A New Understanding of Abundance

My review of BelindaGrace's new book, You Are Abundant.




I have been aware of Australian psychic, clairvoyant and spiritual healer BelindaGrace for some years. When I worked at Adyar bookshop she launched her first book You Are Clairvoyant, and it was a great success, as were the events with her that we hosted. Indeed, You Are Clairvoyant has become something of an international hit, being published in the US by Llewellyn and about to be launched in an Italian edition!I was interested to read her new book, You Are Abundant, and find out just what she might have to say about abundance, a concept that is surprisingly problematic and which many people express reservations about.

Of course, from the outset I need to say that Belinda's ideas about abundance are not the usual ramped-up quests for super-riches that you might be familiar with from an older generation of self-help books. There are no injucntions in this book to tape fake cheques for a million dollars on your bedroom ceiling. And while I'm not making fun of the quest for material abundance - I spend anough of my time in places in the world where material comforts are all too rare and not to be viewed with cynicism - I am still happy to see a writer enlarging and enriching the concept of abundance to include an inner spiritual wellbeing and an acknowledgemnent of the incredible gifts that each of us lives with every day: the gift of existence, of family, friends and regular meals, the simple gift of being.

What Abundance Used to be About

If you've ever read some of the hoary old classics of New Thought you will know that traditionally we have been talking about the material world when we discuss abundance. New dresses, nicer cars and more comfortable homes: these were the understandable concerns and desires of people who had grown up in materially more restricted times. But we are in the midst of a new paradigm, and BelindaGrace's wonderful book is part of that re-structuring of the concept of abundance. Few of us really want to use our mental and spiritual powers to increase our sales or pay for a mediterranean cruise. This was the old world, the world in which we knew we "should" have certain material markers of success. But BelindaGrace wants us to abandon these "shoulds." Instead we can replace them with an acknowledgement of the wonderful things that fill our lives, and cultivate an attitude of gratitude that acknowledges the immense abundance of our universe. As Belinda says, "Every time you express a small inward or outward 'thank you' for anything at all, you are adding to a spiritual savings account that will bring abundant returns."

Messages from the Angels

Interestingly, Belinda states that the messages contained in You Are Abundant are from the angels. And as such they express a certain lightness of being, along with a profundity and depth that help the reader towards a re-understanding of being. The book is filled with the most wonderful meditation exercises (some of which I have had the great good fortune to have been led through by Belinda herself).




Probably my favourite is the "re-parenting exercise," a 15 minute process in which you work through your childhood hurts and re-cast your situation in a healing and positive light. There is such simplicity in all of Belinda's exercises and ideas, and this is the kind of book that you could offer to anyone who wanted to gain a deeper understanding of themselves. Belinda's great gift of expression means her book is a delight to read, and all of the meditative exercises are straightforward and down-to-earth, devoid of the cringe-factor which can make some New Age exercises difficult to digest.

The Basic Program of BelindaGrace's Journey Towards Abundance:

Be Prepared for a 'Threshold Phase'

Things don't always run smoothly, and sometimes after a run of good luck and good results we can happen onto a difficult patch. This is a perfectly natural part of our development.

Get Back to the Divine Feminine

We have lost grasp of the power of the Divine Feminine, and it is to the detriment of our culture. Belinda gives us a wonderful meditative exercise which is powerful tool to re-awakening this side of our spirituality.

Get Over Your Fears

To quote Belinda: "Many people are secretly haunted by the fear that they don't really deserve a happy life, even when they strive to be an aware person and do the best they can." Most of us are incapable of forgiving ourselves, but doing so is essential.

Don't Blame Others for the Spread of Negative Energy

If we're being honest, most of us would concede that we do our bit in spreading all kinds of negative energy in the world, mostly through gossip, criticism and shallow judgenent. Until we take responsibility for this, we can never free our lives of the results of negativity. Be honest and change yourself before you worry about others.


What Makes Belinda so Fascinating?

I had a lovely coffee with BelindaGrace at Berkelouw's bookshop on Norton St. in Sydney's trendy Leichhardt, followed by the most amazing couple of hours in which she led a free workshop where she shared her ideas, her insights and her wonderful energy.

BelindaGrace and Walter Mason chatting at Berkelouw's Bookshop, Norton St., Leichhardt


Her enthusiasm is infectious, as is her commitment to constant learning and development. Indeed, she says in her book "If you haven't been learning anything new lately then you are missing out on a big part of why you are here. Go out and explore the world..." And in her book that is exactly the quality she is encouraging - the quality of curious investigation and the desire to progress and to become a better person.
She advocates meditation and provides a number of practical, short and really amazing meditation exercises in the book. What BelindaGace is talking about is not a simple quest for material abundance, but a deeper and more nuanced internal abundance tied to an overall spiritual view of life. And once we have developed this spiritual abundance we frequently find that a material abundance evolves out of it, as if by accident.
If it's been a long time since you've read a book about spirituality, or if you are naturally skeptical about the genre, then this might just be the book for you. Let BelindaGrace's charm and her down-to-earth tone help you to re-shape some of your more limiting beliefs and open you up to a world of intuition and possibility.

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