giving tree. Okay, I’m exaggerating. The point is to look at how you use money and to see what feelings you associate with it.
- Tip #2: Give without attachment. When you give to someone and you want something back–a smile, a compliment, another gift–you are moving from a space of scarcity. You are intrinsically afraid that you will be weakened or depleted. In truth, genuine giving is its own reward, and healthy communities operate in reciprocity. It can add a whole new element to your friendships and other relationships to randomly give. It doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be genuine.
- Tip #3: Receive without resistance or sense of deservedness. It’s extremely frightening for some people to receive. This reaction can illuminate scarcity, but also deeper issues around self-worth. For some people, they’re so afraid to allow anything in because they think someone will see that they can’t be self-sufficient. The sentiments and words change slightly, but it’s a variant around “I can’t have this” or “I shouldn’t have this” or “I didn’t earn this.” The flip side are the people who are so needy that they think everything should be given to them. Entitlement can lead people to being lazy and creating scarcity by not taking action. Clearing this sense of perpetual scarcity is important, and for individuals who feel so deserving, tip #2 is really important.
- Tip #4: Let go of things. Hoarding is a problem. It doesn’t just have to be money. There is so much junk in peoples’ houses, apartments, and garages. That scarcity issue is once again saying, “I have to hold onto everything to survive.” Doing an old fashioned closet clean-out could be a first step to seeing all the things you don’t need. You may be surprised by the emotional space you have to receive again when you let go of the clenched fist and open your hand. Sometimes, that means a few things have to fall out when you open your hand and practice the art of letting go.
- Tip #5 Not all wealth is good wealth. In a culture so focused on accumulating money, you may think that you’ve made it at some point when you’re wealthy. But the wealth that you’ve acquired may be rotting you out because you’ve gotten it illegally or through immoral or disingenuous means. You need to give this money away. You’re not coming from a clean space, and you’re likely to continue to hoard more money as you now try to protect this current mass of money. It will only get worse. Begin to find a new line of work to legitimately earn money. If you become wealthy that way, you’ll feel a vastly improved sense of accomplishment around it.
Clearing Scarcity Fears, Embracing Simplicity and Flow
These issues don’t go easily, and self-worth issues and other major issues tend to be entangled in this ball of ego wires.
Additionally society reinforces certain unconscious behaviors around money that reinforce actions based in scarcity fears and money blockages.
People say things like:
“How can you walk away from a six figure job?”
“Why don’t you have the latest gadget?”
“When are you going to buy a home?”
Lots of purchases go beyond what you really need and encourage you to waste money that can put you in spaces of scarcity/excessive debt/and so forth.
As you develop your sense of what’s really important to survival, your purchasing habits change dramatically. The spiritual path is actually very simple, and as you clear out scarcity issues, you will likely find a natural tendency towards greater simplicity in all aspects of your life.
One change that happens as you let go of scarcity is more focus on reciprocity. Reciprocity with your community tends to become more important than buying the latest shirt to keep up on fashion. For example, you may enjoy trading clothing with others during the closet clean-out. You are letting go of things you don’t need, and you are receiving things that you do.
And your friends may really enjoy this too!
Compare this to the cold, lifeless experience of buying from a store from people you don’t know.
We are communal animals, and money blockages and scarcity fears cloud how we are used to receiving and giving in life.
Money Has Replaced Community
Finally, be aware that money has replaced community. Once upon a time, our hunter-gather ancestors traded all kinds of services to survive together. Reciprocity wasn’t just expected; it was vital. Money wasn’t needed because we knew everyone, and we had deep connections with everyone. If you shared your kill with the others, you knew they’d share the mushrooms and fruits they’d gathered with you.
But how do we trade resources when we have weak or no connections to each other now?
Money serves a purpose of connecting us to resources in replacement to communal connections.
Because there is no emotional connection with the people we trade with in modern society, we feel uncertain. We can’t trust that all of our needs will be met. This drives a fear of lack, and the uncertainty and lack of strong connections in our communities has lead to making money into a sense of safety. The more lonely and disconnected we feel, the strong scarcity fears become.
That’s why building healthy community is so important to letting go of aspects of scarcity fears and money blockages.
Community Testimonials from some of Jim’s Facilitated Online Spiritual Communities
Law of Attraction, Abundance, and Spiritual Nonsense
The ego is always looking to get out of the hard work of dealing with its nonsense and facing reality.
Money may be a social illusion, but it is a social illusion that has real consequences.
We learn to see it as a tool.
Nothing more.
We also learn to appreciate cultural structures that deny some people access.
We surrender to the fact that structural systems blocking people from resources exist, and we have empathy for ourselves if we are being restricted by society or empathy for others who are impacted.
However, we do the work to break free of our ego illusions, and we don’t settle for spiritual ideas and nonsense that expect things to magically come to us.
Not every culture is abundant with resources or money. Not every community has equal access. Everyone in the history of humans has wanted to attract resources to survive. Who are we to say that someone is deserving or not?
This happen that aren’t fair. We surrender to reality on the path of spiritual freedom. And we see this.
The more we drop illusions, we see that reality is reality. Anything is possible. Good things can come or not.
The real abundance of the spiritual path is awareness–the space of clear sight. There is so much space there. But that doesn’t mean that money is easy or not. It’s just pure spaciousness.
Nothing is attracted or repulsed to you on a magical level. Money is set up to be easier for some than others in society.
Can you get your ego out of the way to see that?
Can you humbly help those who aren’t set up to succeed?
Can you diligently help yourself when you aren’t set up to succeed, but not giving yourself a reason to self-sabotage?
Sabotaging the Healing Process and Running When It Gets Tough
You Will Survive
At the heart of a scarcity issue is this sense that you won’t survive.
That’s at the heart of many ego issues.
If you take one step outside of your ego fear, that’s it.
“You’re dead!”
You won’t be.
No one has died in working with me from challenging their ego.
They’ve found more freedom instead.
But in that awareness, they also see how scarcity fears and money blockages have limited their lives in a multitude of ways.
As you find those ways and bring your awareness to them, you reclaim your life in one of the most fundamental ways that you can. It’s a scary process because you’re also going to have to learn how to be with your life in a whole new way.
But rest assured that you can do it.
It’s possible.
It’s natural.
It’s time.
Need help with scarcity fears and other ego issues. You can click the link above.
(Updated 2/9/2025)
