ep. 039 • are you attracting abundance?

Chelsea: Over the years, there's something that I've learned that's been incredibly impactful as it relates to generating more money in my business and, in general, creating a more abundant life and a more fruitful, positive, fulfilling life – both on the personal and professional side – and that is the way that I am attracting or manifesting those things that I want on a daily basis. Oftentimes, this is something that goes unheard of or unspoken about as we have conversations around what it takes to make more money, specifically. 

And so, in today's episode, I want to have a little conversation with you about the law of attraction, what it is to attract abundance, how to live in abundance, and how to reconfigure and rewire, if you will, your belief systems to allow for a more abundant present and future outcome.

So, without further ado, let's jump right in.  

Welcome to the Hennapreneur podcast – the exclusive podcast of its kind dedicated to giving you an honest look at the realities of making a living as a henna professional.

I'm your host, Chelsea Stevenson, a tea-loving, shoe-collecting mother of three in constant search for the most popping pair of earrings and the perfect shade of red lipstick.

I'm also a professional henna artist and business strategist who went from barely being able to piece together a fluid design to being the owner of the most celebrated henna boutique in my city.

I'm on a mission to help henna professionals, to harness their skills and grow vibrant, profitable businesses that they absolutely love.

If you want to make more money with your art, you are definitely in the right place. Let's get to it!

Hey, hey, hennapreneurs! Welcome back to another episode of the Hennapreneur Podcast. 

Today, I have a question for you. Have you heard of, do you believe in, or are you familiar with the idea of the Law of Attraction? 

So, this is something that is really, really relevant as it relates to not just business, but life in general and just the way that we shape the realities that we experience.

This episode is going to be a little bit "woo", and also, I need you to just hear me and understand that whether you agree or whether this seems, like, a little far-fetched to you, these are things that have made a serious impact, and I do mean a serious, tangible impact in my own life and in my own journey – not just as, you know, as a mom and as just a human, right, experiencing life in a way that I desire: wanting to have that richness and that fullness and that full sense of fulfillment in my personal life, but also as it relates to my business, specifically, and how I show up in my business and, ultimately, the bottom dollar, right, the revenue that my business generates. 

And so, I want to talk to you guys a little bit about the Law of Attraction, because this is something that as I started to learn more about it and lean into it, the more I realized that it truly does have a strong effect in the results that I was seeing in my life and, and in the things that I was building and continue to build. 

So, the premise of the Law of Attraction is very simple, right? It's, essentially, that positive thoughts attract positive outcomes and negative thoughts yield negative outcomes. 

Now, that seems simple enough and there are many, many different people with many, many different thought methodologies and ideologies. And when we get into the Law of Attraction and we get into quantum physics, in general, and manifestation and all of these things, there's a lot of opportunity for things to go in many different directions. And I don't really want to take you down the super woo path, because I don't think that it's necessary in the context of this conversation. But also, like, I just want to acknowledge that this is a content matter, if you will, that has a lot of different nuances. There's some nuance about it, yet the premise is very simple, okay? And so that's kind of where I'd like for us to start. 

So, while there is so much space for us to get woo, you know, here, the fact is that when we feel positively and we lean into positive energy, we behave differently. And that's really what I want to call your attention to. 

When we feel positively about the possibility that exists in front of us, about the openness of possibility that exists for us in our lives and in our businesses, we behave differently. We take risks. We take tangible actions. We allow ourselves to move outside of our comfort zone because we are believing in the possibility that everything is going to turn out great or that everything is going to turn out in our favor or that the universe, if you will, is at play, you know, making for us, or presenting for us, or preparing for us the outcome that we're looking for and that we're hoping for.

And this isn't... this isn't rocket science here, right? Like, when you feel good about something, when you feel you're called to do something, or when you feel this sense of security in that you are going to receive a good result, right? 

When you feel that sense of security and positivity and optimism, then you behave differently. And where we focus our energy is where we can expect to see results. 

So if you are focusing positive energy towards your big, audacious goals, then you can expect to see positive results in those goals as well, right? 

And so, this is where I want to, like, start with that premise because I think that it's super important for us to have this grounded foundation, if you will, for the context of this conversation, because I see so many hennapreneurs who really, really deeply struggle with this. 

And I wish that we could have more conversations around it. I wish that we could see more change. I wish that I could see more change in our industry because, first of all, as artists, typically, we tend to lean into things that are more, you know, woo. Or we tend to be a little bit more open. Like, that's just kinda the nature of who we are as creative individuals, right? 

And at the same time, I see so much in terms of, like, limiting beliefs limiting belief system that hennapreneurs, specifically, hold. And it really is self-defeating and it really is something that causes us to get into our own ways.

So, we have to be mindful of our subconscious mind, right? We need to be aware of our subconscious mind as that is responsible for around 95% of our outcomes in general, because it's responsible for 95% of our actions, okay? 

So, this is the thing – our subconscious mind informs all of our behaviors, our actions, our identities. And this is super important because the way that we see ourselves and the way that we identify as human beings informs the way that we view the world around us, the way we view possibility, the way that we view life, society, what is and what is not, what's right, what's wrong, what's true, what's false. All of those things, all of those belief systems come from our sense of our identity of self and our thoughts about the identities of others and the realities in which we live. 

And when our subconscious mind is overloaded with feelings of lack and of pessimism of, you know, negativity and unworthiness, all of our actions will then yield an environment which reflects those same things back to us.

And this is why it's so important for us to be conscious. And this is, it's kind of a, you know, a little bit of a Catch 22 here, if you will, to say to be conscious of your subconscious mind, because your subconscious mind is that thing that's, like, running behind, you know, behind the scenes in the background, just kind of informing everything. It is our belief systems, right? It's those things that we've accepted as truths and we don't even think about, truly. They just are for us. They are what's true. 

But as intentional individuals and as people who are, you know, aiming to create lives and businesses in a way that we want them to be created, right, we have to be aware of the subconscious mind, and we have to nurture it, and we have to take care of it, and we have to reprogram it, in many cases, reprogram it from the messages that it's been, you know, subjected to over the course of, many times, our entire lives. 

And so, as we are leaning into addressing our subconscious mind, we have to take stock and we have to take inventory of the belief systems that we have that aren't serving us.

And, oftentimes, that sense of lack and that sense of pessimism, that sense of 'I can't do this,' that sense of 'it'll never work for me,' that sense of  'I'm not enough. I don't have enough. I won't be enough. I can't. I can't. I can't, period'. 

All of those things are things that inform our actions. And money is no exception to this rule, friends. If you want to make more money, then you have to live in a feeling and a space of abundance. You cannot live in a belief of lack. And please understand, there are certainly experiences, there are certainly truths that exist that we can't ignore.

So we can't ignore the fact that women, in general, make cents on a dollar compared to men. We can't ignore the fact that women, in general, in the creative space, specifically, you know, are typically not taken seriously. 

And, oh gosh, let's not even add in any sort of, like, any sort of diversity into that mix because we all know, also, there is a distinction between the revenue generated by white women and the revenue generated by women of color or women from other diverse ethnic or socioeconomic backgrounds.

When we're dealing with marginalized communities, there are truths that exist, right? Even just being a woman is sufficient. There's an uphill battle that happens there. 

So we can't ignore the fact that there are truths that exist, but we can't also allow for those truths to be so heavy that they inform the way that we believe that we can build a thing, okay? 

And so this is where I challenge hennapreneurs, because ours is an industry that's very unique. It is woman led. It is an ethnic art. It is a community that is largely, you know, full of people of color and full of people from different ethnic backgrounds that are not the white, female, whatever. 

And, of course, we do have a subset of our industry that falls into that category and that's just fine, but even there, there is inequity that exists. There is certainly an inequity that exists between white women and women of color inside of our industry. And this is not to go off on a tangent, but like, I will take the time to say: all of us who are working inside of this ancestral art have the responsibility of leaning into and encouraging equity inside of our industry. And so, that's a whole 'nother rant for a whole 'nother day, but I do want to just, like, since we're already here on the subject matter, let's just go ahead and bring it up, right? 

But back to our point, all of these things, all of these markers or identifiers, if you will, they're present. They're very much present. They're very much relevant to our industry. And so all of us, as hennapreneurs, in one way or another are likely falling into one or multiple buckets of people who do face very real challenges when it comes to growing their business. And that's okay. It's okay for us to acknowledge that. 

We also need to acknowledge the fact that if we solely take those stats, if we solely accept those data points as truths and don't allow for ourselves the space and the belief that we can supersede the glass ceilings that have been imposed upon us, then we will not supersede them. We will not surpass them. We will not break them. We will get in our own way. 

And this is why it's so important for us to be cautious about how we feel about money. And we need to be so cautious about how we feel about our ability to make money – our ability to generate money. 

We have within us every power, if you will, to make and to create the life that we want, but we have to be willing to believe that we can. 

That is the first step: you have to believe that you can. 

And so, if you're living in a place of lack, it is going to be damn near impossible for you to reach a place of abundance, because if your belief system says: 

I don't have the money for this. 

I don't have the time for this.

I can't do this because I'm not... 

Fill in the blank here. 

I'm not smart enough. 

I'm not good enough. 

I'm not artistic enough. 

I'm not pretty enough. 

I don't speak clearly enough. 

I'm not interesting enough. 

I'm... whatever. 

Like, none of that. 

That cannot be the belief systems that we live in on a daily basis. 

And so, if your subconscious mind is coming to the table with all of this baggage, no wonder you can't show up for your business. 

If you're coming to the table with all of this baggage, no wonder you're not taking the actions that you know, your conscious mind knows, that you need to take, but subconsciously you've made the decision this is not for you. It's not gonna happen. 

There has to be a transformation here. And that transformation is going to come back directly to the way that you nurture your subconscious mind so that you can attract the things that you want, okay? 

And so, as it relates to money, specifically – if you want to make more money in your business, first of all, you need to get super freaking comfortable with saying, "I want to make more money in my business." Why is it that we're cautious about that? 

And even so, I'm actually going to take it a step further because our language is important. And so, if you say, "I want to make more money," you're actually affirming. You're acknowledging your desire. You're also actually affirming the lack.

"I want to" means that, already, you do not have. That you are in a place where you do not have. Why not reposition that,  right? Because every word that we're saying also comes from our subconscious mind. So if we're saying, "I want to make more money," at a subconscious level what we're affirming is, "I don't make enough money," which is a negative. Do you see what I'm saying? 

And so, as we are leaning in, if you will, to better nurturing ourselves, our subconscious minds, and as we're more heavily leaning into the energy of money and attraction, we actually want to say things that are positive. We want to say things that are going to keep us at a more positive and abundant vibration, all right? 

So instead of, "I want to make more money," you can say something like, "I believe in my ability to generate more money. I believe that my art is worth money. I believe that money flows to me abundantly. I believe that money comes to me with ease. I believe that people value my art enough to pay me handsomely for my services." 

We can say things differently, affirming what our wants are without also informing ourselves of this place of lack, and 'do not have and cannot do, and am unworthy of. Does this make sense? 

This is one of the things that I have done now for a long time. Part of my journey, as it relates to, you know, leaning into this Law of Attraction and really nurturing my own subconscious mind to the abundance of money into the energy of money and to, you know, my affirmation that making money is easy with my art in my business with my skills, is by doing small, you know, everyday sort of, like, signaling of abundance in my daily practice. 

And these are things that you can do. It doesn't cost you a bunch of money to do them either, right? But we're working to reprogram our brains. We're working to change the way that we look at money and to change the way we look at abundance and to elevate that feeling of abundance in our lives so that we can rewire, if you will, rewire our brains and our belief systems away from lack and away from this feeling of, you know, pessimism and like, negativity. 

So, for me, part of signaling abundance in my daily practice looks like a couple of different things. 

For example, every day when I sit down to work, you know, I come to my desk and I sit down to work and I have a pretty glass that I purchased. 

And listen, this is what I mean. It does not have to be, you know, super expensive, whatever. I found this beautiful glass. I purchased it on clearance at target at some point. And I keep dollar bills in it. I keep large bills in it, specifically. 

You know, when I receive tips from clients or, you know, often when I go out and work private events, I'll get tipped with twenties, or with fifties, or with hundreds. 

And so, when I'm tipped with these larger bills, I'll put those bills inside of this cup and this beautiful glass sits on my desk. And while I'm sitting to work on, you know, the things that I need to do behind the scenes in my business, I'm literally looking at money. And it reminds me that money is abundant.

Now it didn't start that way. It started with, you know, I would hide money in places that I could see it regularly. So, like, I would keep an extra twenty dollar bill folded up in the dash of my car, or I would put, you know, a couple extra bills, you know, a couple extra fives folded up and I'd put them in the back of my wallet, or I'd hide, hide money in different places.

So then when I would be going about my daily life, I'd just kind of bump into it and it'd be like, "Oh, hey! Oh, hey! Look, there's some money." (laughs) 

Slowly but surely, it created this space and it created this environment in which I felt abundance and it's like, okay, money is always there. Money is always present. There's always the opportunity for there to be more of it when I need it. It's there for me and I can generate it when I want. 

Another thing, and this isn't even dollar bill related, one of the things that I like to do is, you know, on my days off or on the weekends, um, doing little things like turndown service for myself.

So, if you've never had turndown service at a hotel or something, you know, a turndown service is when you go and they, literally, they will prepare your bed and prepare your room for you for you to go to sleep. 

So, when you order turndown service, you know, they will dim the lights in the room and they'll, like, pull the sheet back so you just can, like, slip right into the blankets. Normally, there'll be like, you know, perhaps there's a chocolate there, or there's something, you know, there to help you relax. 

So this is one of the things that I'll do for myself, you know, on my days off or on the weekends, or when I'm feeling like I need a little bit of extra luxury in my life, I'll do this. And it's very simple. 

What do I do prior to, you know, going to bed? You know, I'll go and I'll pull down the sheets. You know, fold down the sheets so it's ready for me. And I'll have my little piece of chocolate and I'll prepare, you know, a cup of tea to steep. I'll have a book, perhaps, or depending on the day or what I have planned, maybe I don't. Maybe I'll have a face mask. You know, like, you know, a small face mask that I've prepared. 

And this could be something that you prepare for yourself at home. Or perhaps you, you know, purchase a small face mask or you get a tester, whatever. Like, there's so much opportunity for us to create luxury and to create things that speak to abundance without actually costing a lot of money. It's about the energy that's there. It's not about the dollar, okay? 

And so, you know, I might have that face mask and I'll prepare the face mask and have that ready for myself. And so I'll go shower, you know, take a hot shower. Come back to bed. Do the things that make me feel really nice. Maybe spritz on some perfume or put on, like, a nice, you know, rich body cream and then I'll slip into bed. And if it's face mask night, then I'll put my face mask on and watch some Netflix in bed or like, whatever that is, but something that feels really luxe and really luxurious and it feels abundant and it feels like, you know, like treatment of self in one of the highest ways, right? Really caring for me.

And it's not just that, you know, it doesn't have to be something that you do every day. Maybe this is something that you do less frequently or something that you can do once and it kind of pays off over time. 

For me, like, I buy myself flowers. 

So, one of my favorite, favorite, favorite things to do is to buy myself flowers. Every week or two weeks, depending on how long my flowers last, I'll go to the market and I will buy different sets of flowers. And I actually don't even purchase arrangements. I purchase the different flowers based on what I feel that week and, you know, what they have there, what I like. And I'll grab a bunch of different items and I'll put them all together and I'll actually assemble the bouquets myself and I'll have these different arrangement then spread out around my house. 

So I'll have flowers in my office and I'll have flowers in the kitchen and in the living room and in my bedroom. And so all of the spaces that I go to inside of my home have these fresh flowers. 

And the fresh flowers, you know, is that a big deal? No, it's not really a big deal, but I'll tell you what, I remember when I couldn't afford to purchase fresh flowers. I couldn't-. I remember, I remember when a $12 bouquet of flowers and I'm talking about like, you know, the flowers that are already put together at, like, the grocery store. Yeah. 

I remember when that was a stretch and I would look-. I cannot-. I'm not even making this up. I would go and I would stand at the display and I would look at all the flowers and I would take in the energy of, "Oh, my gosh, these are so beautiful." And then I would tell myself, I can't afford it. Like, $12 for flowers? Do you know how much food $12 would buy? I'm not doing that." And I wouldn't purchase them for myself. 

So, today, you know, for me to go to the market and I can spend, you know, 50-60 dollars on flowers, and then have them for the week. Like, that's significant for me. Not just because of the way that it makes me feel in my home, and the joy that it brings me in my home, but also because I can tie that to the memory that I have of not being able to do those things for myself. 

And so not only does it affirm the fact that, you know, abundance exists around me and that I am attracting, you know, through this very simple, this very simple signaling of abundance, right? I am attracting the life that I want and, you know, the money that I want, and that, in general, the experience that I want, it also reaffirms that what I had back then, like, I can honor it and I don't have to be that person anymore, right? I can honor that, and I'm deserving of the things that I wanted. I'm deserving of the things that I needed. I'm deserving of more, okay? 

So I try to signal abundance as part of my own daily practice in these ways. And you know what? Sometimes it's hard. I want to acknowledge that, especially when you're first getting started with this, like, concept of manifestation and with, you know, when you first start being more aware, in general, of your subconscious mind and the belief systems that it exists- that it includes, then it can be very challenging and it's like, "Ooh," and you'll catch yourself. You'll catch yourself. And I'm not perfect at this. There are definitely days where I say things or I do things and I'm like, "Wow, Chelsea, like, that's not coming from a place of abundance." And I will, I'll have to reel it in.

I'll also tell you something that's become incredibly obvious and apparent to me. When I shy away from this, meaning, when I'm less aware of and less tuned into my subconscious mind's thought processes or when I am not cautious of protecting the space and protecting the thoughts that- or not even the thoughts, truly, because they are beliefs at that point, when I'm not cautious of protecting that energy, I see less results. I see fewer results in my business. Like, that's just what it is. 

I make more money when I'm actively mindful of abundance, when I'm actively mindful of my thought processes, when I'm actively mindful of my belief systems, and when I'm actively mindful of the energetic vibration, the frequency, if you will, within which I'm operating on a daily basis.

So, I want to encourage you. If you are finding yourself in a place inside of your life or inside of your business, where you're like, you know, "I want more. I want more." Okay. That's great. I love that you're willing to to own that. We should. We need to own that. We're not socialized, typically, to own that we want more, especially if you're someone, you know, who is a female who's been raised in this patriarchal sort of society. We are not taught to lean into our wants and to own them. 

So if you're doing that, good for you. Also, also, let's be cautious not to just own our wants, but also to create spaces inside of our belief systems that say we can have those wants. We can have those wants. In fact, we're creating those ones every day. We're creating our path towards those wants. We're doing what's necessary to allow for those wants to become our realities. When we can own that, we will see more results. 

And I do see more results and that's why I wanted to share this with you today. 

So, if this is your first time hearing, you know, hearing me talk about the Law of Attraction, or if it's your first time hearing this concept of, you know, manifestation or the Law of Attraction and so forth, I really just want to leave you with one big thing –  and that is that our thoughts inform our behaviors, inform our actions, inform our identities. 

And so, if you are someone who struggles with current environments, if you're someone who struggles with current circumstances, current identities that speak to less than what you want, then I want you to begin to engage and begin to interrogate the subconscious thoughts, the beliefs that exist for you right now, and see where you can make some adjustments.

A very easy way for you to do this is with journaling. So if there's something that you find that you're like, "Okay, I can see here where I am putting out this lower energy or I'm putting out this energy of lack, or I'm putting out this energy of pessimism, or of negativity or, you know, of self-doubt, okay. Let's, let's change those. And a very easy way that you can do that is with, again, with journaling. 

I would suggest that, you know, for that, write an affirmation that speaks to the opposite. That speaks to the positive. That speaks to the possibility that speaks to you can do it. You can have that. In fact, you are creating it right now and you are creating it with ease. And have that affirmation to be something that you revisit regularly, daily, multiple times a day, in fact, so that you can begin to rewire the belief system that exists around that in your own mind and in your life. And then, of course, if you can find small ways to signal abundance to yourself on a daily basis, I strongly encourage it, all right?

So, if this made sense to you and you're like, yeah, I can get on board, then I want to invite you over to the Hennapreneur Community on Facebook.

We're gonna be having a little bit of conversation around this and I'd love to know: what is your new affirmation so that you can begin to rewire your subconscious mind and begin to, you know, clean up if you will and elevate the beliefs that you have about yourself and your abilities? I'd love to know that information, so you're welcome to share it with us there. 

And also, of course, if there is a tip or trick or a way that you like to signal abundance to yourself, or that you can commit to signaling abundance to yourself in a new way moving forward, I'd love it if you'd share it with us there as we're having that discussion.

So, I will jump off of here for now and I'll talk to y'all later. Bye for now.

Hey friend! I just want to give you a quick thank you for tuning into this episode of the Hennapreneur Podcast and I hope that you're really enjoying connecting with me in this way. 

You can find links to all of the content shared today in the show notes, located at Hennapreneur.com/podcast.

If you enjoyed the show and would like to stay in the loop with Hennapreneur, be sure to subscribe to the podcast, too! 

You'll get access to all of the new episodes and to surprise bonus episodes  as soon as they're released. 

I'd be so grateful to you if you'd take a moment to rate and leave a review on Apple podcasts, as well. This helps me to reach more artists like you, who would love and benefit from the show.

For more ways to connect and work with me or to join me inside of the Hennapreneur Community, pop over to Hennapreneur.com. I can't wait to support you as you chase your big, audacious goals one henna design at a time.