Lessons of abundance: be a river, not a dam

Monday, June 27, 2005 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: abundance, karma, material wealth

People always ask me about the secret to abundance. They say, "How can you give away so much, Mike, and still attract so much abundance at the same time?" Actually, that's the whole secret right there. Be a river, not a dam, and abundance of all kinds (financial and otherwise) will flow through you.

This article is a discussion about what I call "money harmony" or "energy harmony". Being a river means being the kind of person who is a conduit, who allows resources, including money, to flow through you rather than being the kind of person who tries to dam up the flow of energy and selfishly keep it all for yourself. This whole discussion gets rather philosophical, but it's also quite practical as you'll soon see.

There is a system at work in the universe that distributes resources to those who are the most responsible in putting them to good use. Of course, there's a competing system at work, too. That is a system that results in resources being collected in the hands of people who are deceitful, who cheat others, who are dishonest, unethical and so on. That system definitely works for some corporations and some individuals, but the price they pay for that is much too high.

I advocate a system that allows you to be rewarded for being a conduit of responsible use of money and resources. In this system, the universe acts almost as if it were a conscious dispatcher of resources. This consciousness takes a look at who is allowing resources to flow through them, distributing them and putting them to good use. It then rewards or replenishes that person with more resources, usually much more than what they allow to flow through them. So if you're the kind of person that donates money or time to a constructive purpose, and you approach it with the attitude of being a river and not a dam, you will be blessed with far more wealth than you give to others.

Health flows

Let's return to the metaphor of being a river and not a dam. Healthy rivers flow; water continues to move downstream and it gets replenished from an upstream source. In that river you'll find all kinds of life: fish, micro-algae and plants. But if you dam up that river, you cause stagnation. You stop the flow.

This is what happens when people try to covet money. They try to collect money and put it all in their pockets without sharing with anyone. They become a collector or a dam rather than a conduit. What happens when water starts collecting and it's not moving? It begins to stagnate; it becomes brackish and the life in it dies. The energy becomes a negative energy and it's not the kind of place that people want to be around.

This is also true with people. People who operate on greed and whose main purpose is to try to collect and control resources, rather than share them, are not well-liked by other people. They won't be successful in any business endeavor, other than by using methods of deceit and dishonesty. The dam model is the model of stagnation.

If you function as a dam in life you're typically espousing a philosophy of scarcity. This is how a lot of people accidentally end up functioning as dams. They approach life with a fear... a fear of not having enough. They're afraid they won't have enough food or money. They contract and stop the outflow of resources, thinking if they conserve more money, if they try to keep everything for themselves, they will be better protected. And in fact, that only creates a situation of stagnation.

On the other hand, a person who approaches life from a point of view of abundance believes there is more than enough financial wealth for the world and more than enough food. They say, "In my life, I am an abundant person in everything I deal with," and they attract abundance and wealth. That person is going to flow like a river and notice that, even as they allow all of that water to flow downstream to other recipients and provide life further down the line, they are always replenished with new water coming from upstream. It is in fact the flow of that water that keeps it healthy and full of life.

So remember, fear creates constriction or contraction, which leads to stagnation, loss of life and negative energy. On the other hand, sharing or opening up to others through generosity creates abundance; it brings life and broadcasts a higher vibration that attracts people. People want to be around you.

I'm suggesting that you adopt the vibration of abundance, and you can start by giving. It may sound counterintuitive if you're new to any of this, but the best way to become wealthy, in terms of money, friendships, wisdom and everything else that matters in life, is to actually start giving away all of those things. By that I mean, start giving away some of your money. Find a good cause that you can donate to. Start giving information to the people around you. Give the gift of knowledge. Give the gift of time and effort or volunteer somewhere. Make the effort to be part of something constructive.

As you start doing this, you may say, "Well, I was broke before I started this. Now I'm giving away my money and my time, and I'm even more broke." To that I would advise to look where you're coming from. Once again, it's from a perspective of scarcity and fear of not having enough. What if, instead, you started giving away time, financial resources and gifts of knowledge and information, and told yourself that this is an investment? Tell yourself, "I'm investing in others and in the flow of the river, and I know that this investment will come back to me. By taking these actions, I am in fact enhancing my wealth." What if you said that? What would happen?

Be an attractor of abundance

You'll notice that I give away far more information than I charge for. I give away 90 percent of what I write. That is intentional; that's my way of sharing information and allowing the river to flow. A shrewd businessperson who didn't understand this concept might say, "Mike, you could make a lot more money if you stopped giving away all this stuff and started charging people for it." I've heard that before, too. When someone tells me that, however, it indicates they don't understand how to be a river and not a dam.

They don't understand the power of being a river, because once you start to flow, to allow resources to flow through you by helping others, the universe will reward you. It's as if someone made a decision and noticed that you are responsible and you are a good steward of financial resources. You therefore are being granted a much larger collection of those resources.

You must unlearn false beliefs about money

Most of us have been trained that we have to hold on to every single dime and the only way to achieve long-term financial success is to cut our costs and not give away anything that we don't have to give away. Basically, we're taught to pinch pennies.

But I'm coming from a very different point of view, which holds that pinching pennies is exactly the wrong attitude. You should not go around wasting money on silly products you don't need; rather, put your money to a good use. For example, I buy no jewelry. Buying jewelry does nothing for me personally. I don't typically spend a lot of money on clothing, either. I buy only enough clothing to look presentable at board meetings. I dislike fancy cars, and I have no interest in a lot of material stuff. I prefer comfortable clothes, such as hemp pants, silk shirts and materials that feel good and are made from natural fibers. I don't spend a lot of money on frivolous things.

However, I do spend money on good causes. I will send a few thousand dollars worth of food supplies to a needy community, or I'll send emergency preparedness supplies to the American Red Cross. I'll donate money to earthquake victims, tsunami victims or people who are caught in some kind of a natural disaster. I'll donate software to groups that are doing good work and need some technology for their automation. Such acts are more important to me than collecting a lot of consumer products or things I don't really need.

Heal yourself with flow

In a nutshell, that is my own personal secret to abundance. From my experience, this is what really works. You've got to give, have an open heart and be willing to invest in others around you in order to attract more abundance to yourself. Whether your goal is to have financial success, meet new people or heal yourself, you'll find all of those things happening when you're willing to give to others.

In fact, this is a very healing exercise to engage in. If you are knowledgeable about chakras and the energy centers in the body, you are most likely aware that simply giving actually opens up the flow of energy through those chakras. Once again, that returns us to the metaphor of the river: When you give, you flow. At an energetic level, that is exactly what's happening. When you flow, you actually prevent disease and you can start to reverse diseases.

Many diseases are energetically related to stagnation and lack of flow. Heart disease is definitely one of them. It's no coincidence that individuals who aren't willing to give to anyone are said to "have no heart." That's technically quite true. They have no heart health, and they tend to be struck down by heart attacks, strokes or other forms of cardiovascular disease. That saying is part of our reality because it's been based on observation over the years. People who don't give don't flow, and people who don't flow tend to have heart attacks. So by allowing yourself to flow by giving to others and being generous, you will simultaneously attract health and heal yourself.

You will also attract financial abundance, and will meet new people who can help you succeed in practically any endeavor. You will be able to create every bit of the success you imagine (and most likely achieve something far beyond that as well).

With financial wealth comes responsibility

Do you now have a sense for how incredibly powerful this can be in your life? How healing is part of every step here? How healing others is also healing you? All of this is absolutely true. When you heal others, you become healed in the process. When you allow resources and money to flow through you, you will be recognized and rewarded with more resources and more abundance. You'll have so much financial abundance that you won't know what to do with it.

At some point – and it doesn't take very long to get there – you'll have more than you need to feed and clothe yourself and live comfortably. Everything else, then, is excess money. Here's perhaps the most important point of all: when you reach the point where you have more money than you know what to do with, be a responsible host of that money.

Let's say that you receive a nice fat raise to $250,000 / year in salary. "Gee, I've made it. I'm going to have a quarter of a million dollars a year. I've got a lot of money coming in. I'm going to blow it on a world cruise, a brand new Jaguar and this $10,000 necklace I've been wanting." You start loading up on all these luxury items that serve no one but you.

I guarantee the first thing that will happen is that the universe will say, "This person doesn't need any more money, because they sure don't know how to use it." You'll then find that that flow is going to stop. That is the natural order of the universe; it's the way things work.

On the other hand, if you say, "I've got a couple hundred thousand dollars here. I'm going to take 10 percent and donate that to some important causes. I'm going to take another 10 percent and buy some health products for people who need them. I will also go to the nursing home here and work with some patients as a volunteer."

When the universe sees that happening with you, it says, "This person is a wonderful steward of financial abundance. This person knows how to take care of money and put it to a good use. We're going to reward this person with some more money." You'll then find even more abundance headed your way. That's the magic of abundance.

Remember to reward yourself, too

One final thought on this. While this is going on, recognize that as you're receiving financial abundance, you do have the right to spend some of that money on yourself. As long as you are simultaneously sharing and rewarding others around you, you deserve to reward yourself as well.

I find too often that in the natural health industry, people feel guilty spending even one dollar on themselves. That is ridiculous. There is a time and a place to say, "I deserve to have some nice natural-fiber clothes, or to upgrade my automobile to something that's more comfortable and safer. We deserve a nice meal at a fine restaurant, or we deserve to buy organic foods, and move to a better part of town, or to a better part of the country." You deserve to be abundant. But it’s important to do these other things at the same time that you're rewarding yourself. Don't feel guilty about spending money on yourself. Just make sure that you are allowing the flow to others at the same time that you are rewarding yourself.

Now, of course, the purists out there would say we don't need anything material at all. The fewer attachments we have to material wealth, the freer we are. I agree with that completely, but I also recognize that for the vast majority of people in the western world, there's a certain level of "stuff" that's necessary simply to operate in this society.

That's true for myself as well. I couldn't do this work without having lots of computer equipment and a comfortable place to write. I couldn't talk about nutrition and physical exercise if I didn't invest in nutritional supplements and exercise equipment. So there's a certain level of physical infrastructure that's necessary to even have a conversation with those in the western world. But the key is to gather what you need to do your job (and pursue your mission) without going crazy on the accumulation of stuff.

There's a saying in the west: "He who dies with the most toys wins." And actually, it's completely backwards. In reality, he who accumulates the most toys dies while still alive, because he turns into a dam and stagnates. The measure of a person is not how much she accumulates in life, but how much she helps others.

Understanding this flow of energy is truly one of the secrets to abundance. You can call it energetic, you can call it karma or you can call it a spiritual approach. It doesn't matter what you call it; it's the way the universe works. If you flow, you will be blessed with more resources than you know what to do with.

It may be time to look at your life and be honest with yourself about what you do with your money. Be honest about what you do with your time, and what your reasons are for getting involved with any endeavor. If you don't have the most altruistic reasons yet, or perhaps you don't have any altruism at all, it may be time to redefine yourself.

You can alter your flow in an instant

We can choose to change at any time we want. Even if we've never given a penny to anyone in our entire lives, we can make a change right now, and make a donation today. We can restructure the river inside of us right now. It only takes one decision and one action. You can restructure your life from this moment forward; you can create the flow even if you’ve never had it.

If you have a river that's dammed up and the water is stagnant, brackish and lifeless, you can tear down that dam. The water will break through and begin to flow downstream, and all that brackish water will empty out and be replenished by new, fresh water. With that new, fresh water will come new life, oxygen, plants, fish, living creatures and energies of incredible joy and health. You can do that right now by making the decision and breaking down any dams inside your own belief systems that may have been stopping the flow of resources. You can create a river of abundance in your own life right now.