Oprah, Lynne Twist, and Sufficiency
In a recent episode of Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday on OWN, she interviews Lynne Twist, author, humanitarian and global visionary, and the Founder of the Soul of Money Institute. In her global initiatives, Twist has had the privilege of working alongside women from all walks of life from wealthy urbanites to indigenous natives whose communities still trade or barter instead of utilizing currency. Twist has distilled the human experience into some beautiful observations and commonalities. She has especially resonant advice for members of a society like America. Maybe this isn’t the first time you’ve heard ideas like hers before, but in a society that espouses the opposite, these concepts are worth revisiting. And for anyone who practices any sort of spirituality, you will likely hear an echo in her statements that reflect the tenets of your core beliefs.
In her work, Lynne holds up a mirror to society and identifies the motivating factor for many of us: the chase for more.
Oprah asks, “How do we create a shift and stop this chase for more.” (Click here to watch the clip from Super Soul Sunday.)
Twist says, “(The chase for more) is a mindset, not a reality. The chase for more is an addiction, a pathology, it’s part of the culture we live in. It’s not our fault and we can extract ourselves from that mindset by turning to pay attention to what we already have and letting go of the chase long enough to appreciate, to be grateful, to nourish what we already have and care for it with love …”
How does this pathological mindset of chasing more affect our souls? Twist responds, “When we deal with money we become people we don’t want to be … When we are dealing on the playing field of money, somehow we drop all of this wonderful sense of value and worth and love and relationship that we have in the rest of life and we become irritable and grumpy and competitive and greedy … People are really wounded in their relationship with money. And not just some people, I think everybody. There is so much suffering in this world in people’s relationship with money
Ironically, when I played the clip of this episode in my browser, the advertisement that preceded it featured a proud woman saying, “I have 450 pairs of shoes from ShoeDazzle … ” The ad featured the hashtag #shoegoals. I mean, I love a great pair of shoes as much as the next gal, but let’s revisit the question, “How much is enough?”
Twist says our culture lives with the myth of scarcity – there’s not enough. But we need to live in a place of sufficiency:
“Sufficiency is a place of wholeness and completeness with a deep understanding of who we are. It’s almost impossible to get to sufficiency in a world that exalts the myth of scarcity. It is a mindset of unexamined assumptions that come before thinking. Everything [looks] like it’s not enough … There’s not enough time. There’s not enough money. There’s not enough love. … It’s the siren song of a consumer culture. But it’s not just about money; it dribbles over into every aspect of life.”
This trickle-down tendency of the scarcity mindset is exactly the reason I advocate doing the work to improve your relationship with money. Once you have examined your assumptions (as Twist suggests) , you can then watch the wellness pour over into other areas of life. Money Therapist Olivia Mellan talks about the money work she does with clients and about how it is intertwined with so many areas of our life. A little money work goes a long way.
So, are you ready to increase your financial wellness? For many of us it’s the last unexamined aspect of our lives. But it’s worth a fortune if you’ll just put in the effort.
Do you need some support in this journey from someone who is an expert guide? Let’s talk.
