When Scarcity Imprints Create Anxiety - Week 8
Why you might still feel anxious, even when your life looks "abundant."
Anxiety and the Energy of Lack
You’ve done the work and yet…
You hold gratitude, understand the nature of abundance, and yet the bank account dwindles or the deeper part still says we can’t have what we truly desire. And I am not talking Insta-famous stuff here. Instead the deepest desires and old programming around abundance, feeling safe, financially safe, loved and secure, are rising to the surface.
Know that what we are experiencing is profoundly human. and incredibly common for those on a spiritual path who have already done deep inner work, yet still feel the grip of anxiety around money, worth, and / or survival.
Even when external signs of abundance show up (spiritual awareness, meaningful relationships, even material comfort), early programming around money and safety can continue to override your present reality. This conditioning, wired into your body, nervous system and identity doesn’t just affect how you think - it also directly fuels anxiety at a somatic level.
The Scarcity: The Imprint of Lack
If you were raised in lack, you learned:
That there is never enough money
That it’s unsafe to relax around money
That survival means ‘making do’
These beliefs get wired into your nervous system, not just your thoughts. So even if you affirm abundance mentally, your body might still react as if scarcity is the norm.
If your body doesn’t feel safe having or holding money, you will unconsciously find ways to spend it, repel it, or avoid receiving it fully.
Here’s how anxiety and lack might still be linked in your system, and what you can begin doing to gently release the old story:
Scarcity Is a Nervous System Imprint, Not Just a Thought
If you grew up in lack, surrounded by tension around money, survival, or "not enough," your body learned:
To brace for instability
That safety is temporary
That having more might mean loss, guilt, or threat
Even if your conscious mind says, “I’m okay now,” your nervous system may still operate in survival mode, interpreting financial decisions, stillness, or success as danger. This ongoing tension can fuel background anxiety even when there’s no immediate threat.
🌿 Healing begins when we teach the body it’s safe to receive, hold, and rest in enoughness.
The Anxious Identity of “Not Enough”
Over time, your Ego may have woven an identity around scarcity, such as:
“I’m good at surviving or getting by.”
“I am resourceful in struggle.”
“If I have more might make me unsafe, guilty or disconnected from my roots.”
“It’s not okay to have more when others have less.”
This identity is familiar and protective even though it is reinforcing the loop of anxiety. Shifting it can feel threatening because sometimes discomfort is comfortably uncomfortable.
🌿Releasing anxiety means giving yourself permission to no longer be defined by struggle.
When you are ready to Rewire ‘Enoughness’…
1 Restore a Felt Sense of Safety
There are physical things we can do to change how our deepest subconscious views lack and transform it into something better. Small, consistent practices will calm your body, rewire old patterns and anchor safety in the present moment:
Hold cash or coins. Look at them closely and appreciate they are energy received and given - nothing more. Now hold them in your open hands and with steady breath and appreciation visualise allowing yourself to receive. Notice what this feels like and breathe.
Track daily moments of receiving. Our words and reactions can contribute to rejecting abundance without us even being aware of it. I realised I don’t pick up money when it is given. What little acts are you doing that reject abundance? Isn’t it time to stop that now?
Practice saying:
I accept money with gratitude.
I receive compliments with a simple ‘thank you’.
It is safe to receive and to have.
I am supported.
This retrains your nervous system to associate money with safety and trust, not tension or fear.
🌿These gentle acts tell your nervous system: you are no longer in danger.
2 Redefine Worth Beyond Struggle
You are not your bank balance. But if you were taught that worth = productivity or struggle, you may unconsciously create drama to feel valuable and / or deserving. Our words and thoughts create our reality.
Begin to affirm:
“I am valuable without effort.”
“I don’t need to struggle to be loved, safe, or spiritual.”
“Having enough doesn’t disconnect me from my roots, it lets me give more freely.”
“I am here to learn to expand with ease and grace.”
This helps dissolve the anxiety of not doing enough and reminds you that you already are enough simply because you are a Divine, infinite being in a physical body for a time.
3 Transform Your Relationship with Money
Money often acts as a symbol for survival and control. But what if it became a partner in your purpose?
Try this as a mental or JOURNAL exercise - or discuss it with someone you trust.
How could overflow support freedom, healing, joy, etc
Spend time imagining and perhaps recording what it feels like to allow yourself to receive abundance. Every time you spend 17 seconds or more you are rewriting your trajectory.
Plan what might you say to your conscious mind if it brings forth negative thought patterns - you are in charge of your thoughts.
Remember, money is a neutral energy, not a stressor.
Sometimes these activities might not feel as easy as it could be. If this occurs, remember the law of energy. Where our focus goes, energy flows. Our past thoughts as individuals and as part of Mass Consciousness have held records of lack that have created this present experience. We change our present and our future by refusing to focus on what we feel we don’t have in our lives, and instead insist on thoughts of abundance.
🌿This eases the fight-or-flight loop and brings in a more grounded, co-creative energy.
4 Release Unconscious Family Loyalties
Sometimes, we stay small to stay connected. This can manifest as anxiety around success, wealth, or peace.
Remind your child-self that making yourself small and buying into lack because it was what you were shown when you were younger, no longer serves. That time is past and now is what you make it.
Ask yourself:
“What happens if I have more ease than my family did?”
“Can I be free and still belong?”
A thought: if your Ego says, ‘But they won’t love me if I am different’, what it is really telling you is, ‘I don’t believe I deserve unconditional love.’ Usually it is only the Ego and our families continue to accept us, but if this isn’t the case, we can still choose to grow beyond our family of origin - with love.
Honor your roots and affirm:
🌿“I don’t serve anyone, not even myself, by staying small. I carry your wisdom, not your wounds, and honor you by healing.”
Looking for More?
This meditation is designed to support you to rewrite the internal algorithm.
Restoring the Program of Abundance - A Meditation
This guided meditation, Restoring the Program of Abundance, is a gentle companion to the article Anxiety and the Energy of Lack. Together, they explore how early imprints of scarcity shape our nervous system and sense of worth, and how spiritual healing can restore a felt sense of safety, enoughness, and Divine abundance.
Before you begin, consider the JOURNAL prompts.
Journal Prompts
Where in my body do I feel the energy of "not enough"? What does that part of me remember?
What was I taught about safety, money, and worth and what do I believe now?
What would it feel like, even for a moment, to truly rest in enoughness? Describe in detail, visualise and imagine the FEELING it brings.
Once you have listened to the meditation record what it raised into your awareness to anchor your new awareness.
🌿”I release what was never mine to hold.”
Growing Into Who You Always Were
Anxiety around money or lack isn’t just mental, it is energetically embedded in the body, formed in childhood, other lifetimes or energetic points, and often reinforced by loyalty, identity, and trauma.
Changing this is not just about new strategies, you need to create new embodied experiences of safety, enoughness, and worth. It’s about learning how to feel safe having more.
Peel back the layers to feel safe, supported, and spiritually anchored, remembering abundance IS your Divine and Sovereign right.
Thank you for being here. If you have appreciated this article please click the ❤️, subscribe, share, comment to honor energetic exchange. Thank you from my heart to yours.
Blessed be Dear Ones,
Michelle Cowles
Spiritual Healer/Teacher/Learner
Copyright Michelle Cowles 2025
Find more at: www.michellecowles.com
Disclaimer: The information on this page is general, lifestyle information and should not be used to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease. If this article raises mental health issues, please contact your General Practitioner, mental health worker, or Lifeline on 13 11 14 (Australia) OR find support by country at www.helpguide.org.