Scarcity

I just finished reading The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer and found myself reflecting on how much our current collective mindset is boosted on the idea of scarcity. It feels like every article I read is about saving time, boosting productivity, or why you need this product (and that this sale is the last one, just like the sale a few weeks ago). There are also themes I’ve noticed of articles and services offered as being the one thing that you need to make everything better or with titles like “the 5 mistakes you didn’t know you were making as a XYZ.” I’ve been wanting to revamp my advertising and these are all the tips I’m seeing, as well. It creates a culture of urgency and perfection, that negatively impacts our wellbeing.

Scarcity is a great marketing tool, because it acts on our survival response, which makes us more likely to engage in impulse-buying, do to a solution to our perceived threat of scarcity. It also makes it less likely to seek alternatives, because when we’re in a survival state, our pre-frontal cortex (the part of our brain that is responsible for logic and decision-making) is offline. Scarcity also makes us less collaborative, less willing to work with others/look out for others, because we feel like we need to focus on our personal survival. When we’re in a prolonged state of stress, this also negatively impacts our mental and physical health, which you may notice as sleep problems and anxiety.

In The Serviceberry, Kimmerer discusses the idea of a “gift economy,” which looks at balancing our consumption economy through the idea of looking at our resources as gifts, as opposed to scarce resources. She highlights that when we look at resources as gifts, we are more likely to pass our resources on and take only what we need. (Kimmerer, 2024). Beyond the ecological benefits, this is helpful for our mental health as an alternative to scarcity.

Below are some suggestions for reducing the impact of feelings of scarcity:

• Pause before making purchases

  • Do I actually need this?

  • Is this something that I need?

  • Is there a different way for me to get this?

• Limit your intake of media that focuses on scarcity

  • News

    • News outlets skew towards the worst things in the world

    • It’s important to know what’s going on, but we need to find a balance of information intake to keep us from being completely overwhelmed and hopeless

  • Social Media

    • Comparisons to others can make us feel lacking

    • A lot of creators also focus on the idea of what we’re missing

• Practice gratitude

  • This makes us more aware of the things we have (not just physical items)

• Spend time in community

  • Connection with others helps reduce the feelings of scarcity

  • Mutual Aid Networks can highlight what we have to share, as well as help us to access things we need

Some more information on the impacts of a scarcity mindset and strategies to counteract feelings of scarcity can be found at this article from WebMD.

As always, take what is helpful and leave the rest. I hope you have the week you need.

Kimmerer, R. W. (2024). The Serviceberry: An economy of gifts and abundance. Penguin.