Always Remember, You Are Enough
Life is more challenging these days than ever.
As personal, local, and global conflicts and worries ramp up, it's easy to get caught in a downward spiral of despair. With this comes feelings of inadequacies that can feel like having a thousand-pound gorilla on your chest.
These are the times you must not forget that, no matter where you are...
...no matter what you have (or don't)...
...no matter what you can do in a day...
...you are always enough. It is enough.
Always Remember You Are Enough
Right now, repeat the word enough 5 times in your head. You can also choose to say it out loud if you'd like (I usually say it in my head).
Breathe in and say "enough."
Breathe out and say "enough."
Breathe in and say "enough."
Now breathe out and say "enough."
Now breathe in and say "enough."
That's it.
As you go through your day whenever you think of it, say the word enough in your head. You can repeat it over and over again or simply just once. You'll start noticing synchronicities with the word, enough. People will be using it in conversations, you'll see it on tattoos, billboards, posters around town, and even hear it on the radio. Every time this happens you know you are in the flow.
These synchronicities are little messages from the divine to you.
Another perspective of enough is, when is enough, enough? As in, what we have in the way of life goods and this is the perspective I'd like to look at today. Life goods include everything under the category of food, clothing, shelter, plus extras like books, music, vacations, scuba diving, expensive instruments, outdoor equipment, motorcycles, etc. you know the "extras" that we love so much. Oh, and our financial portfolios and investments.
Now I bet you're nervous. But please don't be nervous. No one is going to tell you that you have to give any of this up.
I'd like to share a little story from my life and then bring this around full circle with the topic for today.
I grew up in a middle-class family. Only when I became an adult did I realize that we didn't have much money at all. I never knew this as a child because I always had food in my belly, beautiful clothes to wear that my mom, Dad, and grandma or even sisters had sewn or knitted, and a father that made all of life an adventure. What we call "hardships" from an adult perspective were turned into a team adventure. We survived because the adults in my life were very clever and resourceful. The memories of my life with my family are truly my greatest blessing.
I realize that I never knew of my family's financial hardships because of a Scandinavian word called Logum. This is a tradition that started with the first senate meeting in Iceland a couple of thousand years ago. A senate in all of Scandinavia is called a Riksdal to this day. The governments of Iceland, Greenland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have created their economic governing based on Logum.
Logum literally means "enough." The idea of logum is that every member of society has enough. Has enough food, clothing, shelter, education, and extras such as cars, vacations, health, exercise, retirement etc. Logum or Enough doesn't mean "barely enough" but enough to thrive and prosper, to not have to worry because in the Scandi mentality, worrying is bad for one's health. The happiest countries in the world are the Scandi countries. The idea of "logum" also works to prevent greed or as the Scandi's say "more than Logum" or "more than enough."
The Scandi view is that if you have more than enough and we're talking vast excess then you put your community in the way of great harm and illness. There becomes such an imbalance that the community will see poverty, illness, less education, malnutrition, and so on. Greed is the seed for a community's collapse. Even the person who is greedy has a vast emptiness inside them that can't be satiated for fear of not having "enough". The Scandis are always looking for that balance and I think the research shows that they have done it successfully. In ancient days people who didn't practice Logum were killed because of the illness they could spread throughout an entire government and community. Now they're just taxed 90% of anything over Logum. Because my family culturally holds the idea of Logum, I never knew that we were poor because in their minds we weren't.
We had enough.
So let's look at our American life for a moment. During the course of our entire lifetime, the advertisers and government have always presented things from the point of view of "lack of." We're always being told we'll never have enough money, so we need to work three jobs and 60 hours a week.
To make matters worse, because we'll never have enough money, we'll never have the cool stuff we *think* we need to be successful. We'll never be able to buy enough insurance to cover all of the calamities of life. We'll never have the "nest egg" set aside for when the world goes to heck.
Simply, we are told over and over again that we are not enough and we don't have enough. We need to make more money to get more stuff. We get on the treadmill at an early age to work for the big house that we barely get to see because we're working so hard to make the money to pay for it, and the car, and the retirement fund, etc. We spend our whole lives working towards a retirement which will be our "one day" when we can sit down.
By that time the American people are so damned tired, or their health is so poor, that wish list just stays in the drawer. This country is a consumer-based country and one that is filled with fear and the "lack" mentality. Does our country function? In America, the philosophy is that one can never have enough. Even if you have it all there is always more of something to get somewhere. It's completely fear-based. We know from spiritual leaders that anything which is fear-based cannot grow and will ultimately die. The way we cure "lack of" is to look at "enough."
Today, and in the days following, I'd like us to look at when is enough, enough?
Today, we're just looking at our life needs.
Today, I can sit here and tell you that I have enough.
I am so thankful for this and honestly, I feel blessed that I could create this place of enoughness for myself. I think that's a big deal for a woman who grew up in a culture that told us a "man" had to take care of us. We needed to be provided for. I view it as a big accomplishment.
All we have is this moment. When We have fear of "lack of" it always has to do with the future but that moment isn't here yet. Sitting here thinking the "what if's" of tomorrow means we're missing this moment. I think I can say that both you and I are greatly blessed at this very moment.
All we have is this moment. Ask yourself the question, In this moment do I have enough?
Breathe in and say "enough."
Breathe out and say "enough."
Breathe in and say "enough."
Now breathe out and say "enough."
Now breathe in and say "enough."
I found this particular meditation very useful in helping me rid my "fear" of not having enough one day. I just kept saying this meditation until I didn't feel fear in my heart anymore. At first, this meditation felt uncomfortable to me. When I realized that the world economy didn't crash because I was doing this meditation, it got easier each time I did it. To expand, as we're doing, we need to become fearless. For me, this means the absence of fear.
Fear and worry are bullies.
Fear can never serve us and we need to work through its triggers to release ourselves of it. Enough has always had a big fear trigger for me.
So for today, and in the days that follow, just know that all is well! You are Enough!
I will be sharing more of my thoughts in an upcoming podcast (along with many other relevant topics!) on The Mongata Podcast. Go here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Other Links and Ways to Connect
Thrive: Living a Self Healed Life https://www.valariebudayr.com/thrive-book-1
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