My Current Investments
I have been wildly impressed by where my savings and investments can take me.
I've been able to save for international travel, trainings, traveling the world, and taking soul sisters on a thank you trip for being my support system. This was done through hours of barista-ing, teaching yoga, working three jobs at once, thrift stores, living deliberately, and saving well. While this still fascinates me and has been the cause for more intensive personal studies on finance and investments, especially as a woman, today I am really interested in what else I am INVESTING IN.
If years of saving money could bring me on exotic trips, what about years of meditating? What about breathwork? ... forgiveness? Here are some things I am investing in as we move into the abundant time of the year, the time in between the Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox and home of the Earth Holiday of Lughnasadh. Lughnasadh is a holiday of harvesting. It was said to be a bad omen if you remained hungry during this festival as it marked the season of full bellies going forward. It asks us to fully embrace, harvest, and receive nourishment from the things that you have cultivated.
What relationships, projects, lifestyle choices, and mindset shifts have you put love and energy into that you can now reap the benefits from? What in your job, life’s work, or parenting have you created that can now be harvested?
My mental fortitude. I'll be honest here, I used to have a VERY difficult time sitting and meditating (don't tell my yoga students). Growing up as a dancer and an athlete, I used to feel more peace and calm in my body when I was moving, and I am still convinced that sitting still is not for everyone at every stage of life, but it's working for me right now. The last few months have been dedicated to a very consistent practice of morning meditation, and I do believe it has added a layer of mental resilience and peace within my days. I wonder, with this investment, how peace, spaciousness in my time, and grace for others will grow.
My health. This year I have been working with a naturopath on digestive and hormonal health. It is a long road as those who have walked before me know. Some tests produce confusing answers, others produce none at all, and it takes a great amount of resilience to trust this process that each puzzle piece is coming together to produce a more vibrant picture. These days health looks like eating well, exercising daily between qi gong, yoga, weights, and short trail runs (although my aussie wishes they were longer), a few tinctures, and herbal teas that I love to mix myself. I look forward to this health investment hopefully making me half of the athlete that my 68-year-old mother is who blows my mind on her multi-day bike trips and hours of pickle-ball.
My creativity. This year my art and teaching has taken a different feel with the thought of investments. I started a practice of painting and recycling the paper, never to be seen by anyone, or sold, or posted anywhere, creativity just for the sake of it. I have some strong projects in the world now that I believe in:
This fall I'll be taking more pottery classes and admiring the wonky shapes that are starting to fill my altars and countertops. I wonder if I will make things worthy of gifting again or if each piece will exist just to remind me of the meaning of art.
My education. I keep saying I will take years off of taking courses and trainings, but things keep catching my eye! In years past it has been womb yoga, yoga for pregnancy and postpartum, birth doula training, a Celtic wheel of the year course, and closing of the bones ceremony training. Next up will be a Birthing from Within Childbirth Educator Training so I can continue to learn and educate my doula clients and myself on how to 'learn' about something that holds so much mystery. I wonder how I will choose to share this information, what pieces I'll find most intriguing (I have my bets on the birth art modules), and how my years of studies in travel, yoga, spirituality, myth, and anthropology will come together in this work. It gives me goosebumps already!