Are you in a phase of investing in or withdrawing from the future YOU?
Do you know what your current ROI, Return on Investment is for your health care right now? We all spend plenty of money each month on our health care and I know I’m not alone in sharing that we rarely “benefit” from what are often defined as such. Our family has grown, we play hard outside every day and Miles is likely to have accidents and need care in one way or another throughout his life and we have a health care plan to support us. Meanwhile, it’s not the kind of support I really need for my day in day out living. I want to be making investments in my future body, my future mind and my future spirit – basically the future Rachel beyond any traditional health care system. How about you?
Take out a sheet of paper. Over the past month’s time, write down how much money you spent on the following: 
- your health benefits,
- supplements, herbs and/or prescriptions,
- things/stuff (new bike, new phone, clothes, shoes, tv, etc)
- your internet and phone bill
Make another list based on how many times you did the following activities last week:
- number of mornings a week you wake up and move your body before work
- number of meals you prepared at home,
- amount of time you spend sitting with yourself with no distractions (aka meditating)
- number of nights you got to bed before 10pm
- number of nights you slept through the night without waking
How easy is it for you to invest in your health? Is it easier for you to write the check like in the upper list or is it easier for you to carve out the time to take care of yourself like the lower list? It’s hard to put a dollar amount on waking up with energy until you wake up lethargic every day and think it’s “normal”. We usually don’t know the value of sleeping through the night until you’ve had insomnia. For many of us it’s harder to carve out the time to put our lives in alignment for better sleep and more energy, but the ROI on that investment is our health. There is all kinds of research being done on “burn out”, feeling “spent” and how in our convenience culture we want to reach for a supplement, herb, beverage or netflix movie to make it all better.
Dr. Claudia Welch, Doctor of Oriental Medicine and Ayurvedic Practitioner says “there is no herb, supplement or drug that can entirely take the place of having an appropriate diet, lifestyle and stress management routine.”
This has been an ongoing conversation at my house over the past few months and has evolved from leaving a job that provided health care “benefits” that we never actually benefited from. When that became more obvious to me it shifted the reality of my own personal investments in myself in an even deeper way, our food, our time and how we spend it (movement, meditation, playing), who we spend our time with (vibrant friends and family), and making daily deposits into our personal health savings account (not your traditional HSA). Our personal HSA is now our body, mind and spirit on a more conscious level than ever before. What this means is that we forego purchasing things and invite joy into our lives through activities that cultivate connection, vitality and vibrancy in our lives. It means we forego eating out, do more meal planning, food prep and gardening. We lean towards hosting brunch at our home when we want to share a group meal or organize a meet up with friends in an active environment.
All of these things are investments in my future health. My life is active, my food is alive, most nights I go to bed tired and wake up light and energetic. AND I have moments where I stay up a little later than normal visiting with family in town, eating popcorn too late or celebrating with a meal out, I struggle with allergies from time to time, but more often than not I am striving to make deposits into my health savings account (HSA) which helps me to maximize my prana (vital energy), tejas (vibrant, inner radiance) and ojas (immune system) and helps guide me in KNOWING when I am making a withdraw and what the impact is.
The ROI on prana, tejas and ojas is graceful aging, longevity, fewer aches and pains, and an easeful orientation to life. I don’t know about you, but that to me is worth the investment. How do you want your future Self to feel? What are you willing to invest in order to get that?
Start now.
Grab a sheet of paper. Draw a line down the middle. On the left make a list of the daily habits that are investments in your future, in your vitality, your vibrancy and in your health. On the right make a list of your daily habits that are withdraws, the ones that drain the account of energy, radiance and prana. At the end of each day for one week, balance your wellth (wealth + health). Give yourself +1 for every habit you completed that is an investment in the future you and -1 for the habits that pull you away from your health trajectory. And let me know how it goes with an email to info@rachelpeters.yoga
-----
Rachel Peters is a yoga teacher, yoga health coach, lifestyle and habits expert, easeful living advocate, and lover of wild places. She leads others towards Embodying Ease through a yearlong wellness & lifestyle journey to dissolve perfectionism, embody daily habits that promote mental clarity, overall ease, and deeper connection to life on this wild ride of modern living. Learn MORE today!