In this opening session of a four‑part workshop series, Virginie Glaenzer defines “abundance” as having enough for everyone and explores it as an understanding, a perspective, a feeling, and a practical way of living. She argues that modern economies are at the end of a scarcity‑driven era, citing the rise of Web3, distributed peer‑to‑peer networks, and the flood of ideas, tools, and knowledge that make resources effectively abundant. Glaenzer critiques the cultural narrative of scarcity—linked to the American Dream’s emphasis on independence—and shows how it fuels hoarding, artificial scarcity (e.g., intellectual property regimes), and fear of lacking. She reframes abundance as a mindset shift: a faith‑based feeling that enough exists, and a daily practice of choosing to notice and engage with abundant experiences (free music in parks, community book boxes, open knowledge). The talk ends with reflective prompts asking participants to define “enough” for themselves and to consider personal or ancestral experiences of scarcity, noting epigenetic transmission of trauma. Throughout, she invites participants to question manufactured scarcities and to adopt choices that open them to the abundance economy.
Chapters
So first of all, thank you for being here. Let's begin. I want to start with a definition, because most people understand the term abundance as having more of what we need. And to me, and for this presentation, and in the book that I wrote, Abundance means having enough. There is enough on this planet for everyone, so let's keep in mind this definition as we explore abundance. The idea is to have 4 monthly workshops. Today we're going to be talking about what is abundance. The next one will be how do we shift to an abundance mindset. Then we'll talk about how do we live in abundance, and we'll end with how do you build an a business in the abundance economy. Today, even though we are going to focus on what is abundance, you'll see that we'll talk also about shifting to a mindset so that we can experience abundance in our daily lives. I wanna get the elephant out of the room with this meta-narrative that is running the show. We've been conditioned, in my mind, to see the world as a scarce place. And we've also been conditioned to believe that scarcity should dictate how we live. I mean, think of your everyday action and behaviors. You go to the store because you need to buy some bread. Why is it that we end up buying more? Sure, there is the temptation and the clever ways of getting us to buy stuff we don't need as we walk to the cashier, and there might be some last-minute thoughts. What if I need something, or, you know, I don't have enough of something? But it's also because we are constantly trying to predict what we'll need in the future, and that prevents us from living in abundance. So let's define what is abundance. And I came to the realization that abundance is not one thing, but many things. It's an understanding, a perspective, a feeling, and a practical way of living. And I want to dive into each of those, um, aspects. So it's an understanding, right? An understanding means that there's an intellectual process of information that is how we form belief. So let me share what I see and what I believe. Today's economy is not just a recession with disrupted supply chain or inflation. It's the end of an era. And I think this points to a, uh, Vimeo presentation on Web3, which I just mentioned earlier. Now we're finding ourselves at the emergence of intelligent distributed organizations. This is a game changer for those who are able to see, and what I'm talking about here is the information age that has given birth to digital peer-to-peer networks and open knowledge. As a result, barriers to to industries, shareholders' investment thresholds, and geographies has fallen. And this has created an abundance of ideas, of tools, knowledge, people, opportunities. Even though in our last session we'll talk about how do we build a business in this economy of abundance, it is clear that we are surrounded by abundance of possibilities in our jobs, in the people we meet, in information, ideas, and content. So that's the first key idea of why abundance is an understanding. Number 2, our sense of self is wrongly a feeling of individual, individuality. So, um, in reality, what I came to understand is that the individuality, this feeling or perception of being an individual doesn't truly exist because we're a collection of events, action, memory, thoughts, ideas. We are our ancestors and ourselves at the same time. That is a form of abundance in a way, uh, the collection of parts that makes us us. And it— that means that there's an abundance within ourselves, but because we've been told the opposite, we're denying this abundance. And then the third reason that comes through that understanding of what is happening today is that our belief of scarcity is directly linked to our craving for independence. Now, the American dream, and I'm here located in New York, first generation actually, how do you say, I'm originally from France, so I moved to the US for this American dream. But this American dream was built on the idea of independence and the idea of becoming self-sufficient, right? But this has deprived us from relationship. And that's from relationship that we find meaning and therefore abundance. So this independence that we think we want is actually cutting off our relationship, when relationships brings meaning and independence. So this is how I came to understand that we are already swimming in abundance, but the understanding that we have about the, the world, our perspective of the world, prevents us from actually seeing that. Now, abundance is also a perspective, right? Um, our belief of scarcity is linked to our craving for independence. And history is a story told by the winners and written in books. But scarcity is also just another story told to us. And the primary example of this is around the notion of intellectual property, which is now coming back into a lot of discussion because of ChatGPT. Information is never scarce. In fact, its value tends to grow the more it is shared. But our economy cannot handle this fact. Businesses have a hard time making a profit on information resources unless they can enclose access to that information. And thus we have invented an entire system of making something that is fundamentally abundant into something that is artificially scarce. So what I'd like to invite those who are listening to this conversation and interested in this topic to think about: what are the other areas that have been manufactured into scarcity? Where are we creating scarcity? Information is one example, but I'm sure there's plenty of others. So feel free to use the chat for that, and we can come back when we do an open discussion. Now, I know that what I'm saying is very heavy. It goes directly against some of our ingrained beliefs, and the mind doesn't like to be challenged. It's actually very threatening to who we think we are. So I want to respect that. And any, uh, contrary point of view is absolutely fine. Now, after an understanding, a perspective, abundance is also a feeling. There is something within me that feels like a feeling of faith. I just know it, right? I know there's enough on the planet for everyone. I know that life is not just about consuming, extracting, and protecting. I feel it in my bone. And that's also a feeling that I'd be curious to know if any of you are sharing that feeling. To live a beautiful life is one where not everything can be based on transaction for profit and consumption. And finally, it's a practical way of living. Now, scarcity is the fear of lacking because of our desire for independence, and it leads to hoarding, as we saw it during COVID Abundance, on the other— on the opposite, transforms life into an abundant buffet. And so the practical way to to living a life of abundance is to remove that fear of lacking and to focus our intention to all the aspects of our lives where abundance can transform our lives and our choices into this abundant buffet. And here's some examples. How do we perceive abundance? How does it manifest in our daily lives? I want to give a few examples that what I'm experiencing. When I go to Central Park and there's group playing music, to me this feels like abundance. I have access to an abundance of music. It's free, it's available, it's not to be taken by anyone else. There's also in New York City plenty of those small boxes where you have free books. That's also, to me, feels like abundance. And I've had in my life several occasions where I stumble upon a book in one of those, in one of those boxes that changed, that dramatically changed my life and my understanding of life through that, those books. There is something about opening ourselves to those daily experiences. And so I'll end with this: how do we approach the abundance economy? It seems to be the answer that I'm getting, and the practice that I'm trying to continue is through our choices. And what I mean by that is what I choose to see to believe, to experience, is ultimately a way to open myself up to this abundance. Whether it's realizing that I have a huge network of people, that I have plenty of ideas that I don't control, that I don't need to protect, they come through me. The tools and technologies that are available to me The knowledge, the access to information, the music in the park, the free library boxes. So I'm thinking when we open ourselves up and we welcome this spontaneously of abundance, that requires a change of outlook. And when we relax, we explore more with more openness and more confidence. That what we need is within our reach. I started this discussion or this conversation with a definition, and I want to end with a discussion. Abundance, abundance means having enough, not more than what you need. So the initial step for us to challenge some of those beliefs ingrained in the idea of scarcity, of the need to protect and to accumulate, I think starts with asking ourselves one question: what does enough mean to you? What is enough for you? And that's a very individual and personal answer. How much money do you need in a savings account so you can sleep well at night? How much food do you need to have in your closet? How, how many pairs of shoes and pieces of clothing do you need in your apartment? That's a very personal question. There's no right or wrong, depending on our own situation, our past experiences. So that would be the first question that I would love to invite everyone, and I'll stop in a moment this recording. And then the second question that I also want to invite whether you want to do it now or later, is to ask yourself, what is my past experience with scarcity? When was the last time that I did experience scarcity, or that I'm aware that my family, my past, my ancestors have experienced scarcity? Because we now know with epigenetics that whatever our ancestors have gone through We're carrying these genes that have an emotional aspect, and it actually has been proven that if you've had someone in your family who've been through a war, um, or terrible traumatic events, multiple generations after, the granddaughter or grandkids of that individual will carry in them those feelings, those emotions, even though they haven't lived the experience. It's epigenetics. It's just a fascinating side of science where we're discovering what it is to be human.
