We have all likely noticed from experience that when something we want or need is in short supply, or even perceived to be in short supply, we can become anxious or obsessive in our thinking about the thing that is limited (or perceived to be limited). This can apply to many areas of our lives, whether it is money, time, relationships, food, clothing, or other material items.

I know for me, I find myself struggling with this a lot in the area of time. I tend to too often live in this perpetual “emergency, fight-or-flight state” of feeling like I don’t have enough time, even though there is generally plenty of time to do the things that I want or at least need to do. When I feel like time is in short supply I end up feeling anxious and obsessive about time. This leads to unpleasant side effects like jam-packing my days, running through the day at too fast a pace, and a lack of margin, rest, and presence. When I was studying for my RD exam, I perceived and experienced such scarcity of time (whether that was self-induced or not is another question…) that even when I had a bit of time to rest on the weekends it was hard for me to fully rest and relax because I was anxiously and obsessively worrying about the lack of adequate time to rest!

This type of thinking is what can be thought of as a scarcity mindset. A scarcity mindset is when you are experiencing or perceiving a lack of something, leading to obsessive thinking about the thing that is limited (in actuality or in your perception). While time is one of the biggest ways I experience this now, I certainly used to experience this a lot with FOOD and still can from time to time (albeit in more normal and at times, unavoidable ways).

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