46: Abundance vs. Scarcity Mindset

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Feliz Año Nuevo. Happy New Year, everyone. This is Dra. Yvette. It has been several weeks, two and a half months to be exact, since I last recorded an episode for you. It's been roughly every two weeks because I had my maternity lineup of episodes, and I hope that you enjoyed those. But I'm actually really excited to be back. I did take some time off to have a baby. I know that I was really nervous about that. If you didn't know already, I know I've mentioned in a previous episode, perhaps two, that with my first child, when I got pregnant, I was a grad student. I was going through a lot at the time, and I did undergo complications. I hemorrhaged, I lost three liters of blood, and I nearly died giving birth. So taking the risk of getting pregnant again, of trying for another baby, and then going through a relatively smooth and healthy pregnancy, and again, a relatively smooth and healthy birth was very healing for me. But that's not to say that it didn't come with setbacks. Healing from a C section can be difficult. You take two steps forward, and then one step back, and I am still not 100% there in terms of my physical recovery.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

But I'm doing really well, especially with regards to my mental health. With my first child, I did end up developing postpartum depression. I've been very open about that, especially as it relates to the work that I've done with Chicana Mother Work, another collective I'm part of. This time around, I was worried that I would fall into that depression once again. But thankfully, I've actually been feeling really well. I've been experiencing more joy than I think I ever have experienced in my life, which is a lot to say, as someone who has referred to herself as introverted and even pessimistic. Now, I'm not quite feeling that way. I'm finding joy in a lot of things. I'm focusing on gratitude, and I feel so privileged, so blessed, and I want to share that with you all.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

But anyway, today's episode is actually titled, Abundance versus Scarcity mindset. The reason I decided to publish an episode on the topic is because it relates to New Year intentions, which is the last episode that you listened to, and it relates to my own vision board. I think I mentioned that every year, for the last couple of years, I've tried to have a theme or a word of the year. Last year, let's say 2020, the theme of the year was courage, taking big risks, doing things that scare me. In 2019, my focus was healing. Healing the body, mind and soul. In 2018, the focus was stability, especially financial stability, financial literacy, but it was about stability. And so 2021, I was thinking, what is what is going to be my word? What is going to be my theme? I did wait until the last minute to decide.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I think some of it was influenced by my peer group, but my group of friends and just getting to witness amazing fierce mama scholars living their best life, guiltlessly. That, for me, was so motivating because I am living in many ways, my best life right now and I have experienced a lot of guilt. I've had to go to therapy to address that. Where does that guilt come from, and how can I work to reduce it? So being inspired by my peer group, and going to therapy, and going through this transformational birthing process, experiencing so much joy.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I realized that my word for 2021 is abundance. It relates to wanting to have more and give more, and also thinking about this abundance and scarcity mindset. I've learned about the abundance and scarcity mindset, just from reading a few articles here and there. I know that it's talked a lot about among circles in environmental groups, in business groups. But for me, I'm thinking about how it relates to me in my personal life. So what is an abundance consciousness or abundance mindset mean, as opposed to a scarcity mindset? And where does that scarcity mindset come from?

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I have a feeling that since many of you have similar backgrounds as me, coming from low income, girst gen, URM. I grew up with a single mom with six kids in the Northeast San Fernando Valley, predominantly immigrant, Latinx community. I got accustomed to having the scarcity mindset, because I grew up poor and not having a lot, not having access to a lot of resources. Now, my circumstances are very different. And they are going to be very different for you all, believe it or not, because most of you are working on getting your degrees. Most of you are also aiming to pursue an advanced degree, that's why you're listening to my podcast. So your circumstances will change. Even if they don't change soon enough, you can still kind of gain this abundance mindset to attract and manifest bigger, better things that are going to help you get to where you want to be.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I'll keep talking about this, but let me just define what these mentalities mean to me or how I'm interpreting them. Let's start with the scarcity mindset. The scarcity mindset means viewing life as limited, and as only having a certain number of things, whether it's money or resources or access. So that if one person gets something, that means there's less available for you. Feeling like there's only a finite amount of x, of whatever that thing is, and that these things can run out. For instance, that your money is going to run out. That your access to resources is going to run out. That if someone got a scholarship, that means that you're probably not going to get it. Just feeling like there's only so much.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Abundance, on the other hand, is this idea that there's more than enough for everyone and that it's almost never ending. Just that there's a plentiful amount of whatever it is- of money, of resources, access to things. And you just gotta go out and get it. When you're pursuing opportunities, it's feeling like they are limitless, feeling like if you don't get one thing, move on to the next and eventually you're gonna get thing that you're working on. A lot of times folks who have an abundance mindset tend to be grateful for what they have, are willing to work more with others, are really happy to see others succeed, and are more willing to set goals and take risks and willing to kind of embrace change. Versus the scarcity mindset, where you may be afraid of change. You may secretly not want someone to get something, or you're hoping that they fail. You may criticize others or hold grudges, or just feel like there's just not enough, that everything is constantly running out.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

For me, I want to focus on abundance because I feel like for so long, I have had this scarcity mindset especially when it comes to money and finances. I've been so scared to even treat myself to things, scared to go out and do new things, scared of failure. Oh my goodness, that is a big one. Especially for someone like me, who grew up being very perfectionistic, wanting to please others. I was always afraid of displeasing others. I was always afraid of not doing things the right way. I was afraid of trying new things. So this time around, I want to do a little bit more.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I know I shared my vision board on Instagram, and that vision board says read more, be more active, more smoothies. So it's focusing on the more and not less. Be more active, as opposed to try to eat less, or try to watch less TV or whatever it is. That's focusing on the negative, I'm trying to focus on the positive. What can I do more of to make- so for instance, more smoothies. If I drink more smoothies, I'm making more room for the smoothie. That means I never believe I'm gonna eat less of the unhealthy foods I've been eating.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I also have prioritize rest. As much as I want to do more, I also have a newborn, an infant who takes up a lot of my time, my partner's time. I'm also very tired. I'm exhausted. We're not sleeping very much, but that's just how it is when you have a baby. And even now, she's sleeping way more, but I'm still pumping milk to breastfeed her every three hours. So I'm not resting or sleeping as much, but I'm trying to rest more, finding moments for rest. I'm still trying to pay off my credit card debt and student debt. It's going down a lot more. It's gone down a lot more in the last couple of years, but I did put a halt to it because of 2020, and all the changes that came with it. I want to kind of get back to that.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Skin, hair and body care, that's part of my self care. There's a lot of different ways for you to focus on your self care. Those are just the ones that I'm trying to focus on. I've been very good at my skin care. Not as much with hair and body care, which is why I'm trying to prioritize that. I may post a picture of myself, because I'm trying to embrace my wavy hair. And I've got quality time with my partner, because with two kids, it's really hard to find one on one time. So we're gonna have to figure it out and prioritize that.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

And then laugh more. If you don't know me very well, which most of you don't. I actually, when I crack up, I have a very loud laugh. Some people say that it's contagious. Some people say that you can hear it from a mile away. My laugh is so loud that I've actually made my baby cry. I've startled her. I've scared her. I've woken her up, because my laugh is so loud. She's getting used to it now, but initially, every time I would laugh and crack up, she'd cry. But laughing more. I've noticed that the days that I laugh the most are actually the days that I feel the happiest. So I'm trying to find ways to laugh more.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Then I also have a goal related to the podcast. I put 2k followers and 200 listeners. Right now I have a consistent, a little over 100 listeners. So there's like 100 of you out there, that every time I post an episode, you listen to it right away. And I've got how many thousands of listens? I should probably check. But I have, I don't know, 8000 listens or more. That's like total number of listens. But I do have about 100 of you who consistently kind of follow the podcast and listen to it. Then on Instagram, I have 800 and something followers. So those of you that just kind of see my posts, but maybe don't necessarily listen to my podcasts consistently. I want to just increase it.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I'm not trying to aim huge, because again, I'm trying to keep my goals realistic. Given that I have a full time job. I've got my Chicana Mother Work collective. I've got my two kids. I'm homeschooling. I'm trying to make time for my partner. All these things that I'm trying to make time for. But I think aiming for 2000 followers is not a bad thing. You all can help me with that by tagging your friends if you find these episodes helpful. And having 200 consistent listeners. When I started this podcast, I told myself, if I can just help one person out there, aside from the students I work with in McNair, if I can help just one more person aside from that with what I post on my podcast, then I've done my job. This is a resource that I've created for you all so that you have access. I believe in accessibility. I believe in giving and sharing, sharing knowledge, sharing the wealth. That's why I have this podcast, and I hope that you'll share it with your friends who you think might benefit from it.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Those are all the things that I'm focusing on this year. I'm in my thirties, so obviously, my vision board, my goals are gonna look completely different from yours. I know by the time you listen to this episode, it's gonna be January eighth or ninth when it gets published. It's still early enough for you to work on a vision board. Don't feel like you had to do it in late December, or right around the new year. You can still work on a vision board, so long as it's still January. Even February, there's still a lot of time. Go ahead and work on one. What I did was, in the past I worked on it on a poster board with magazines. This time around, I just didn't have the energy to gather all the arts and crafts to work on a poster board. So I worked on mine on Canva. A lot of us work on Canva to create our flyers. That's how I create my flyers for my Instagram account.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

It was really easy. I literally just searched vision board on the Canva search tab, found a template, and I had my things. I really enjoyed it. I've also seen colleagues of mine, friends of mine, who have have used, like for instance, a prop or a toy, like a wooden horse or an animal of some sort. And then painting it and then gluing some of the words that you're focusing on, like a vision unicorn, or vision horse, or vision owl, or whatever animal you choose to use. Then just putting these words that kind of inspire you, and then having that on your desk, or your dresser, or somewhere that you see regularly as this reminder of the things you want to focus on this year. I haven't done that. I think it's a really neat idea. I just haven't done it myself. But since I created it on Canva, and it's almost like a flyer, I actually have it on my desktop as my desktop background. So literally every time I go to the computer to work, I'm looking at it and I'm being reminded of, okay, this year is about abundance. This year is about trying to do more, but also rest more but also laugh more. It's a really nice thing.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

That's why I wanted to talk about the abundance versus scarcity mindset, because if you're finding yourself feeling negative, feeling pessimistic, feeling like just everything is going wrong, feeling hopeless. Just know that there is more out there for you, that you just gotta keep going. You gotta embrace the changes that are coming in your life. Don't give up. Keep working towards your goals, and before you know it little by little, you're gonna get there. You may have setbacks. Temember two steps forward, one step back. You know, life is, progress is not linear. It's cyclical. Healing is not linear, it's cyclical. You may have kind of move forward, and then you might experience a few setbacks. That's okay. You know, just because I feel great now, doesn't mean that I might not feel depressed later. I acknowledge that that may happen. But I know what to do now, to access resources, to get better. That keeps me hopeful.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I think that's all I want to share for today. I have a great lineup for this year. So many ideas, just from you all, from Instagram, from your emails to me. Also, I'm thinking, I may try out some group workshops with my listeners, if you're interested in just workshops to apply for grad school, to apply for scholarships and fellowships, or just to receive advice on how to prep for grad school. I'm open to it. I think some zoom workshops would be really neat to meet my listeners, and to make it accessible, affordable for you all, especially if it's in a group setting. I can reach a lot more people. What else? Aside from workshops and episodes, perhaps creating more handouts of information that I can share with you all, more giveaways.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Those are some of the ideas I have for this year. I'm still developing them. Again, I'm just fresh out of my maternity leave. I'm recording this the weekend before January 4, and it's my last weekend at home with my baby. After that, I'll still be working from home for a little while, up until our university declares it's safe for us to go back to work in person. But it's not going to be the same. It's so bittersweet, because I definitely enjoyed my maternity leave. But I also really enjoy my job and enjoy recording these episodes. So I'm both looking forward to getting back to work, and also going to be missing the time that I'm spending with my baby. But again, I'm grateful. That gratitude of having the privilege of maternity leave. I know not everybody gets to have one. Even though it wasn't the full 12 weeks like some people get, I think it was maybe 10 weeks that I took off. But anyway, I'm going off topic. I really hope you get to work on your vision boards. Think about your goals for 2021. Embrace an abundance mindset and see what you manifest this year. I'll talk to you all later.