Abundance is often treated as a number: enough income, enough savings, enough clients, enough proof that we are finally safe. Yet a number cannot guarantee the experience we are actually reaching for. We can have more and still brace for loss. We can achieve a long-held goal and discover that pressure, vigilance, or exhaustion came along with it.
We teach abundance as an emotional capacity—the ability to notice, receive, use, enjoy, and circulate what supports life. Money matters. It pays for shelter, food, care, choice, beauty, and meaningful experiences. But financial abundance becomes much more useful when it is joined by enoughness, gratitude, flexibility, and the freedom to want more without making the present moment a failure.
When the Number Is Not the Feeling
Rick once reached a financial milestone he had imagined would mean success. On paper, he was a millionaire. In his body, he had ulcers, pain, and deep depletion. Later, during a period when a large amount of financial value disappeared, he felt more alive and internally resourced than he had at that earlier peak.
The point is not that money does not matter or that losing it is desirable. The point is that financial state and emotional state are related but not identical. If we expect money to manufacture safety, worth, rest, belonging, or freedom for us, we may keep moving the finish line. More becomes necessary because the underlying emotional skill has not yet been practiced.
Ask yourself:
- What do I expect financial abundance to let me feel?
- Which of those feelings are entirely unavailable today?
- Which could I practice in a small, honest way now?
- If I had much more money, what might become uncomfortable, demanding, or unsafe?
That last question often reveals more than another round of positive thinking. A part of us may associate money with people wanting something, pressure to perform, fear of losing creativity, family conflict, unwanted visibility, or the burden of making perfect decisions. The conscious mind says, “I want abundance.” The protective system says, “Do you understand what that could cost us?”
The Channel Worry Has Tuned You To
Attention is selective. When we are worried about money, the nervous system scans for overdue bills, rising prices, threatening headlines, slow sales, and evidence that other people are doing better. These facts may be real, but worry turns them into an all-day broadcast. It becomes difficult to notice help, usable skills, an appreciative client, an expense we no longer have, an idea worth testing, or one next step that is actually within reach.
Changing the channel does not mean pretending the gas tank is full when the gauge says empty. An empty tank calls for practical action. EFT gives us a way to tell the truth about the gauge without making it a prophecy about our worth or our entire future.
Try separating three layers:
- The fact: “This bill is due Friday.”
- The alarm: “I will never be okay. Nothing ever works for me.”
- The available movement: “I can check the amount, make one call, ask one question, or decide what receives priority.”
Regulation does not erase the fact. It helps us hear something besides the alarm.
Tapping: When It Feels Hopeless
Use language that fits your truth. There is no need to jump from “hopeless” to “everything is wonderful.” A believable possibility is enough.
Side of the Hand: Even though part of me believes this will never work for me, I honor how discouraged and stuck I feel.
Even though my mind keeps showing me the same frightening financial future, this fear is trying to protect me from more pain.
Even though I do not know how this changes, I am open to one breath, one bit of relief, and one possibility I could not see while I was bracing.
Top of the Head: This feels hopeless.
Eyebrow: I have been staring at the same evidence.
Side of the Eye: My system expects more of the same.
Under the Eye: It does not want me to be surprised again.
Under the Nose: No wonder I feel stuck.
Chin: I can acknowledge where I am without living here forever.
Collarbone: A frightened prediction is not the whole future.
Under the Arm: I am open to one useful possibility.
Top of the Head: Maybe my financial future can change.
Eyebrow: I do not have to know the whole route.
Side of the Eye: I can notice what feels warmer or more alive.
Under the Eye: I can take one step that is within reach.
Under the Nose: I can let support count.
Chin: I can let a small success register.
Collarbone: I am learning a different relationship with money.
Under the Arm: For now, possibility is enough.
Take a breath. Look around and name one resource that is here now and one practical movement you can make next.
Guidance Rarely Arrives as a Five-Year Plan
When certainty has become our price of admission, guidance can seem absent. We demand a full plan—with the outcome guaranteed—before taking the first step. But living guidance is often much quieter. One option feels warmer, lighter, more interesting, or more spacious. Another feels colder, heavier, or constricted. We try something small, receive new information, and adjust.
This is not an argument against budgets, research, or thoughtful planning. It is a way to keep planning from becoming an attempt to control every future variable. A rigid plan may soothe anxiety temporarily while shutting out information that could only arrive through movement.
Consider a decision you are facing. Instead of asking, “Which choice guarantees success?” try:
- Which option has a little more life in it?
- What is the smallest reversible experiment?
- What information would that experiment give me?
- What support would make the step feel safer?
- Am I asking intuition to remove all risk, or to help me move with risk wisely?
What Feels Unsafe About Having More?
Sometimes the clearest abundance work begins after we imagine receiving what we want. Picture a meaningful increase in income, clients, visibility, or savings. Then notice the first objection.
Perhaps people would pressure you. You might become someone your family distrusts. You could lose what you gained and feel foolish. You might need to maintain a pace your body cannot sustain. You might fear becoming greedy, isolated, or responsible for everyone else.
These are not proof that you should remain limited. They are specifications for the kind of abundance your system can welcome. You may need abundance with boundaries, privacy, rest, integrity, trustworthy advice, shared responsibility, and permission to remain recognizably yourself.
Tapping: It May Be Safer to Receive
Side of the Hand: Even though more money and success could bring demands I do not want, I respect the part of me that has been guarding my freedom.
Even though abundance has not always looked safe, kind, or sustainable in the examples I have known, I can define it differently.
Even though I cannot guarantee that nothing difficult will happen, I am open to receiving with boundaries, discernment, and support.
Top of the Head: More could mean more pressure.
Eyebrow: People might want too much from me.
Side of the Eye: I could lose myself trying to keep it.
Under the Eye: I might make a wrong decision.
Under the Nose: My protector has reasons to hesitate.
Chin: It does not have to choose between scarcity and overwhelm.
Collarbone: I can receive without surrendering my boundaries.
Under the Arm: I can grow at a pace my body can integrate.
Top of the Head: Abundance can include rest.
Eyebrow: It can include privacy and choice.
Side of the Eye: It can circulate without controlling me.
Under the Eye: I can ask for wise help.
Under the Nose: I can remain generous without becoming responsible for everyone.
Chin: I can remain creative and recognizably myself.
Collarbone: I am allowed to make abundance feel like mine.
Under the Arm: I welcome one safe, pleasing increase.
Pause and notice whether your image of abundance feels different. If not, make the imagined increase smaller until curiosity becomes available.
Practice Abundance Before You Prove It
The practice can be modest and concrete. Feel the chair supporting you. Notice clean water, a working device, a skill you can use, a person you can contact, a choice you still have, or the courage required to face a financial fact. Let it register for several seconds rather than racing past it.
Gratitude is not a demand to be pleased with everything. It is training in receiving what is genuinely supportive. Desire is still welcome. You can appreciate the oxygen in this breath and also want more spacious finances. You can value what is working and change what is not.
Abundance grows as we become more able to notice value, tolerate receiving, choose our focus, act on guidance, and recover when circumstances change. Money is part of that living flow. It no longer has to carry the impossible assignment of proving that we are safe, successful, or worthy enough to live.
Session Audio
This Guide was adapted from a Thriving Now workshop session with Rick Wilkes and Cathy Vartuli, recorded July 13, 2008. The transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
Emotional regulation can support clearer choices, but it is not a substitute for qualified financial, legal, tax, or mental health guidance when you need it.