13 May 2025

Living Abundantly: Giving, Forgiving & Thanksgiving

This article revised and updated 27th June 2026

By Dr. Scott Zarcinas | Author, Doctor, Wayfarer

What’s in this article:

Why abundance is a way of being rather than something to accumulate.
How Giving, Forgiving, and Thanksgiving express an abundant life.
The relationship between the Living Path of Awakening and the Attitudes of Abundant Living.
Why abundance becomes visible through the way we live rather than through what we possess.

Why Abundance Begins Within

When people speak about abundance, they are often referring to quantity. More money. More success. More opportunities. More possessions. More time. More security.

The assumption is that abundance is something we gradually accumulate until one day we finally feel that we have enough.

Yet experience suggests otherwise. Many people who possess an abundance of outward success still carry an inward sense of scarcity. Others, with comparatively little, radiate a generosity, peace, and joy that seem untouched by circumstance. The difference is not simply what they have but the way they experience life.

For me, abundance is not primarily about quantity at all but a quality of being.

If this is true, then abundant living begins long before our circumstances change. It begins in the way we relate to ourselves, to other people, and to life itself.

The qualities of generosity, forgiveness, gratitude, compassion, and love are not rewards that appear once we have accumulated enough. They are expressions of a deeper nature that becomes increasingly visible as the invisible weight of fear, separation, and lack begins to fall away.

For more than twenty years I have described these expressions as The Attitudes of Abundant Living: Giving, Forgiving, and Thanksgiving.

They are not techniques for attracting abundance, nor are they moral obligations to adhere to or perform. They are simply outward expressions of an inner transformation.

As we begin to recognise who we really are, rest more deeply in that reality, and reflect it through the way we live, generosity becomes more natural, forgiveness becomes more possible, and gratitude becomes less an occasional feeling than a way of meeting life.

Abundance, then, is not something we achieve but something we express.

The Attitudes of Abundant Living

For many years I have taught Giving, Forgiving, and Thanksgiving as The Attitudes of Abundant Living because they describe three of the most natural expressions of a life rooted in abundance rather than scarcity.

They are attitudes rather than achievements. They do not arise because life has finally become easy or because every problem has been solved, rather they emerge as our relationship with ourselves and with life begins to change. What was once driven by fear gradually becomes guided by trust. What was once shaped by lack begins to reflect a growing awareness of the abundance already present.

This is where the Living Path of Awakening provides a deeper context. The Living Path describes the inner movement of spiritual life through Recognise, Rest, and Reflect.

The Attitudes of Abundant Living describe how that inner movement begins to express itself in the ordinary moments of daily living.

Recognition changes the way we see ourselves and naturally expresses itself through giving. As we become less preoccupied with protecting a separate identity, generosity becomes less an obligation and more an expression of who we are.

Rest changes the way we relate to ourselves and to others. As the need to defend old hurts and familiar identities begins to soften, forgiveness becomes increasingly possible. It is no longer something we force ourselves to do, but something that arises from a deeper experience of freedom.

Reflection changes the way we understand our lives. As we begin to recognise life as a continual invitation to remember who we really are, gratitude becomes less dependent upon favourable circumstances and more a natural response to the abundance already woven through each day.

Seen in this way, Giving, Forgiving, and Thanksgiving are not separate spiritual practices but outward expressions of an inner transformation. They describe what abundance begins to look like when it is lived rather than merely understood.

Giving

Giving is perhaps the most visible expression of abundant living.

When we experience ourselves as lacking, giving often feels like a sacrifice. Every act of generosity appears to diminish what little we believe we possess. Time becomes something to protect. Resources become something to preserve. Love becomes something to ration. Scarcity and lack persuades us that holding on is the safest way to live.

Recognition begins to change that perception. As we become curious about who we really are, and who we are not, we begin to see that abundance is not measured solely by what passes through our hands but by the quality of life expressing itself through us.

The impulse to give no longer arises from obligation or the desire to appear generous but becomes a natural expression of recognising that life itself is already abundant.

Giving therefore takes many forms. Sometimes it is expressed through generosity with money or possessions. More often it appears through patience, encouragement, compassion, hospitality, forgiveness, creativity, careful listening, or the willingness to be fully present with another person. Every genuine act of giving affirms that we are participating in the abundance of life rather than competing for a limited supply of it.

This is why generosity has always occupied such an important place within the spiritual traditions of the world. Giving loosens the illusion that our lives are defined by what we accumulate and reminds us that abundance grows through expression. The more freely love, kindness, wisdom, and compassion move through us, the more naturally they become part of the way we experience ourselves.

Giving, then, is not an attempt to create abundance but instead becomes one of the ways abundance reveals itself. As recognition deepens, generosity becomes less something we do and more something we express.

Forgiving

If giving is the expression of recognising our natural abundance, forgiving is the expression of resting within it.

Few experiences weigh more heavily upon the human heart than resentment, guilt, shame, or regret. We carry conversations that ended years ago, decisions we wish we had never made, and injuries that still seem to define the way we see ourselves or others. Over time these experiences become part of the invisible weight we carry, shaping our relationships, our expectations, and our willingness to trust life again.

Rest invites a different relationship with what we have been carrying. It does not ask us to deny what happened or pretend that pain was insignificant. Every wound deserves to be acknowledged with honesty and compassion. Forgiveness is not forgetfulness, nor is it approval of what should never have occurred.

Forgiveness is the gradual willingness to stop allowing yesterday’s pain to determine today’s identity.

This is why forgiveness becomes possible as we learn to rest more deeply in our true nature. The need to defend a wounded identity begins to diminish. The stories we have repeated for years no longer demand quite so much attention. What once seemed inseparable from who we are gradually reveals itself to be something we have carried rather than something we have become.

Forgiveness often begins as a little less resistance, a little more understanding, or a growing reluctance to keep rehearsing old injuries. Rarely is it a single decision that changes everything. More often it is an unfolding that accompanies a growing recognition that peace is too precious to keep exchanging for the weight of resentment.

Perhaps this is why forgiveness has always been recognised as an act of freedom. It does not rewrite the past but transforms our relationship with it. As the need to keep carrying old burdens begins to dissolve, the heart discovers that it has far more room for love than it once imagined.

Forgiving, then, is not something we force ourselves to do but is one of the most natural expressions of a heart learning to rest in the abundance of Love.

Thanksgiving

If giving is the expression of recognition, and forgiving the expression of rest, then thanksgiving is the expression of reflection.

Gratitude is often understood as a response to favourable circumstances. We give thanks because something good has happened, a prayer has been answered, or life has unfolded in the way we had hoped. While there is nothing wrong with this, it leaves gratitude dependent upon conditions that continually change.

Reflection reveals another possibility. As life itself becomes a mirror, we begin to recognise that every experience carries the potential to deepen our understanding of who we really are.

Moments of joy reveal the beauty already present.
Times of disappointment expose the expectations we have been carrying.
Challenges uncover strengths we did not know we possessed.
Even seasons of uncertainty invite a deeper trust in the quiet movement of life beneath appearances.

Thanksgiving begins to grow from this way of seeing. It is no longer confined to celebrating what is pleasant or successful but expresses as an attitude of reverence for life itself. Gratitude arises because we recognise that every experience, whether welcomed or resisted, has the capacity to reveal something true.

The ordinary becomes extraordinary, not because the world has changed, but because our way of seeing has changed.

This is why thanksgiving has always held such an important place within the spiritual traditions of the world. It is less about thanking God for giving us what we want than about recognising the abundance already woven through every moment of our lives. Gratitude reminds us that life is continually offering opportunities to awaken, to understand, to love, and to grow in wisdom.

Thanksgiving, then, is not simply a feeling that comes and goes but a way of meeting life. As reflection deepens, gratitude becomes less dependent upon what we receive and more an expression of the underlying abundance we have begun to recognise within ourselves.

Living Abundantly

Abundance is often mistaken for having more, yet the deepest forms of abundance cannot be accumulated. Peace does not become richer through possession. Love does not increase because it is measured. Wisdom, beauty, freedom, and joy belong to a different order altogether. They are qualities of being that become visible as they are expressed through the way we live.

This is why Giving, Forgiving, and Thanksgiving have remained at the heart of my teaching for so many years. They are not techniques for attracting a better life, nor are they obligations imposed from outside ourselves. They are natural expressions of a life that is gradually remembering its own abundance.

The Living Path of Awakening describes the movement that takes place within us. Recognition invites us to become curious about who we really are. Rest allows the invisible weight we have been carrying to loosen its grip. Reflection reveals how life continually mirrors both what we are learning to release and what has always been true.

As this inner movement deepens, it naturally finds expression in the way we meet the world. We become more generous because we no longer experience life primarily through the lens of scarcity. Forgiveness becomes possible because we are no longer asking old wounds to define our identity. Gratitude becomes a way of seeing because we begin to recognise the quiet abundance that has always been woven through ordinary life.

Perhaps this is what abundant living has always meant. Not possessing more than enough, but expressing more fully the qualities that have always belonged to our true nature. The more deeply we remember who we are, the more naturally abundance reveals itself, not only within us, but through us.